Skip to main content

Shaadi Part 2 - Wedding Part 3b


This next part is my personal favorite. After the bride & groom finish their individual ceremonies, then they get to see each other. It wasn't always like that. Years ago, the bride didn't see the groom until the last ceremony (Saat Phere - where they are officially considered married - that's in the next post). Most marriages in our country are arranged marriages (I know, I've promised to write all about that - I will, I promise :)). Some brides get to see their husbands for the first time at this part of the wedding! Jaya's was an arranged marriage, but after her Engagement Ceremony she was allowed to date Deepansh during that time. They went on a date about once a month and got to call each other daily. It's a really neat time. Anyway, I'll write more about that when I write about arranged marriages :)

So, this next part is when the bride goes to meet the groom. The pic below you can see us walking to meet him. The bride's close friends walk with her to meet him. We all held her skirt up so that she could walk and carried her flowers (mala). Here we are walking from the ceremony room through the eating room to get to the main hall where Deepansh is.
Here we are in the main room. They have photographers and videographers that have HUGE crazy lights set up (which is why half of my pics have crazy light) :)
OK, so here's my favorite part :) It's similar to when the bride walks down the aisle at a Western wedding but more exciting. Here she is approaching Deepansh.
They were so cute :) He was so excited to see her. They hadn't seen each other in over an month, so that made it more exciting :) It was so cute :)
Weddings here really are a celebration! When the bride meets the groom on stage all of the friends and family are crowding all around each other and cheering! You can see the friends and how excited they are in the pic below. Its' so cool! Everyone is excited and cheering with them :) This wedding had more excitement than any other wedding I'd been to before. It was really fun!
This next part I don't have great pictures of. If you want to be near the bride or groom you kinda have to push your way there... with this big pregnant belly, I wasn't about to do that, so you'll just have to see the pics like this :) This part is when the bride puts a mala (flower lei-type necklace) around the grooms neck. When she does this everyone cheers!!!
Here they are after Jaya put the mala on his neck :) When this part happens, everyone claps and cheers! It's so fun!
Here's a pic of Adam & Mayank (Jaya's brother).
Before the mala (and even during the groom's ceremonies), guys (groom's friends) are dancing. They stop when Jaya enters but start up again after the Mala time. It's so funny because most of the time (and the entire time this wedding), it's only guys dancing with each other. It's pretty hilarious at times.... for me it's hilarious the whole time! They are quite excited dancers!
Everyone leaves the stage after the mala part. Here are the bride and groom!!! She's not smiling. The bride isn't supposed to smile on the wedding day because she's leaving her family.
Then, for the next hour+ everyone gets their pictures with the bride and groom. They take a TON of pictures! It's kinda nice for them that they don't traditionally smile in pictures because their smiling muscles would be REALLY tired!!!
I did catch a little bit of a smile though :) It was hard for her not to smile at times though :) Very cute :)
So, after all of the pictures, most everyone leaves except for close friends and family. It's about 12:30 or 1:00 am at this time. This is the time when the bride and groom get to eat :) You'd think that would be a nice relaxing time, but I definitely wouldn't call it that :) First they both feed each other a bite of food :)
THEN, the close friends and family feed them the rest of their food. They constantly have someone shoving some kind of food in their face. They can't eat themselves, they just have to have everyone feed them. I wouldn't like that very much.
There are a few traditions associated with this though that are fun. The bride's friends try to give the groom "trick" foods. I even got suckered into doing this. They gave him big chili peppers in his bites and I gave him a bite of ice cream with a chili pepper in it. haha! Poor groom. He gets picked on a lot that night (more to come in the next post).
This part is a lot more relaxing. Most of the bride's friends and family change clothes before this time (out of uncomfortable sarees and into more comfortable suits). It's fun :)
OK, so one more post to go for the actual wedding ceremonies :) Weddings are fun :)

Comments

Emily said…
Wow great post! I didn't know that about the trick food, that's funny. Did you get a picture of you trying to feed him? That is really sweet with them all excited for the two!
P.S. I'm thinking Mala would be a nice name for Pop Rock if she's a girl. :)
Laura said…
Aw, I kinda miss Indian weddings. So much fun! That's pretty cool that the bride and groom got to date and were actually excited to see each other at the marriage.
Christine said…
this is so intense! Everything is really beautiful!
Anonymous said…
andthe Annuity Calculator cologne Bariatric Surgery giorigio Electric Blankets vargo Furnace Filters dipolegi Vending Machines conveyance Kitchen Cabinets mainland Slipcovers senator

Popular posts from this blog

Campa Cola & Exploring :)

Today we had some things to do in the Central part of our city, so while we were there, we decided to take on some adventures :) Adventure #1 - the underground market. This market is pretty crazy. It's actually underground and has electronics & clothes mostly. They sell things pretty cheap, so it's an interesting place to go. Today we got an 64 Gig flash drive/pen drive for about $5. Crazy hunh? Here's Adam and Aashini in one of the stores. They're all REALLY small stores - about 10x10 feet I would guess (but I'm really bad at guessing that sort of stuff :)) We go here a lot to get things, so I guess it's not a new adventure, but an adventure nonetheless. Before the next part of our adventure (the real part of our adventure) we stopped for lunch. Aashini will always eat at McDonalds, so that's where we went :) They just started selling chicken nuggets here at McDonalds, so it's super easy to get her to eat there :) This McDonald's had high chair

Starbucks!

 Starbucks opened in our city last night!!  I'm not a huge coffee drinker... but I was excited about the opening!!  (I think I like Starbucks because of all the green! haha!... Aashini and Diya think the mermaid on the logo looks like me... haha! Maybe it's the weird wavy hair :)... not sure :) ) Anyway, we got there and the line was SUPER long!  The wait time was about 45 minutes!!!  There were so many people there!!!  I tried to get a pic of all the people... (that's why this picture is at an annoying angle... I was trying to get it all in in between the columns :))    Here's Aashini doing a jumping picture!!  The girls tried to do a jumping picture :) haha!  haha!  They had a few spills along the way :)  I never got them both jumping :)  Stuff for sale....  OK, one more because I think they are cute :) haha!  People waiting in line :) Some friends that made it inside! :)  We decided not to wait in line... So we'll

Funny Things - Age Appropriate?

Just wondering... but who thought that putting a HUGE Super scary picture right over the playground was a good idea??  hahahaha!!!  My kids were terrified! :) haha!