I had a huge Indian wedding, and I did it for my wife, and I did

In the words of Hasan Minhaj—“I had a huge Indian wedding, and I did it for my wife, and I did it for my white friends.”—we hear the voice of a man caught between cultures, yet choosing to honor them both. The wedding, sacred in all traditions, becomes here more than a union of two people: it becomes a bridge between identities, a celebration that speaks to both love and belonging. By declaring that he did it for his wife, Minhaj affirms devotion; by admitting he did it also for his friends, he acknowledges the desire to share, to translate, to open the doors of his heritage to others.

The ancients knew this tension between the private vow and the public witness. When Alexander the Great wed Roxana, a Persian bride, he held the ceremony not only for their union but to bind cultures together. The act of marriage became both personal covenant and political gesture. So too, Minhaj’s Indian wedding was not only for love but also for community, a demonstration of identity lived proudly before those who may not have understood it otherwise.

There is wisdom in this duality. For love is never lived in isolation—it is woven into families, communities, and histories. By honoring the grandeur of an Indian wedding, Minhaj gave his wife the fullness of tradition, while also offering his friends a glimpse into the beauty of that heritage. In doing so, he transformed the wedding into a stage where love could meet culture, where joy could meet education, where personal devotion could ripple outward into shared understanding.

History bears many such examples. When Queen Victoria’s children married into European dynasties, their weddings were not simply about affection, but about knitting families, nations, and traditions together. Each union became a symbol of reconciliation and kinship across borders. Minhaj’s celebration echoes this same truth: that a wedding, though deeply intimate, can also serve as a beacon of cultural exchange.

Thus, let this lesson endure: a wedding is never only about two—it is also about the many who witness, learn, and carry its memory. Minhaj’s words remind us that love, when celebrated in its fullness, has the power not only to unite husband and wife, but to weave together families, friends, and even cultures that once stood apart. And in that weaving lies the deeper power of marriage: to bind the world closer through joy.