Gautam Sane Marries Priya Thakker

The bride Priya Thakker and the groom Gautam Sane with the groom’s parents Neeta and Deepak Sane.      Photo: Jason Henry

The bride Priya Thakker and the groom Gautam Sane with the groom’s parents Neeta and Deepak Sane. Photo: Jason Henry

By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: They met at a friend’s Christmas party in December 2012 and Gautam took the chance of asking her out through Facebook. Much to his delight, Priya accepted and that was the start of a yearlong courtship until he popped the question to her during a vacation with other friends last summer in Las Vegas. She said yes and the preparations for the wedding started for both families, which are based in the Houston area.

Gautam, 25, is the son of a well-known Houstonian, Neeta Sane who is a Trustee of the Houston Community College System and after she won re-election this year has become Chair of the Board of Trustees. Since 1999, she has run her own company – Positronics Systems, an IT and Management Consulting firm – and just started another one, Sane Partners, last year. Gautam’s father Deepak is an IT Group Manager at Mphasis Corporation. The Sanes hail from Bombay and came to Houston in 1994 but Gautam was born in Australia. Gautam received his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas-Austin and works with Flour in Sugar Land.

Priya Thakker, 24, is finishing her degree in Mass Communications with emphasis on Public Relations and Advertising at the University of Houston, Main Campus. She also works as a Makeup Artist for MAC Cosmetics in the Galleria. Priya is the daughter of Kirit Thakker who works in Shiv Om Consultants, a tax consultancy firm specializing in the oil and gas industry and started by his brother J.C. Thakker, a well-known person in the Indian community in Houston. Her mother Varsha works at a bank and Priya’s sister Priyanka is in her second year at the University of North Texas where she is studying biology. Kirit and Varsha moved to Houston from Baroda around 1988.

Priya and Gautam were married on June 7, 2014 at the Signature Manor on the westside of Houston with many friends and family. “Our family is small,” said Neeta of the Sanes’ sole child Gautam, “but the Thakkers have been here for more than 25 years and have about 70 family members here.” The grah shanti and mehndi ceremonies were held at the bride’s parent’s house in Spring, Texas the day before.

The newlyweds will leave for a European cruise honeymoon in a couple of weeks and then make their home in Richmond, about 12 miles southwest of Houston, where they have already bought a house.