Azadeh Houshyar to Kermit Westergaard
In a hole-in-the-wall restaurant nestled beneath an elevated subway track in Brooklyn, the couple on a blind date discovered something funny. They had the same name, sort of. "Kermit," a Gaelic name, means "free man"; "Azadeh," in Persian, means "free woman." Lingering for three hours over dinner, while a lone guitarist played flamenco music and the walls rattled every time a train went by, Azadeh Houshyar and Kermit Westergaard discovered a certain chemistry, too. The night felt surreal - "like we weren't even in New York, but in a movie like Amelie," recalls Azadeh.
A year and half later, Azadeh and Kermit were in another world again. Visiting a friend of Kermit's in Berlin, Kermit whisked Azadeh away for what he said would be a picnic in the East German countryside. After several hours in their rented car, Azadeh found herself in a tiny town, turning up the driveway to what looked like an abandoned sanitarium. Azadeh wasn't thrilled to hear that they'd be spending a couple of days there particularly since she hadn't brought any of her things. But Kermit had secretly packed for her (alas, sweatpants and sneakers only!), and once inside, Azadeh quickly warmed to the idea of staying. The scary "sanitarium" was actually the luxurious, cozy Zur Bleiche Resort and Spa. After a relaxing afternoon in the pools and saunas, the couple changed for dinner. At the front desk, a staff member escorted them through a succession of increasingly intimate dining rooms until they finally arrived in a private room with a fireplace and a table set for two. At the end of their five-course dinner - by which time Azadeh suspected something was going on, Kermit proposed.
During their early courtship, Azadeh and Kermit had grown fond of the funky riverfront town of Hudson. A destination wedding there struck them as a perfect way to give their families and friends a chance to get to know each other over a whole weekend. Good friends of Kermit's family offered to host the reception at their beautiful property right across the river in Catskill, and the couple chose to have the ceremony right next door, at an historic property called the Beattie Powers House.
The interfaith ceremony was performed by the reverend who had married Kermit's mother and stepfather, as well as a Persian judge who officiated over an intricate Persian wedding ritual called the aghd, the elements of which were designed and arranged by Azadeh's mother and some family friends. After they were officially married, in a traditional gesture, the couple fed one another honey from their fingers.
The day was not without its surprises. A sudden rainstorm shortly before the ceremony forced a shuffling of the sofreh - a spread of food and ritual items used in the Persian ceremony - inside, and then out again when the skies cleared. Kermit recruited wedding guests to help, and says Azadeh, "It turned out to be a great unexpected wedding moment - with close friends working together to recreate the sofreh just as the rest of the guests were arriving!" In addition to friends and family, their team of professionals really helped bring the day together. "The floral team was amazing," Azadeh says. "And the photographer and videographers were great at dealing with the rain and our topsy-turvy schedule. We hadn't planned on getting video footage, but it was important to my father, and I'm glad we have it," says Azadeh. "There was so much going on behind the scenes, and it was incredibly fun to see one another's pre-wedding experiences in the video!"
