Mirai Kotecha was halfway home from her first date with Mir Patel when she sent a text message to her mother. “I’ve met my husband.” Her mother replied with a joke. “When’s the wedding?” At the time, that answer remained unknowable. Four years later, the couple were celebrating their wedding on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
Patel, who works in his family’s manufacturing business, first came across Kotecha’s photograph on Instagram in 2019. Realising they shared a mutual connection, he called his friend Krishan. “I asked him how he knew her, and to my surprise, he told me she was his niece,” Patel recalls. Almost exactly a year later, Krishan called him with a question of his own–was he single?
For Kotecha, a London-born Pilates instructor and content creator, the introduction came through family. At a relative’s engagement, she asked her uncle if he knew anyone she should meet. Patel’s name came up, numbers were exchanged and they began speaking, though the pandemic delayed their first meeting by several months.
When they finally met at Sketch in Mayfair, Patel reached the restaurant 40 minutes early so she would not have to wait outside. They stayed until closing time. After several early dates, Patel’s work schedule and Kotecha’s university life made staying in touch difficult. They lost contact until Kotecha saw on social media that it was Patel’s 25th birthday and sent him a message. He responded by asking her out again.
Over the next few months they created their own routine. Kotecha travelled to Leicester, where Patel’s family is based, while Patel made frequent trips to London. He met her parents before she met his family, and officially asked her to be his girlfriend in August 2021. Weekends often revolved around restaurants they still return to today.
In 2023, the couple travelled to India together. It was Kotecha’s first visit in more than a decade, and Rajasthan became a particular favourite. Several months later, Patel began planning their return. Patel brought Kotecha back to Rajasthan a year later, this time without revealing where they were headed. The surprise ended at Amanbagh, in the Aravalli Hills, where he had spent three months planning a proposal with the hotel team.
An invitation to sunset drinks on the terrace culminated in a private rooftop lined with more than 100 candles and rose petals. As Patel led Kotecha towards the terrace overlooking the palace grounds, he leaned over and offered one final instruction. “Try and hold in your tears for the photographs,” she remembers him whispering, though neither managed it.
The trip continued through Gujarat, where Kotecha met Patel’s grandparents in Navsari, before the couple travelled onwards to Udaipur. By the time they returned to England, wedding planning had already begun.
Kotecha initially imagined marrying in Rajasthan; she had even toured Raffles Udaipur before becoming engaged. But after months of research and site visits, the couple found themselves drawn elsewhere. Perched above Turkey’s Aegean coast, Six Senses Kaplankaya offered expansive sea views and an outdoor area available for each celebration.