Real Weddings: Aria and Moe

Moe Kohli, a 29-year-old product design manager at Yelp, first met Aria Patel, a 31-year-old Google account executive, in 2016, when the two were business students at Wilfrid Laurier University. They began dating shortly afterward and kept their relationship going after graduating and moving back into their parents’ homes in Ajax (for Moe) and Markham (for Aria). In October of 2021, they got their first apartment, and they were engaged by July of 2024. Their 170-person modern Indian wedding took place at Steam Whistle Brewing in June of 2025 and featured a baraat (groom’s procession) in front of the CN Tower; a traditional Hindu ceremony; and a crisp, neutral colour palette. Here’s how their big day came together.

Aria: Moe and I were business students at Laurier at the same time, but we were a year apart, so we had different friend groups. We didn’t meet until my fourth year and Moe’s third year, in May of 2016, when we were volunteering at a business conference for high school students at Laurier.

Moe: Aria and I were team leaders, and we got paired up to choreograph a group dance with our students. I remember Aria saying, “You’re so funny!” over and over again and laughing a lot while we were trying to choreograph the dance. I felt like that was a good sign.

Aria: I thought Moe was enthusiastic, silly and charismatic. I’m more shy and reserved, but I liked that Moe was outgoing. It was like he knew everybody at the conference, and they all wanted to be friends with him.

Moe: I definitely thought Aria was cute. I also liked how she took her responsibility as a team leader very seriously. She was always worried about where all her students were. After the conference was over, in classic 2016 style, I sent Aria a Facebook message.

Aria: We moved things to text message pretty quickly from there. After a few weeks of texting, by June of 2016, Moe asked me out on a date. He had a whole plan with three activities: bowling, dinner and a movie. I thought it was a big commitment for a first date, so I suggested we just go for coffee instead.

Moe: We met at a Starbucks around the corner from campus and sat on the patio. We were there for hours.

Aria: We talked about where we grew up and how our families, which are both Indian, are really important to us. We also talked about what we do for fun and what we saw ourselves doing in the future. I was in my last semester of school, and Moe was in his third year. For our second date, I let Moe take me out on his original date idea for bowling, dinner and a movie.

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Moe: Aria and I had a fun summer of dating. We joined a baseball beer league, went to open-mic karaoke and had nights out at a popular student bar called Phil’s. We got really into Pokémon Go and would walk around Waterloo catching Pokémon together.

Aria: At the beginning of August 2016, I went to China for a month as part of a volunteer program through Laurier to teach leadership, business, art and gym to kids. Moe and I talked every day while I was away.

Moe: As soon as Aria got back, I was one of the first people she saw. We made our relationship official at the end of that month, which was also Aria’s last month of school.

Aria: Once I graduated, I moved back home to Markham. Moe still had one year of school left, but we spent a lot of time visiting each other. He went on exchange in January of 2017 to Rennes, France, and we went on our first trip together then—we met up in London, then went to Paris.

Aria: In October of 2021, we moved into our first apartment—a two-bedroom condo at Yonge and Richmond.

Moe: Marriage is something that Aria and I were aligned on from the beginning. We both talked about wanting to get married one day and wanting to have a family. We met when we were young, but I felt like we grew together—and became more like each other—as we got older. Aria has helped me become more organized and proactive when it comes to planning, and Aria has become more outgoing.

Aria: Between 2023 and 2024, a lot of our friends got married. We’d been living together for a couple of years by then. Marriage never felt like a requirement for commitment—I felt like we’d always had that. But Moe and I love parties. We wanted to get all of our friends and family together and throw a big rager.

Moe: In 2024, we were ready for the next big milestone. Aria had sent me a Pinterest board of rings that she liked. I worked with a jeweller over the course of four months to design her ring. I planned to propose to her on a trip to London, since it was the first place we went on vacation together.

Aria: The first time Moe and I were in London, in 2017, we had only 48 hours to see the city. I had a list of all these sites and museums I wanted to visit, but Moe is a huge Harry Potter fan, so we started with the Harry Potter studio tour in London. It’s supposed to take three hours, but we spent almost seven hours there. Moe needed to soak in every minute. I was not amused. So, for our second trip to London, in July of 2024, Moe planned a day of all the things we didn’t get to see the first time around.

Moe: After a picnic on Primrose Hill, we went to St. Dunstan’s, which is a really beautiful public garden in and around the ruins of an old church. It’s where I had planned to propose, and I’d hired a photographer to meet us at a specific spot in the gardens. But, when we got there, it was so crowded that the spot I’d chosen looked like a mosh pit. I had to figure out a new one and coordinate with the photographer to meet us there. Thankfully we found a quiet place in the back of the church, and I popped the question.

Aria: Moe seemed visibly stressed all day, so I could tell that something was up. He’s not usually on his phone much but seemed to be texting a lot. Now I know he was just coordinating with the photographer. When he proposed, I was so happy and excited that I totally blacked out on everything he said. He had to repeat it to me at dinner.

Moe: I took her to Sky Garden, which is a restaurant on the top floor of a skyscraper with a beautiful view over London. We had sunset drinks at the bar afterward.

Aria: We got into wedding planning pretty quickly, setting our date for 11 months after our engagement. We always knew we wanted to get married at Steam Whistle, so we didn’t even look at any other venues.

Moe: The year before, in 2024, we went to a friend’s wedding at Steam Whistle, and we both fell in love with the venue. We loved how it was understated, not too formal and not too big. You could customize it to be modern and intimate, plus it’s right downtown. It ticked all of our boxes.

Aria: Moe and I grew up in Canada and consider ourselves Canadian, but we had this blessing of growing up with Indian culture too. It was really important for us to create a day that paid tribute to who we are and the amazing traditions of our families. We decided to be married with a Hindu ceremony under a mandapa, which is a covered canopy that’s similar to a Jewish chuppah. Indian weddings are usually bold and colourful—red is the traditional colour. But we went a different way and chose modern, crisp, neutral colours for our decor.

Moe: I designed some little touches, like name cards, to help make our wedding unique and personal. Each one had one of eight different drawings of important moments in our relationship, like our first trip together, moving into our first apartment and the proposal. I also designed and illustrated our food and beverage menus, our seating chart, and the table cards for our 170 guests.

Aria: I thought I was going to wear a North American–style white wedding dress. But, when I started looking at options, I really fell in love with the lehenga, which is a traditional Indian wedding dress. Traditionally, Indian brides wear red, but I chose a white lehenga for the ceremony and changed into a second, party one for the reception—it had a black skirt with pearls all over it that sparkled in the light. It was the perfect evening gown.

Moe: Shopping for my wedding outfit was really simple. I wanted to rock a tuxedo, which I thought would be a nice mix of cultures next to Aria’s lehenga. I went to Harry Rosen and got a very traditional tux. I chose an inner lining with an elephant print for cultural representation, and under the lapel, I had “Summer ’16” embroidered to represent the summer Aria and I met.

Aria: Indian weddings can last up to five nights. Moe and I wanted to condense that, so three days before our wedding, Moe’s parents hosted a sangeet—a party with lots of singing and dancing—where Moe and his siblings performed a dance. The next day, my parents hosted a mehndi—which was essentially a welcome party for my family—in their backyard. Three generations of my family grew up in that home, so it was important for me to have the party there. Then our wedding at Steam Whistle would happen the next day.

For the morning of the wedding, it was important for us to get ready in our condo since it was the home Moe and I had shared for four years and the first thing that was really ours together. I was in our unit, and Moe was in the building’s party room with his groomsmen. We had 11 bridesmaids and 11 groomsmen, so it was a chaotic day.

Moe: We wanted to do our first look up on our building’s rooftop. We asked property management for permission ahead of time, but they said no. On the morning of the wedding, I sent two of my groomsmen to buy doughnuts and bribe the security guard. Thankfully, he was happy to let us up.

Aria: After our first look, we got some photos taken at Osgoode Hall, then we got to Steam Whistle around 4 p.m.

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Moe: We weren’t initially planning to do a baraat, which is a groom’s procession. But, two weeks before the wedding, Aria told me that her family had started taking bets on whether I’d come in on a horse, a scooter or an elephant. I didn’t want to disappoint her family, so I found the one company in the GTA that does baraats with a horse and booked them.

Aria: The baraat is all about celebrating the arrival of the groom. It’s a big party with lots of singing and dancing. My family was supposed to be on the other side, ready to receive Moe. But a lot of my cousins and brothers decided to join the procession, and eventually both sides merged into one big crowd in front of the venue.

Moe: We also had a drummer playing a dhol, which is an Indian drum. He hyped up the crowd by calling out different family members and friends to dance. He did a great job. I was nervous about riding in on a horse, but everything went seamlessly. It was pretty cool to arrive at my wedding on a horse in front of the CN Tower.

Aria: Next up, we had our Hindu ceremony. Moe and I were loosely tied together with a special cord that symbolized our union, then we walked around a fire in the middle of the mandapa seven times to reflect seven commitments and well wishes. Hindu ceremonies can last up to two hours, but ours was about 45 minutes. We had an Indian flute player perform during it and our cocktail hour. He was doing traditional Indian songs as well as pop songs like Ed Sheeran, which was pretty fun.

Moe: Cocktail hour was out on the Steam Whistle patio. Then we had dinner back in the same space as the ceremony. We worked with Food Dudes to do a customized Indian menu with paneer flatbreads, thali plates, and gulab jamun kulfi ice cream sandwiches.

Aria: For our first dance, to “Beyond” by Leon Bridges, Moe and I took dance lessons for two months. We initially wanted to do a really complicated dance but had to simplify it because my dress felt like it weighed 40 pounds. Then we transitioned into a dance party. Our playlist had a lot of 2016 bangers like “One Dance” by Drake and “Ayo” by Chris Brown and Tyga. It was fun to see both of our families breaking it down on the dance floor.

Moe: The drinks were really flowing by this point. We had a Phil’s sign made as a homage to the Laurier student bar where Aria and I hung out a lot when we first started dating. We ordered McDonald’s at the end of the evening as our late-night snack. The party went on until 2 a.m.

Aria: I felt so satisfied after our wedding was over. I was so grateful that all our friends and family came out to celebrate with us. I felt very lucky.

Moe: I was a little relieved because wedding planning is stressful. But everything went off without a hitch. It was a big party, just like we wanted, and everyone had a blast. Two days after the wedding, we went to Jamaica for our honeymoon. It was awesome just to chill on the beach.

Aria: People always ask if it feels different now that we’re married. But we’d been together for nine years and living together for four years already. So it doesn’t feel that different. The commitment and care were always there.

Moe: Marrying Aria is, quite honestly, my greatest achievement. I’m excited for the next chapter in our lives. We’re looking into buying our first home and planning to start a family.

Aria: One thing that’s different is that, when we’re dealing with a problem or a challenge, Moe will look at me and say, “We’re in this together.” That was language we didn’t use before we got married.

Cheat Sheet

Date: June 14, 2025 Photography: Mango Studios Videography: Henjo Films Planner: Haley Kaminski for Envision Weddings and Events Wedding venue: Steam Whistle Brewing Florals: Envision Floral Studio Musician: Blessings Flutes Mandapa: B-You-Nique Events Food: The Food Dudes Late-night food: McDonald’s DJ: DJ MK Aria’s outfit: Seema Gujral from Sunny’s Bridal Moe’s outfit: Harry Rosen