Amit, a doctor, and Aoife, dietician and founder of EatRight Ireland, met while working on the stroke ward in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in 2011.
In 2015, the couple took six months off to go travelling and were in Wellington, New Zealand in February of that year when Amit proposed on top of Mount Victoria.
“I moved to New Zealand three months after we started going out and we stayed together while I was away,” says Amit, who moved from Hyderabad, India, to Ireland with his parents Rao Velagapudi and Ammaji Potluri when he was 12.
“New Zealand meant a lot to both of us, so it was appropriate that we got engaged there. Aoife would force me up that mountain every opportunity she got so she knew something was up when I wanted to go up that day!”
Aoife’s parents Mary and Gerry Hanna hosted a barbecue welcoming 15 of Amit’s relatives who travelled from India and the US the week before the wedding on Saturday August 6th, 2016.
The couple were married (by friends of the Hanna family, Fr Mick Igoe and Fr Paddy Barry) at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Termonfeckin in Aoife’s native Drogheda and had their reception afterwards in Clontarf Castle.
As a surprise for his new wife, Amit arranged a flash mob of Indian style dance to a popular Telugu song.
Henna tattoos
The following Tuesday, they flew to India with 30 Irish family and friends for “round two”.
“We had three events there. The first called Mehndi, involves music and dancing and ladies getting henna tattoos. The second was a ceremony welcoming Aoife into the family and the third was a reception.”
Aoife and Amit credit their families, especially their sisters, with being “brilliant and supportive” in the run-up to their wedding.
“Being a couple from different backgrounds, we had a lot of things to balance, not just expectations from our families, but also our own expectations,” says Amit. “I grew up in Ireland, but have influences from both cultures that have shaped my thinking. Our sisters worked as great sounding boards.”
When asked if it feels different now that they are married, Amit says: “It feels more natural calling Aoife my wife than it was to call her my fiancé. Since coming home, I’ve been working in Mullingar and Aoife is in Dublin, so we haven’t had a real opportunity to get back to normal. Ask us again in six months!”
Photographer: Paul Kelly, Studio 3, pkstudio3.com
