Deepa Dhore, Thomas McGowan, and their families were planning a wedding for them in Mexico. They wanted to incorporate the many influences that had shaped the couple’s relationship: the city in which they met, New York, cultural traditions that they wanted to honor, and habits that had formed their relationship. The result was an intimate celebration at Rosewood Mayakoba, which felt personal without being overdesigned. Dhore and McGowan both live in Manhattan where she is in venture capital while he works in investment banking. “Keeping our deals apart” is how they manage to balance a shared life with demanding careers. Friends describe Dhore and McGowan as “driven and energy” and “calm, grounded and with funny one-liners”. Together, they’re “competitive in a good way,” always challenging each other but “deeply supporting through it all.” Their story began at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, with a seemingly innocuous errand. Dhore remembers that during the first week of classes, a classmate asked him to casually check if Tom was still single. “What began as a simple mission quickly became an interesting conversation. The coincidences happened later. Both had grown up in Wilton Connecticut, a small town of less than 20,000 residents, but they never met. Even their phone numbers had the same area code. After years of planning, they met in a new city. They felt “guided” by an invisible thread. The relationship began to settle down gradually. In New York their lives moved at a faster pace, but their relationship remained the same. They would order Chinese takeout every Friday, play tennis on Saturdays, and spend the occasional Sunday making TikToks on Dhore’s request. Dhore explains that “we never stopped choosing each in small, consistent, ways.” “After long workdays, all we wanted to do was unwind and see each other,” they say. In a city like Manhattan, these moments became our constant. The proposal took place in Tenerife. A walk turned spontaneously into a football match. McGowan won. Dhore, angry, walked on in silence. McGowan says, “What she didn’t realise is that I was carrying the ring the whole time.” He stopped, knelt down and proposed. “The moment was magical, but also true to us,” Dhore explains. “It was rooted in playfulness.
