“After 20 years together, getting married did not feel like a new beginning,” says Prayag Menon. “It felt like giving a name to a life that had already been lived,” Porus Vimadalal chimes in. For the stylist and photographer duo, that distinction feels very important. Popular culture tends to frame marriage as a starting line—a dramatic turning point after which everything changes. Their story unfolds differently because their wedding did not transform the relationship so much as acknowledge what had long existed.
And when the occasion arrived, they chose one of love’s most enduring rituals to mark it: a pair of bespoke wedding bands set with natural diamonds. For generations, rings have signified devotion, continuity, and the promise of a shared future. What has changed is who gets to participate in that tradition. This Pride Month, their story offers a reminder that while social conventions continue to evolve, the desire to commemorate commitment with something lasting remains profoundly human.
The rings were created by Mumbai’s K Wadia & Co Jewellers, a heritage house founded in 1902 whose piece are cherished across generations. Designed by Viola Wadia, who has since become a close friend of the couple, the natural-diamond-studded pieces were conceived with a deceptively simple brief. “We both wanted something that we could wear every day but with a certain gravity to it,” Menon says. “Timeless is an overused word, but that was exactly what we were after. We also wanted engagement rings that felt special every time we put them on—beautiful, striking pieces we would never tire of wearing.”
Beauty, however, was only part of the equation. The couple were equally drawn to the idea of continuity, imagining the rings moving through future generations and acquiring new significance with each wearer. “We wanted pieces that could travel beyond us, that would one day belong to someone we love even more than we love each other. It is a wonderful feeling, to imagine that these rings will gather stories long after us,” Vimadalal adds.
It is perhaps fitting that natural diamonds became part of that vision. Formed deep within the earth over immense periods of time, they carry within them a sense of permanence that few materials can rival, making them particularly resonant symbols for a relationship measured in more than just a grand gesture.
That perspective extends to Menon and Vimadalal’s wedding ceremony. During a holiday in New York City in the summer of 2016, the couple made an impromptu decision to get married. A handful of close friends joined them at City Hall for the court signing before everyone gathered for an effortlessly stylish lunch: ramen and champagne. “That was our wedding,” says Menon. There is something wonderfully unembellished about that—no elaborate production, no carefully choreographed spectacle.
“Some of our favourite memories in life are attached to ordinary meals and unremarkable afternoons. Just a table full of people you love. It seemed fitting that our wedding should belong to that part of life as well,” says Vimadalal. Their friends celebrated alongside them from the beginning. Acceptance arrived through different pathways within their families. Vimadalal’s family embraced the relationship from the outset. Menon’s parents required a little longer. “Time, as it turns out, can be a patient teacher,” Menon reflects. “People arrive at love by different roads; some simply take longer.”
When the conversation turns towards endurance, their perspective feels refreshingly unsentimental. Two decades together have transformed the concept from something abstract to something lived. “Perhaps permanence is not something we think about very often anymore. It lives in the accumulation of ordinary days.” The metaphor they return to is geological rather than romantic. “There is something beautiful about natural diamonds. They are formed by the earth, altered by pressure and time, and they are literally striking to behold. We feel love is a lot like that,” says Menon. It is an observation that feels particularly apt. Both natural diamonds and long relationships resist instant gratification. They are shaped gradually, through patience, resilience, and the passage of time. The result is something that carries the imprint of its journey.
For many queer people, rituals such as wedding bands, anniversaries, and public declarations of commitment often felt distant or inaccessible. There is a quiet emotional resonance in reclaiming those symbols and recognising that they belong here. The promise represented by their rings extends far beyond a single ceremony. “Cooking together. Making a beautiful home. Giving each other the space to change and grow. Sitting in silence without needing to fill it,” Vimadalal reflects. “To keep choosing each other but also to keep choosing the life we have built. The larger promises are easy; it is the smaller ones that seem to matter more,” Menon adds.
Below, the couple shares what’s next on their natural diamond wishlist:
