James & Hetal are Getting Married

NAMES: Hetal Naik & James Yancey Jr.

DATE ENGAGED: March 27, 2021

WEDDING DATE: May 20, 2022

OCCUPATIONS: Hetal is an Attorney & James is an Interior Designer.

HOW DID YOU MEET? We went to High School together all 4 years, but never officially met until we connected at a party of a mutual friend 22 years later!

WHAT ATTRACTED HER TO HIM? I was attracted to how attentive he was to me at the party all night, his sense of humor and how effortlessly he was able to engage in deep conversation.

WHAT ATTRACTED HIM TO HER? Her beauty, her brains, and her courage to live in her truth.

YOUR ENGAGEMENT STORY: I wasn’t sure when he was going to propose so I kept getting dressed up every weekend, thinking this was going to be the weekend. One weekend he took me out to Brunch in Pacific Grove then for a ride down 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach. He pulled off at China Rock and walked me out to water where he got down on one knee on the rocks and proposed while his photographer friend was perched high on a rock capturing the whole proposal. Unbeknownst to me, his friend had been capturing candid shots of us all day! James’ efforts in the detailed planning of the proposal made it so special. We celebrated our engagement at a beautiful outdoor dinner and ended the romantic evening at a cabin over the ocean.

TELL US YOUR COVID WEDDING PLANNING EXPERIENCE: We didn’t want Covid to impact our wedding planning decisions, so we opted for a 2022 Wedding. We had not yet met each other’s friends and family due to the Pandemic so we brought our close friends and family together for an intimate Indian Engagement Ceremony Celebration on the Fourth of July 2021. In the Indian culture, the Groom to Be is allowed to formally court the Bride to Be only after an Engagement Ceremony witnessed by the Patriarchy of each family. Although our courtship began in 2019, we felt honoring the tradition would be a beautiful way for me to share my Indian culture with James and his family and introduce the families to each other. James is very supportive of my 4 Day Indian Wedding vision and collaborating together on our ideas has made the Engagement the most exciting time of our lives.