The welcome to Natasha Mahapatro and Rajat Khanna’s wedding came with tikas, flower petals and the haunting notes of the ravanhatha. Over a few days at Nahargarh Palace in Ranthambore in November 2025, guests moved between palace courtyards, tiger safaris and celebrations that borrowed as much from the couple’s childhood memories as they did from the landscape around them.
For the couple, the wedding was never about choosing a theme and building around it. “Rather than centring the weekend around a single aesthetic, we planned each celebration around a different chapter of our relationship using food, music, design and interactive experiences to tell our story,” said Mahapatro. Their own story began decades earlier, when they met as children while competing on the television dance competition Boogie Woogie. A few decades later, they matched on the dating app Hinge in San Diego, and reconnected over their shared love for travel, entertainment and the cultures they grew up in.
While the couple lived in the US, Mahapatro was clear about planning a wedding in India, so that her grandmother could make it to her big day. While Rajasthan’s better-known wedding destinations like Jaipur and Udaipur were considered, they wanted a place that offered the grandeur of the state but also a sense of discovery. “Ranthambore offered everything we loved about Rajasthan—the history, architecture, warm hospitality and cultural traditions—while adding something unique through its connection to nature,” said Khanna.
The venue also fulfilled a very specific requirement from Mahapatro. “I wanted it to be yellow, it is my favourite colour,” she laughed. Music became one of the wedding’s strongest storytelling elements. The mehendi featured a Coke Studio-inspired concert, the sangeet revisited their Boogie Woogie beginnings, and a 50-member Chennai choir accompanied the ceremony, narrating their love story through the pheras.
We planned each celebration around a different chapter of our relationship using food and music
If music told one part of the story, food became another. Drawing from Mahapatro’s food and beverage blog "The Tash Mashup," the menus reflected their identities through Lucknowi street food, Indo-Asian flavours, and Odia-Punjabi influences. Reception menus, titled "Where Two Cultures Meet," highlighted favourites from both families.
Even the bars became part of the storytelling. Mahapatro created signature cocktails inspired by shared travels, family memories and milestones, including one honouring their first drink together and another celebrating their Boogie Woogie connection. Local traditions appeared through Rajasthani lac bangles, regional thalis, family-inspired spice blends and ingredients like panch phoran and turmeric. At the reception, an oversized motichoor ladoo replaced the wedding cake, celebrating Khanna’s family tradition and turning small details into lasting memories.
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