Believe It Or Not, There Was More Than One Wedding Friday

Kate and William spent $33 million on security. Kamran and Fereshteh had a regular City Hall guard on duty downstairs.

Kate wore ivory duchesse satin Alexander McQueen shoes with hand-embroidered lace. Fereshteh? Gold slippers from T.J. Maxx.

With the eyes the world focused on a royal spectacle of a wedding in London Friday, New Haven hosted its own affair at City Hall—dubbed a “royal” wedding by the one dignitary who happened to pass by.

The wedding of Kamran Bayegan, 63, and Fereshteh Kowssar, 64, cost nowhere near the estimated $70 million spent on Prince William and Kate’s wedding. But it was certainly no less romantic.

“We’ve known each other since we were 5 and 6 years old,” said the bride, smiling and shimmering in a knee-length gold dress. The couple met as young children growing up in Iran.

The two exchanged wedding vows, and rings, on Friday afternoon under a flower-covered archway in the atrium of New Haven’s City Hall on Church Street.

The wedding, it seems, was 60 years coming.

“Our mothers and grandfathers were friends,” Fereshteh said. “So we’ve been friends since youth.”

But life had its own twists and turns planned. “He got married and I got married. He got divorced and I got divorced. Then 30 something years later, we found each other again,” said Fereshteh, whose name means “Angel” in Persian. She’s been teaching Persian language courses at Yale University for nearly 20 years.

The pair came together again in 2003 at a concert. A Kurdish music band was playing at the Asia Society in Manhattan, and Fereshteh wanted passes to the show.

“So I looked Kamran up, I thought he could get tickets.”

He did. They’ve been together since.

Kamran, who lives in New York City and teaches computer science at the United Nations International School in Manhattan, said the two plan to continue living apart until Fereshteh retires in a few years.

“Then she will probably move to be with me in New York,” he said.

“But until then, we have weekends, holidays and summers together.”

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