Across Oceans, Across Times
Sukhie Dhillon & Harvir Gill
Wedding Date: November 08, 2024
Location: Punjab
Guest Number: 500
Bride: Sukhie Dhillon
Groom: Harvir Gill
Love is rarely convenient. It doesn’t check time zones, schedules, or flight durations. It doesn’t wait until you’re standing in the same city, speaking the same language, living the same life. Sometimes, love happens with an ocean in between, through flickering screens and mismatched clocks. Sometimes, love starts with nothing more than a message.
7,300 miles separated Sukhie in New York and Harvir in Ludhiana, Punjab. That kind of distance could have been the end of any possibility before it even began. But for them, it was just the setting of their story.
It began with a message on Facebook in the summer of 2014. Sukhie, just 14 at the time, first saw a photo of Harvir through a friend. “I thought he was cute,” she remembers. That was all the reason she needed to reach out. What followed was something natural, almost effortless. “We hit it off right away,” she says. “We were just two googly-eyed kids, flirting, and one thing led to another. Harvir asked me to be his girlfriend, and I said yes without thinking.” December 24, 2014, marked the beginning.
At first, it was all playful texts and teenage giggles, but as they grew, so did their love. Long-distance meant late-night calls, perfectly timed breaks, and creative ways to stay connected. “The biggest challenge at first was just being kids,” Sukhie shares. “Then it was balancing school, then work. Harvir used to stay awake most nights so we could speak. I would plan my breaks around when he was going to sleep, and he would wake up super early to talk to me.”
Through it all, Harvir never wavered. ‘I hated long distance and would often complain that I couldn’t do it, but Harvir stayed strong. He always said it would work out.” And he was right. Over time, their long-distance relationship became their normal. “We got so used to it that it never felt like an issue after that.”
By 2018, reality set in. This wasn’t just young love. It was the real thing. “Harvir and I used to get into little arguments but he would always be so calm about it. He would handle every conversation with kindness. Harvir has never gotten angry with me and is the sweetest and funniest human ever.” While Harvir had already told his parents about her, Sukhie hadn’t yet taken that step. But when she thought about it, the answer was clear. “There is no one else I would rather spend my life with. No one understands me as well as him and our love for each other grows every day.”
What made their bond even stronger was humor. “Harvir is the funniest person I know,” Sukhie says. “When I get upset, he doesn’t argue or ignore me—he just cracks a joke, something so ridiculous that I forget why I was mad in the first place.” Harvir loves that she matches his wit effortlessly. “She’s clever, never takes herself too seriously, and always keeps me on my toes,” he says.
So in 2018, when she finally told her parents about him, she was nervous—but her father’s reaction was all she could have hoped for. “My dad went to India to meet him, he loved him immediately and I was so relieved.”
For Harvir, there had never been any doubt. He knew Sukhie was the one early on.
But what cemented his feelings even more was something deeply personal. Harvir’s father had always been his rock, his guide. When he passed away in 2020, it was one of the hardest moments of his life. But he found an unexpected source of comfort. His family would often say that Sukhie reminds them of Harvir’s dad by nature. Harvir likes to say, “If you take Sukhie out and put my dad in, or vice versa, it’s the same for me.” The same warmth, the same nature. It wasn’t just love; it was fate.
So, it wasn’t a question of “if” Harvir would propose—it was “when.”
After 8.5 years of choosing each other, of making long distance work, of carving out time for each other no matter what, of traveling together, Harvir knew it was time to propose. In 2023, he worked alongside Sukhie’s sister, Armin, to plan the perfect moment.
He knew how much she loved Bali, so they planned a vacation. Sukhie had a feeling something was up, but nothing could have prepared her for the moment. In picture-perfect Bali, Harvir got down on one knee. His eyes were full of love, and Sukhie’s heart was racing. And, true to himself, even mid-proposal, Harvir cracked a joke.
And just like that, between laughter and happy tears, Sukhie said yes to forever.
Now came the part of planning the start of a shared life, one that had already been years in the making—wedding planning. There was never a question of where it would happen. Sukhie’s dad had built their home in Punjab with one dream in mind: to see his daughters married there.
“We planned the wedding for a year, but truthfully, I’d been planning it in my head since the very beginning. From the moment Harvir and I started talking, I couldn’t help but imagine what our big day would look like. So, in a way, it felt like years in the making.”
But what no daydream prepared her for was learning to plan a wedding together. Harvir came with his own ideas, his own vision, and suddenly, this wasn’t just about making decisions—it was their first real lesson in compromise.
“The biggest challenge? Definitely seeing eye to eye on certain things. Harvir and I don’t always share the same opinions, and planning a wedding together really tested our ability to compromise (which, let me tell you, we’ve now mastered!).”
And then there was the guest list.
“Cutting it down was like solving a puzzle with way too many pieces—especially with our parents wanting to invite everyone they’ve ever known. It was tricky, but we managed.”
But for all the stress, there was one part that felt straight out of a dream—wedding shopping.
“My favorite part, hands down, was traveling to India and going wedding shopping with Harvir. It was the moment I had been dreaming about for so long. Trying on outfits, wandering through the markets, and sharing those little ‘this is really happening’ moments with him made all the stress and sleepless nights worth it.”
Every look was carefully curated by Sukhie and her sister, Armin—every piece chosen with intention, every detail bringing her one step closer to the day that had always felt like destiny.
For eight years, Sukhie and Harvir had been inseparable. But nothing—not the countless conversations about the future, not the meticulous planning—could prepare her for what this week would feel like. Weddings have a way of making everything hit differently. The rituals weren’t just traditions anymore; they were turning points. The goodbyes weren’t hypothetical; they were happening. The weight of leaving home settled in unexpectedly, all at once.
“I cried at everything,” she admits.
But the moment it really sunk in—that everything was about to change—was during the Anand Karaj.
“Both of us were super nervous about doing the lavan properly and having all eyes on us. When we finished the fourth one, we realized that we had actually gotten married, and I just had little explosions in my heart.”
It was a split second of oh, this is real now—of two people stepping into something bigger than themselves, something that had been in motion long before they ever met.
The task of capturing all of it—the chaos, the quiet moments, the split-second glances that say more than words—fell to Manpreet of Gogi Studio. And he didn’t just take photos. He documented something fleeting, something impossible to replicate.
“His calming presence and professionalism made the whole process so seamless, and his ability to catch every candid laugh and tear made our memories even more precious.”
And then there was the decor team, Baeghamkot—Rabani, Harsirat, Shubh, and team.
“They went above and beyond to make our vision come to life. They listened to every single request and designed each event with so much love, creativity, and attention to detail. Every element of the decor reflected their passion and dedication, and we couldn’t have imagined a more beautiful setup for our celebrations.”
But what makes a wedding isn’t just the big, orchestrated moments. It’s the behind-the-scenes chaos. The stolen seconds between events. That’s where Noor from WooNoori Creations came in.
“She brought a unique energy and ensured that even the smallest, most meaningful moments were beautifully preserved. Her work was the perfect blend of creativity and storytelling, and it added so much to our experience.”
Looking back, Sukhie and Harvir realized that weddings have a way of pulling focus in a thousand different directions. The lists, the opinions, the pressure to make it all perfect. It’s easy to start planning for everyone else—until you realize that making everyone happy is a losing game.
“If there’s one thing we’d tell couples planning their wedding, it’s this: Don’t forget what this is really about—you two.”
“Wedding planning is chaotic,” Sukhie admits. “There were stressful moments, disagreements, times we wondered how we’d get everything done. But in the end, none of that mattered. What mattered was creating something that felt like us.”
Their biggest lesson? Compromise without losing yourself. Some decisions—like cutting the guest list—felt impossible at first. But when it came down to it, stripping away the excess made space for what actually mattered.
And when the wedding week arrived, so did a new reality: nothing will go exactly as planned.
“For us, the best memories were made when we stopped worrying about everything being perfect and just lived in the moment. Laugh, dance, and soak it all in because the day will fly by faster than you can imagine.” admit Sukhie and Harvir.
For 7,300 miles, Sukhie and Harvir existed in separate worlds—split by time zones and missed calls, by early mornings and late nights, by the space that should have made love feel impossible. But love like theirs was never about convenience. It was about adapting, about holding space for each other even when life tried to pull them in different directions. It was about knowing, without hesitation, that no matter how far they were, they belonged to the same story. Across oceans, across years, across every challenge that could have made it easier to let go, they chose to stay. Not because it was simple, but because it was theirs.
And now, the distance is gone. The waiting is over. Sukhie and Harvir stand together, husband and wife—exactly where they were always meant to be.
GALLERY
VENDORS
Photography: Gogi Studio
Videography: Gurpal Films
Decor: Baeghamkot
Content Creation: WooNoor
Makeup: Armineyess
Hairstylists: Muskan Manhas + Karan
Bride’s Outfits
Shagan Outfit: Plumtin
Mehendi Outfit: Hussain Rehar
Choora Outfit: Plumtin
Jaggo Outfit: Payal Keyal
Wedding Outfit: Rimple and Harpreet
Reception Outfit: Manish Malhotra
Groom’s Outfits
Wedding and Reception: Papillon
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words by
tasveer