Covid-19 couldn’t stop this wedding, a true LGBT love story with photos that got 112,000 reactions on Facebook – but it took Arthur Tam and Anish Bramhandkar 13 trips to say ‘I do’
Fate brought Arthur and Anish Bramhandtam together in Japan – after spending their first 4 years as a couple living 8,000 miles apart, they got married while overlooking the Statue of Liberty – and in stylish pastel outfits
It was springtime in 2015, and the cherry blossoms were flowering in Kyoto when Arthur Bramhandtam (né Tam), now 35, a journalist and swimwear designer from California who was living in Hong Kong, and Anish Bramhandtam (né Bramhandkar), now 31, a software development manager living in New York City, crossed paths as they strolled through the scarlet torii gates near the Fushimi Inari shrine.
“I remember Anish gliding past me down the steps”, Arthur says. “I thought he was cute.”
“That is the only time he could describe me as gliding”, Anish deadpans. “I don’t know what he was into – I was wearing a rain poncho.”
The couple would eventually get married in a locked down New York City ceremony in 2020, with their wedding photos attracting 112,000 reactions and 4,400 comments on the Subtle Asian Traits Facebook Page. But in 2015 they had yet to go on their first date.
We were this queer, interracial couple looking over the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of immigration. It was really nice
After that first encounter, Arthur pulled up a dating app and swiped until he spotted Anish to confirm he was gay before sending him a message. But Arthur’s choice of profile photos – glamorous, outrageous and modelling tiny swim shorts – initially threw Anish.
“I just ignored him at first; I thought he was a bot or a catfish”, Anish says.
“He thought I was too hot for him”, Arthur chimes in.
Anish, who grew up in the small town of Vestal, near Binghamton, New York, had been single for a year when he met Arthur. “I’d not met anybody successfully in Japan at that point”, he says. “Everyone only wanted to talk to my white best friend, with whom I was travelling.”
