Indian couple's extravagant wedding parade shuts down Wall Street — meet the bride and groom
It was a marriage made in Manhattan — and it brought Wall Street to a full stop.
An extravagant Indian wedding parade, or baraat, turned the Financial District into a full-blown block party on Saturday, halting traffic and causing jaws to drop faster than a stock market crash.
Hundreds of people, decked in glittering sarees, sequinned lehengas and gold-embellished finery, gathered outside Cipriani Wall Street to watch the happy couple arrive and grooved to a pulsating blend of Bollywood beats and pop bangers spun by a live DJ.
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'We shut down Wall Street for a 400-person Baraat,' DJ AJ @djmumbai wrote alongside a clip of the epic moment. 'Who would've ever thought?!'
'Who are the bride and the groom? Must be billionaires,' one person commented.
Turns out, the mystery newlyweds weren't Bollywood royalty — but they might as well be.
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Thanks to a plethora of social media posts tagging them, the duo was identified as Varun Navani, CEO of enterprise AI platform Rolai, and Amanda Soll, director of legal compliance, risk management, and M&A at Mastercard, per their LinkedIn pages.
Their identities were confirmed by their public wedding page on The Knot, which contained the details of their four-day wedding celebration.
6 The bride and groom were identified as Varun Navani, CEO of enterprise AI platform Rolai, and Amanda Soll, director of legal compliance, risk management, and M&A at Mastercard, per their LinkedIn pages.
@trueeventslive/instagram
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6 The pair listed the parade and other events on their public page on The Knot.
theknot.com
The high-powered pair hail from Boston, Mass., but decided to tie the knot in the city that never sleeps.
The bride and groom didn't just break the internet — they broke the bank.
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According to city records, the couple filed 28 permits for their big day, likely shelling out between $25,000 and $66,000 per location to shut down the Financial District.
The Mayor's Office classifies street events — which take over curbs, sidewalks and roads — by size and impact, with 'large' events requiring a full block closure and extensive setup, and 'extra-large' events demanding even more space, permits, and NYPD coordination.
6 As many as 400 people came, according to the DJ.
@trueeventslive/instagram
The baraat — a time-honored tradition in Hindu and Muslim South Asian weddings — is essentially a pre-ceremony procession where the groom's family and friends dance their way to the venue, often with dhol drums, music and more flair than a Broadway finale.
Traditionally, the groom arrives on horseback, following rituals like his sister feeding daal-channa (lentils) to the steed and sisters-in-law applying kaala teeka (a black dot) to the back of his neck to ward off the evil eye.
According to their Knot page, the lovefest kicked off Friday, May 23, with breakfast and afternoon tea at the Conrad Hotel, followed by a lively sangeet at The Glasshouse — a pre-wedding bash full of music, dancing and revelry.
6 The groom was also seen riding in a white vehicle down the street.
@trueeventslive/instagram
Saturday brought more breakfast, brunch and tea at the Conrad before the main event: the baraat at 3:30 p.m., followed by a lavish reception at Cipriani Wall Street that kept guests partying from 5:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.
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For the baraat, Navani arrived at Cipriani Wall Street in a traditional ivory long coat, or sherwani, and layered pearl necklaces and stunned onlookers, who captured the dazzling scene of hundreds dancing down the historic street. The groom was also seen riding in a white vehicle down the street at one point and clapped with a mega-watt grin as his crew hoisted him into the air.
Soll, the bride, stunned in a deep ruby lehenga by renowned Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, adorned with ornate gold embellishments, matching glimmering jewelry, and her brunette tresses swept into an elegant updo with soft face-framing tendrils.
6 The baraat is a time-honored tradition in Hindu and Muslim South Asian weddings.
@djajmumbai/instagram
Her glam? A modern classic with kohl-rimmed, winged liner, glistening highlighter and rosy blush on her cheekbones, and a minimal nude lip.
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Even the groomsmen brought the fashion heat in coordinated pink-and-white ethnic attire, setting a festive tone for the scene that had bystanders wondering if they'd stumbled onto a movie set.
But wait — there's more.
On Sunday, May 25, the pair hosted another round of breakfast and tea before exchanging vows again in an evening Jewish wedding at Cipriani and an afterparty at Slate that lasted until 4 a.m.
6 The parade on Saturday was part of a long weekend of events.
theknot.com
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And on Monday, May 26, they wrapped it all up with one last post-wedding brunch and lunch send-off at the Conrad's West Ballroom before guests were bussed out of the Big Apple — likely in need of a vacation from the wedding.
From boardrooms to baraats, these newlyweds made Wall Street dance to their own beat.
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I find that we sometimes do not do enough research in our communities. Information will not come to you. You have to seek it out. Start with Google. Visit your local chamber of commerce. They are there to serve you. Find a mentor to guide you and be a sounding board, but do so only after you have done your own research and can communicate your wants or needs. No one wants to help someone who doesn't want to help themselves. Before starting a business, an entrepreneur must know who their target audience is in order to know who to market to. Today, digital marketing is huge, and the best free digital marketing is social media. Use it to your advantage. You have to know your audience and engage your audience with content that not only appeals to them but drives them to buy. Build relationships with your customers to create trust and repeat buyers. Hire strategically. Your team has to add value to your company. Lastly, cut unnecessary expenses that are not contributing to the growth of your business. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
