Mikita Roharia Weds Kevin Nguyen

WEDDING 2

By Jawahar Malhotra

KYLE, TX:  The groom came up the driveway on a blazing red motorcycle dressed in the finest traditional Indian royal red silk embroidered kurta, gold chuddidaar pajama and a crimson turban with a flowing tail. Though there was no music or dhol, his baraatis were his groomsmen, clapping enthusiastically and taking improvised dance steps, while someone strummed a ditty as they escorted him to the front steps where the bride’s mother and relatives waited for the welcoming ceremony.

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The newlyweds with the families. On the left, from left; the Nguyen family: sister Leslie, dad Howard and mom Linda; on the right, from the right, the Roharia family: dad Sanjay, mom Anand and brother Ashvin

This was not the first of two ceremonies in the Texas Hill Country but the culmination of a week of events that brought together the friends and families of Mikita Roharia, 24 of Austin and Kevin Nguyen, 27 who grew up in Clear Lake. The two had met while still at the University of Texas studying electrical engineering and continued to get to know each other while working at AMD in Austin.

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The wedding ceremony was held at Sage Hall, a rustic country ranch house built in a new development called Old Town, about six miles from Kyle off I-35 between San Marcos and Austin. The couple had wanted to hold the two ceremonies in the gazebo next to a small pond, but the Arctic blast that sped through the region the day before forced all activities indoors into the large wooden building.

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The newlyweds Kevin Nguyen and Mitika Roharia after the Hindu wedding ceremony in the morning and the Baptist wedding ceremony in the evening. Both ceremonies and the reception in the evening were held at Sage Hall in Old Town, in Kyle, located between San Marcos and Austin in the Hill Country.

The Indian wedding was held in the morning and conducted by a local priest in front of the mostly Indian guests that included the bride’s uncles and their wives who had flown in from New Delhi and a few of the groom’s Filipino friends and relatives. The ceremony was colorful, fluid and entertaining, with the bride’s brother Ashvin taking off with the groom’s shoes at the end in the age-old traditional game of trading their return in exchange for money.

The Christian Baptist ceremony was held later in the evening by an ordained priest in a more solemn setting with bridesmaids, best men and young flower girls escorting the wedding party to the stage. The bride wore a long white gown and the groom a black tuxedo as they exchanged vows in front of about 300 guests who sat at tables across room. The groom’s best man drove in over 36 hours to arrive from Vancouver and many of his side’s guests came from Houston.

The reception started immediately after the second wedding with the traditional first dances by the couple and their parents and was pumped up with music played by DJ Mike Marischen of Live Oak DJ which started with Frank Sinatra intermingled with other romantic ballads from Bollywood.

Later, as planned after dinner, the bride’s party really brought the house down with the newlyweds joining in for several bhangra and Bollywood routines they had rehearsed for over the past week, including a garba joined in by other guests. Kevin surprised everyone with his energetic mastery of Bollywood and bhangra dance moves. The revelries went on to midnight, when the newlyweds sped off in a vintage white open top Cadillac. Both the Indian-Chinese buffet lunch and North Indian buffet dinner for the events was catered by Chola Indian restaurant of Round Rock, north of Austin.

The bride is the daughter of Sanjay and Anand Roharia and was born in New Delhi but moved with her parents to Dubai for six years before coming to Austin 12 years ago. Her father is also an electrical engineer who also works for AMD and her mother Anand is a homemaker. Her younger brother Ashvin is studying electrical engineering at UT. Her parents and their entire extended family are originally from Jaipur, Rajasthan but have settled in new Delhi long ago.

The groom is the son of Howard “Kim” and Linda Nguyen and was born in Houston. His father is an electrical engineer working for NASA and had left Saigon to come to the US in 1975. His mother is a nurse who emigrated from the Philippines in the 70’s and he has an older sister Leslie. After the wedding, the couple will make their home in the Austin area.