How We Met
Saveen and I met in 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was still in college (my junior year) and Saveen had just graduated. Someone who later turned out to be a mutual friend offered me an all-expense paid trip to Vegas as it was being sponsored by a collegiate Bollywood dance competition that this friend was taking a part in. Never one to say no to Vegas, and being involved in the Bollywood dance scene myself I decided to go ahead and road trip. As it turned out Saveen, who also dances, was also in Vegas – as captain of my friend’s dance team. We talked, exchanged social media handles, and then went our own way.
Over the course of the next few years, Saveen and I met once a year, always due to dance (even though both of us had graduated college) but never exchanged more than formalities. Finally, in 2019, we both ended up at a different mutual friend’s birthday party (this mutual friend was also on the dance circuit) and we actually ended up talking. By the end of the night Saveen had asked me out, and the rest is history.
How They Asked
Saveen and I started dating in 2019 (right before the pandemic hit). In 2021 we started talking about future plans and marriage and realized we were on the same page on a lot of things.
Now little to my knowledge Saveen had started working on ways to propose and his plan was to propose on a trip to India we were supposed to take at the end of 2021. As the date came closer, he and our families started to get more excited, but little did anyone know that I would get sick with Covid-19 just a couple of days before our flight – which meant we had to cancel the whole trip (and the proposal)!
Saveen, being Saveen, got back to the drawing board immediately and came up with this second plan for a month later in Napa, California at the Meritage Resort. He told me he wanted to go to Napa for a day and to go on a hot air balloon ride. Me, being who I am, started thinking “He’s going to propose on a hot air balloon!”
Well the hot air balloon came and went and there was no proposal – but Saveen booked a photographer/videographer and we did a whole couple’s photoshoot around Napa. I had so much fun that I stopped thinking about any proposal and decided to just go with the flow.
After the photoshoot, we went to our hotel room and Saveen said he wanted to go to a winery. He told me the winery had a strict dress code (and me not knowing much about wineries, I believed him!). He then pulled out a dress and some shoes from his suitcase and told me he figured I wouldn’t know about the dress code so he took the liberty of buying me an outfit. I was just so overwhelmed that he took the time that I didn’t read into it at all. Also, this man was so relaxed, he had just woken up from a proper afternoon nap post a proper lunch…he seemed way too calm to be getting ready to propose. (As I found out later, the nights before he had been so stressed out and nervous that on the day of he figured there was nothing more he could do).
Anyways – we got ready and left the hotel for the “winery”. Eventually, he took me to what I thought was a winery and told me to wait outside while he got directions. Two minutes later he called me and said: “Today is going to be a special day for us. Follow the steps in front of you and I’ll see you soon”.
Once I got upstairs, I was surprised by all of our family and a violinist all on a beautifully decorated deck. Each family member had a picture with a milestone of our relationship. Once I got to the last of our family, Saveen made his entrance. He had an empty photo frame, engraved with our names and the date and asked if we could fill the frame with a picture from today. He said a lot more (that I don’t remember because I was in tears) and then popped the big question!
I never got my wine…but I got something a lot more precious…my now husband!
