Nicole & Rohan’s Multicultural Wedding at Cedar Lakes Estate Proved That Three Days Is Exactly Enough Time to Change Your Guests’ Lives

Let’s get one thing straight: multicultural weddings don’t mean compromise.

They don’t mean blending two traditions into something watered down, or rushing through three ceremonies in a single afternoon while everyone gets confused about when to stand. Nicole and Rohan’s multicultural wedding at Cedar Lakes Estate was living proof of something I’ve believed for a long time — when you give each tradition its own space to breathe, something extraordinary happens. Guests don’t just witness the celebrations. They feel them.

This was a three-day weekend in the Hudson Valley that moved like a great story — every chapter distinct, every moment earned, and by Sunday morning everyone was already figuring out when they could do it again.

Meet Nicole & Rohan

Nicole is an artist and former art teacher. Rohan is an engineer at Spotify. Between the two of them, they had the creativity, the vision, and the taste to know exactly what they wanted — and the good sense to trust a team to execute it.

They didn’t want a single-day blur. They wanted a wedding weekend where guests could slow down, sink in, and leave feeling genuinely celebrated — not just like they’d attended an event. They wanted time. Room. A full story.

Cedar Lakes Estate gave them the canvas. We helped them fill it.

Why Cedar Lakes Estate for a Multicultural Wedding Weekend

When they toured Cedar Lakes, it was game over.

Nicole grew up on a lake, so the setting had nostalgia baked right in from the first step onto the dock. Everything was on-site — guests could stay, eat, party, change outfits, and do it all again without a single shuttle or stressed-out timeline text. And the venue’s spaces — the pavilion, the lawn, the amphitheater, the barn — each one could be styled for a completely different mood. Which, for a multi-ceremony wedding weekend, isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s essential.

Cedar Lakes is 90 minutes from New York City but feels like a genuine destination. That balance — accessible but transported — is rare. It’s why couples who want the immersion of a destination wedding without the logistics of one keep finding their way here.

The Weekend, Chapter by Chapter

Friday Night: The Sangeet

The weekend kicked off with the Sangeet, and it did not ease in gently. The pavilion became a Bollywood-meets-Hudson-Valley dance party — midnight blue linens, marigold florals, mirrored accents, and a dance floor that never emptied.

Guests arrived to cocktails and the chance to have intricate henna art done before the dancing took over. Family performances brought the house down. And then Rohan surprised Nicole with a performance of his own that got a standing ovation and, I’ll be honest, made more than a few people cry.

The Sangeet set the tone for everything that followed: this was not going to be a weekend where you checked your phone. You were going to be fully, completely present. Because something worth watching was always happening.

Saturday Morning: The Hindu Ceremony

The morning opened with a baraat — the groom’s processional, where Rohan was accompanied by family and friends with music, dancing, and the kind of joyful noise that wakes up a whole property in the best possible way. The energy of that procession set the tone before a single vow had been spoken.

The ceremony took place under a marigold-draped mandap. The color story — maroons, marigolds, soft fall neutrals — was both deeply traditional and perfectly seasonal, like the Hudson Valley itself had dressed for the occasion. Every ritual was explained for guests who were experiencing it for the first time, which made the space feel inclusive without ever making it feel like a lecture.

Afterward, guests gathered for a full Indian lunch — and then, graciously, the schedule gave everyone time to retreat to their cabins, exhale, and change. That built-in pause between the morning and afternoon was one of the smartest things about this weekend’s pacing. Nobody arrived at the Christian ceremony still catching their breath from the baraat.

Saturday Afternoon: The Christian Ceremony

The afternoon ceremony took place lakeside, under the pines, with a floral altar framed by water and trees and the kind of light that makes photographers audibly grateful.

Nicole’s gown was a complete transformation from her morning saree — the contrast between the two ceremonies was intentional, powerful, and moved people in different ways. Where the Hindu ceremony was communal and energetic, the Christian ceremony was intimate and still. Both were fully themselves. Neither was abbreviated for the other’s sake.

After the recessional, champagne. On the dock. With that view.

Saturday Evening: The Reception

By the time guests walked into the barn for the reception, it had been completely transformed. The design brief was Ralph Lauren meets art gallery — and it delivered.

Warm wood tables with layered textures. Velvet lounge seating tucked into corners. Nicole’s own artwork displayed throughout, her creative voice woven into the physical space of her own wedding. Custom menus and paper goods she had a hand in. A dinner service that flowed with intention and absolutely no dead air.

And then the dance floor opened — black-and-white checkered, packed from the first song, exactly as chaotic and joyful and alive as it should have been. The after party moved to the tree house. The DJ played until the sliders showed up. Nobody wanted to leave.

Holy sht. This is ours.* — that’s the feeling this reception was designed toward. And it landed.

Sunday Morning: The Farewell Brunch

The weekend closed gently. Brunch under the pavilion — coffee, pastries, one last look over the lake. Guests were invited to create their own bouquets from the weekend’s florals, a send-off detail that let everyone take a little piece of the celebration home with them.

Nicole’s artwork was displayed one more time, bringing the weekend full circle. It was the quietest moment of the three days, and somehow one of the most meaningful.

The Design Story

This weekend was a masterclass in what it looks like when design serves the story instead of the other way around.

The Friday Sangeet was jewel tones and disco balls and full-tilt party energy. The Saturday morning Hindu ceremony was marigolds and maroons — warm, grounded, rooted in tradition. The Saturday evening reception brought in cozy blues and pops of pink, elevated and romantic, the barn transformed into something that felt curated and deeply personal. Each event had its own palette, its own mood, its own visual identity — and together they told the story of two people whose lives and cultures and aesthetics were genuinely, beautifully distinct.

Nicole’s artwork running throughout was the thread that tied it all together. Her pieces appeared in the welcome materials, the reception design, the farewell brunch display. It was one of the most elegant ways I’ve seen a couple make a venue feel like theirs — not by filling it with things, but by putting themselves in it.

What Made This Multicultural Wedding Weekend Flow

HHere’s the thing I want every couple planning a multicultural wedding weekend to understand: how a wedding feels matters as much as how it looks. The pacing of this weekend was intentional at every turn.

The Friday Sangeet was a full immersion — cocktails, music, dancing, an immediate signal to guests that this was going to be something. The Saturday baraat and Hindu ceremony gave people time to settle into the tradition without feeling rushed through it. The built-in reset between the morning and afternoon ceremonies was not filler — it was one of the most considered decisions of the whole weekend. The reception had its own arc: dinner, then dancing, then the after party, then sliders, then slowly, reluctantly, home. And Sunday’s brunch was a landing, not an exit.

Cedar Lakes is one of the few venues I know that can hold a Hindu Christian wedding weekend like this and make it feel like it breathed. The cabins, the spaces, the layout — it was all designed for exactly this kind of multi-day, multi-chapter story.

Their Review

“We will never be able to sing Lindsey Kleidman’s praises loud enough. She helped us plan a multi-day, multicultural Hindu-Christian wedding at Cedar Lakes Estate in just seven months — and somehow made it feel easy, exciting, and completely us.” — Nicole & Rohan

Read the full testimonial →

The Dream Team

• Venue: Cedar Lakes Estate @thesistersofcedarlakes
• Planning & Design: Wildflower Events & Design @wildflowereventsdesign
• Florals: Sweet Talk Floral @sweettalkfloral
• Photography: @ggabriella
• Videography: Forged in the North @forgedinthenorth
• Beauty: Upstyle Co @upstyle.co
• Content Creator: Dash Media Design @dashmediadesign
• Band: 45 Riots @45riots
• DJ: DJ USA Events @djusaevents
• Lounge: Rent Patina @rentpatina
• Rentals: BBJ La Tavola @bbjlatavola · Columbia Tent Rentals @columbiatentrentals
• Stationery: Greenwich Letterpress @greenwichletterpress · Art of Steacy @artofsteacy
• Lighting: Gio Draping & Design @giodrapingdesign
• Henna: NYC Henna Queen @nychennaqueen
• Bridal Gown: Lovely Bride NYC @lovelybridenyc
• Wedding Lehenga: Anita Dongre @anitadongre
• Lunch Catering: Moghul Caterers @moghulcaterers
• Bride & Groom: Nicole & Rohan

If You’re Planning a Multicultural Wedding at Cedar Lakes Estate or Beyond

Nicole and Rohan’s weekend is proof that Cedar Lakes Estate isn’t just a venue — it’s a stage for a story told over days, not hours. Distinct spaces. On-site accommodations. That lake. That light. And enough room to let every chapter land the way it deserves.

But here’s what I really want you to hear: a multicultural wedding weekend like this one only works when someone is holding the entire arc — not just the day-of timeline, but the pacing across three days, the design through-line across three ceremonies, the emotional logic of how one event flows into the next.

That’s the work. That’s what we do. And we are deeply, genuinely obsessed with it.

If you’re planning a multicultural wedding, a multi-ceremony weekend, or you just want a celebration that feels like a whole experience instead of a single event — let’s talk. We know Cedar Lakes Estate well. We know how to build weekends that move people. And we cannot wait to hear your story.

Celebrations should be felt, not just seen. Let’s make sure yours hits.

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