The wedding ceremony took place the following day beneath a round mandap overlooking the hills of Willow Heights. The space was grounded by brass lamps, statues, fresh flower garlands and bespoke ceremony pieces commissioned from Indian artisans, including the oonjal and kolam-painted manai seating. Guests were served a traditional kalyanam saappadu on plated banana leaves, with tablescapes featuring hand-painted birds, elephants and Thanjavur dancing dolls.
Live Carnatic musicians performed traditional Tamil wedding songs. Jayram first wore a red six-yard sari woven with pure gold zari in a diamond motif before changing into a maroon nine-yard madisar drape for the mangalsutra ceremony. “The madisar marks the transition into marriage; wearing it made that moment feel grounded in the traditions I grew up with.” Her mother collaborated with Hayagrivas Silk House to custom-weave the madisar in Kanchipuram with gold zari Radha-Krishna motifs, while the blouses featured intricate peacock detailing, Tanjore-inspired embroidery, zardozi and beadwork throughout.
Jayram worked with Kritika Gill for her makeup looks, referencing vintage Indian bridal magazine imagery. “The look had laid edges and baby curls inspired by styles my mother remembered,” she says, paired with a braid threaded with jasmine and gold hair ornaments. Maltinsky wore traditional silk veshtis in eight and ten-yard drapes.
The reception transformed the Granada Theatre into a lush art gala. Oversized florals and a custom Birth of Venus-inspired shell installation greeted guests at the entrance. Working again with Gaurav Gupta and Bridelan, she wore a sculpted lehenga with cascading beadwork, crystal tassels and hummingbird embroidery woven throughout. Maltinsky’s chocolate-brown bandhgala echoed the motif with gold hummingbird detailing.“We’ve spent years watching and photographing hummingbirds on long walks,” she explains.
The lehenga, unsurprisingly, was not exactly built for dancing. “It weighed 46 pounds,” she says. “Fortunately, I was already planning to change for the afterparty.” For that final stretch of the evening, she switched into a Rahul Mishra couture look from his Tree of Life collection—a hand-embroidered gold illusion bodysuit paired with a draped gold skirt. Maltinsky swapped into a silk-draped Gaurav Gupta cowl-neck top while keeping his original trousers.
After hours of Tamil music, Bollywood hits and retro Western tracks, the multicultural wedding ended unexpectedly with Stan Rogers’ Canadian folk song The Mary Ellen Carter, beloved by Maltinsky’s late mother. “It’s about perseverance and fighting for something precious,” he says. “Guests who had met that week were linking arms and dancing in circles.” For him, that became the lasting image of the wedding itself: “everyone held together by a song about refusing to let something beloved stay lost.”
