For more than two decades, Srinu and I have photographed South Asian, Indian-American, multicultural and fusion weddings.
And somewhere along the way, I realized something.
The wedding was never the whole story.
It was actually the beginning of a much bigger one.
Because behind the beautiful clothes, ceremonies, traditions, families, photographs and celebrations are two people trying to build a life together.
And sometimes that gets complicated.
There are parents.
In-laws.
Cultural expectations.
Religion and faith.
Money.
Careers.
Children.
Traditions.
Gender expectations.
Aging parents.
Family obligations.
Immigration stories.
Different generations with very different ideas about what marriage, respect, success and family are supposed to look like.
And then there is the question so many of us eventually have to answer:
How do we honor where we came from while still creating a life that actually feels like our own?
That question is a big part of why SAWL — South Asian Wedded Life exists.
So, What Is SAWL?
SAWL stands for South Asian Wedded Life.
It is a podcast, growing community and evolving resource created for conversations about what happens when marriage, family, culture, identity and everyday life all meet.
And I want to say something right up front:
We are still building it.
The website is being refined.
The content is being refined.
The format is evolving.
I am learning what conversations people need most and where SAWL can be the most useful.
There will probably be things that change along the way.
I’m okay with that.
Because I would rather start having these conversations now than wait until every page, graphic, sentence and idea feels absolutely perfect.
You can find the growing SAWL community at SAWLsociety.com, and you can watch the SAWL Podcast on YouTube at @amyregeti.
The podcast is also being distributed wherever you normally listen to podcasts.
But before I ask you to follow it, I want you to understand why I care so much about building it.
The Wedding Industry Talks a Lot About Getting Married. I Want to Talk About Being Married.
We spend an enormous amount of time preparing people for weddings.
How to choose a venue.
What to wear.
Who should photograph it.
How the ceremony works.
What the timeline should look like.
Who sits where.
Which traditions should be included.
How much everything costs.
And then the wedding happens.
Everyone goes home.
The clothes get packed away.
The photographs eventually arrive.
And two families and two individuals are left figuring out what comes next.
That part fascinates me.
Because wedded life is where culture becomes real.
It is one thing to incorporate two cultures into a wedding ceremony.
It is another thing entirely to incorporate them into a marriage.
Who gets which holidays?
What traditions will you keep?
How involved should parents be?
What happens when your spouse and your family disagree?
What does respecting your parents actually mean once you’re married?
Where does obligation end and resentment begin?
How do you raise children between cultures?
What happens when your children don’t feel connected to traditions that meant everything to their grandparents?
What happens when expectations surrounding careers, money, caregiving or gender roles don’t fit the marriage you’re trying to build?
What happens when saying no to someone you love feels like disrespect?
These aren’t wedding questions.
They’re life questions.
And they are exactly the kinds of conversations I want SAWL to make room for.
SAWL Is Bigger Than South Asian Weddings
Our world began with weddings because weddings are what Srinu and I have spent much of our professional lives documenting.
But SAWL isn’t simply another South Asian wedding podcast.
And it isn’t intended only for engaged couples.
It is for people navigating the intersection of marriage, family, culture and identity.
That includes South Asian couples.
Indian-American couples.
Intercultural and interracial marriages.
Interfaith couples.
First-generation and second-generation families.
Children of immigrants.
Parents raising children between cultures.
People navigating relationships with parents and in-laws.
Couples trying to decide which traditions they want to preserve.
And people who deeply love their families while also realizing that loving your family does not mean you will always agree with them.
Some of these conversations are uniquely South Asian.
Others are incredibly universal.
That has already become one of the most interesting things about SAWL.
You can hear a conversation rooted in a South Asian family experience and suddenly realize:
Wait. My family does this too.
Exactly.
The Five Pillars of SAWL
As I’ve been refining SAWL, I’ve realized that almost every conversation comes back to five areas:
Belonging
Where do I fit?
Within my family.
Within my culture.
Within my marriage.
Within America.
Within the community I inherited and the life I’m building.
Belonging becomes especially complicated when you grow up between cultures or marry into another one.
Marriage
Not simply weddings.
Marriage.
Partnership.
Communication.
Boundaries.
Intimacy.
Parenting.
Money.
Responsibilities.
In-laws.
And the thousands of little decisions that determine whether two people are actually building a life together or simply responding to everyone else’s expectations.
Culture
The beautiful parts.
The complicated parts.
The traditions we desperately want to preserve.
And occasionally, the traditions or expectations we need to examine.
Culture shouldn’t automatically be treated as something restrictive.
It also shouldn’t automatically be treated as something beyond questioning.
Both conversations can exist at the same time.
Legacy
What are we passing down?
Not simply jewelry, photographs or recipes.
What beliefs are we passing down?
What family stories?
What expectations?
What traditions?
What wounds?
What strengths?
And what will our children remember about the culture and family we gave them?
Living Well
Because eventually all of this has to work in real life.
Careers.
Money.
Homes.
Health.
Parenting.
Friendships.
Aging.
Caregiving.
Changing relationships.
And figuring out how to create a meaningful life while carrying all the identities and responsibilities that come with it.
Those five pillars — Belonging, Marriage, Culture, Legacy and Living Well — give SAWL a framework.
But the conversations inside them can go almost anywhere.
Some Conversations Might Be Uncomfortable
That’s intentional.
I don’t want SAWL to exist simply to tell everyone what they already believe.
I also don’t want it to become a place where South Asian culture, parents, in-laws or previous generations are constantly criticized.
That’s far too easy.
And frankly, it isn’t particularly useful.
Immigrant families have extraordinary stories of sacrifice.
Parents made decisions based on the world they understood.
Traditions can provide belonging, identity and stability.
Community can be incredibly powerful.
But loving something doesn’t mean we aren’t allowed to examine it.
We can ask:
When does respect become obedience?
Can you be a good son or daughter and still have boundaries?
What happens to culture after the immigrant generation is gone?
How much influence should parents have over an adult child’s marriage?
What happens when family approval becomes more important than your spouse?
Who is responsible for financially supporting parents or siblings?
What traditions should we preserve for our children?
Are we doing something because it matters to us—or because we’re afraid of what people will say?
Those are the conversations I want.
Not rage bait.
Not parent bashing.
Not culture bashing.
Not pretending everything is perfect either.
Something much more thoughtful lives in the middle.
Why I’m the One Having These Conversations
I’m not approaching SAWL as an academic studying South Asian families from the outside.
I’m also not pretending that my experience represents everyone else’s.
It doesn’t.
I’m a white American woman who married a South Indian Telugu man.
Srinu and I have spent almost three decades building a marriage and raising five children while navigating two cultures, different family expectations, traditions, marriage, parenting and all the things that come with building a multicultural family.
Professionally, we have also spent more than twenty years inside South Asian and multicultural weddings.
And when you photograph families for that long, you notice things.
You see generations interacting.
You see what traditions mean to people.
You see parents letting go.
You see grandparents trying to preserve something.
You see couples trying to make room for both families.
You see culture changing in real time.
And I became increasingly interested in what happens after everyone leaves the wedding.
How do these couples actually build their lives?
How do their families evolve?
What happens when children arrive?
What happens when parents age?
What gets preserved?
What changes?
What should change?
Those are conversations I want to explore—not because I have every answer, but because I think they’re worth talking about.
SAWL Is Also About Listening
One of the most important parts of this project is something I hope never changes:
I don’t want SAWL to become a microphone where I simply tell everyone what I think.
I want it to become a conversation.
I want to hear from people living these experiences.
South Asians.
Spouses who married into South Asian families.
Parents.
Adult children.
Couples.
People navigating intercultural marriages.
People who adore their traditions.
People who struggle with parts of them.
People raising children between worlds.
People wondering how much responsibility they have toward their parents.
People trying to set boundaries without destroying relationships.
People trying to preserve culture without making their children feel trapped by it.
There is enormous value in hearing how other families navigate these things.
And sometimes simply realizing someone else is dealing with this too changes everything.
If You Find SAWL Now, You’re Finding It at the Beginning
That matters to me.
Because I don’t want to pretend this is a polished media company that appeared overnight.
It isn’t.
It’s being built.
There are already more than 70 conversations on my YouTube channel touching South Asian weddings, families, culture, marriage and everything surrounding them.
Now I’m taking what I’ve learned from those conversations and intentionally moving SAWL deeper.
Beyond the wedding.
Into the marriage.
Into the family.
Into identity.
Into belonging.
Into legacy.
Into real life.
The website will continue changing.
The podcast will continue evolving.
The community will continue taking shape.
And I’m sure I’ll learn things along the way that change how I approach certain conversations.
That’s part of building something meaningful.
Here’s Where I Need Your Help
If you’ve read this far and thought, I know exactly what she’s talking about, then you’re probably one of the people I’m building SAWL for.
And right now, the biggest thing you can do is incredibly simple.
Support it.
Watch an episode.
Subscribe to the YouTube channel.
Listen to the podcast.
Share an episode with someone who needs the conversation.
Comment.
Join the conversation.
Send me a question.
Tell me what we’re missing.
Tell me about the conversation happening inside your family that nobody seems willing to have publicly.
And most importantly, help other people find us.
Because algorithms don’t know what we’re trying to build yet.
People do.
Every subscription, comment, share and recommendation helps tell these platforms that these conversations matter and helps SAWL reach another person who may have been searching for exactly this kind of community.
Find SAWL — South Asian Wedded Life
Visit the growing SAWL community and website at:
Watch and subscribe to the SAWL — South Asian Wedded Life Podcast on YouTube:
And search South Asian Wedded Life or SAWL Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.
We’re still building.
We’re still refining.
We’re still learning.
But we’re here.
And I have a feeling there are a lot more people looking for these conversations than any of us realize.
So if you’re navigating marriage, family, culture, identity, belonging, traditions, in-laws, immigrant family expectations, parenting between cultures or simply trying to figure out how to honor where you came from while creating a life that feels authentically yours—
welcome to SAWL.
There’s a lot we need to talk about.
— Amy Regeti
SAWL — South Asian Wedded Life
