Kavita Kapur Weds Brett Macleod

Under sunset skies in a carnation-bedecked tent, Kavita Kapur and Brett Macleod were married in a Hindu ceremony at Tappan Hill in Tarrytown, N.Y. on August 23. This followed a Christian ceremony at Christ’s Church, Rye, N.Y., earlier in the afternoon.

Kavita, the daughter of Pushpa and Naveen Kapur of Newtown, and Brett, the son of Connie and Bruce Macleod of Rye, met in the summer of 1997 while working as sailing instructors at Yale Corinthian Yacht Club in Branford, Conn.

Kavita, 26, graduated from Tufts University in 1999 and is studying for a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard. He father is the owner of N.K. Engineers in Monroe, Conn., designers of cogeneration power plants. Her mother was the founder of Lampcrafters on South Main Street in Newtown.

Brett, 27, formerly the director of technology education at Citizens Schools in Boston, is currently an MBA student at Babson College, Boston, where he is a Pierce-Babson Fellow. He graduated from Williams College in 1998. His father is a real estate developer. His mother is a community volunteer who started First Night, Rye.

Four days of festivities celebrated the cross-cultural union, beginning with The Sangeet, an evening of Indian music and food, at the bride’s home. Several guests from Rye commented that they felt like they were in a scene from the Hollywood movie Monsoon Wedding as they danced the night away.

Female family members, bridesmaids, and close friends gathered the day before the wedding, again at the Kapur home, for the Mehndi, or pampering of the bride. There professional artists painted the guests’ hands and the bride’s hands and feet in Indian motifs, colored by henna. The tradition, begun in the days when a bride moved into the home of her in-laws, said that as long as the henna was visible, she was excused from housework.

The rehearsal dinner, hosted by the groom’s family, was a New England clambake, a counterpoint to the traditional Indian feasts. It was held under starry skies at American Yacht Club in Rye.

The Rev Canon Susan Harris performed the Christian ceremony. The bride wore a traditional white dress and the groom wore a Macleon tartan kilt, as did his father and the best man. The four-month-old ring bearer, Braedon Macleon Hansen, the groom’s nephew, also wore a kilt. Carried down the aisle by his father, he almost stole the show. The bridesmaids wore peach-colored chiffon Indian saris.

The Hindu ceremony, performed by Pandit Vineshbhai Thakar, was a sacrament solemnized in Sanskrit, the most ancient surviving classical language. There, the bride wore a burgundy and gold sari and the turbaned groom wore a traditional sherwani. The ceremony had its origins 35 centuries ago. All of the attendants wore traditional Hindu wedding clothing, the bridesmaids in saris and the groomsmen in kurtas. The eight bridesmaids and eight groomsmen included the siblings of the bridal couple, Jago Macleod and Sage Macleod and Nikhil Kapur.

The couple honeymooned in Aruba.