..SouthAsiaRocks..

Here's just a couple of pics I like in black & white :) Thought they were fun :)

OK, this will be the last of the wedding posts :) After the bride & groom are finished eating, then they split off into separate rooms (they aren't married yet!). This wedding hall had some great rooms that had mats all over the floor and even had AC in the rooms! It was great!!! So the groom and his friends & family went into one room and the bride and her friends & family go into another room. The next ceremony is the last ceremony - the Saat Phere. They can't do this part of the ceremony until the time that the Pundit (Hindu Priest) has previously told them. This one couldn't start until 2:30 am. So... we hung out and waited :) Many of the women slept on the mats on the floors during this time. Here's a pic of Jaya's feet :) She had on 4 toe rings on each foot :) That many toe rings are pretty uncomfortable in the kind of shoes she had on though! She was ready to take these shoes off! So this next part is really fun but can also feel reall...

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 friend...

Wow! The titles of these posts are getting long! haha! The actual wedding night is full of stuff, so I'm going to break it up into 3 posts... so this is my 3rd wedding post, but my first of the wedding night (the Shaddi). Here were are all geared up for the wedding!! Normally I would wear a saree for this type event, but pregnant with a saree is quite difficult and not something I wanted to wrangle, so I wore a fancy suit :) (I'll have some sorta better pics of it in another post). This is the most exciting and fun part of the wedding week for me :) I love it! There's so much anticipation! (you can interpret that as 'waiting' too... lots of waiting :) haha!) So, during the day the bride gets ready (as well as many other things like pujas). She spends HOURS at the beauty parlor. It's a lot of work to wear all that make-up, nail polish & jewelry and to get the outfit looking just right! OK, so while the bride is finishing getting ready, making her way ...

The 2nd day of the wedding was the Mahila Sangeet. Sangeets are done differently in different parts of the country and within different families. It's predominately done in the North. For this one, the family of the bride meet at her house. A lot of men skip out on this function. Some Sangeets are only for women, but most nowadays are for anyone. At Jaya's house, women gathered in the downstairs room and sang songs (some men were outside or around this area). Some are religious songs but a lot are folk songs too. They sing, clap and play the drum. In the upstairs room, Jaya was getting Mehindi (henna) done on her arms and legs. So what do you do if you have your hands covered in Mehendi and your hungry? Your friends feed you :) The bride gets fed a lot during her wedding time. It was HOT this night. You can tell we're all really hot! Here is the finished product! Her left arm's designs represent her husband and the right arm's designs represent her. ...

Jaya is married!!!!!!!!! OK, so I'm getting ahead of myself... This week was Jaya's wedding!!! We went to M-town to hang out and celebrate with them. South Asian weddings are very different from American weddings. One of the things that makes them different is that they are longer. They can be anywhere between 3 days and 2 weeks (I've even heard of some being longer!!). Everything started with the Sagai (Engagement Ceremony - if you want to read about Jaya's click here! ) Jaya & Deepansh were engaged for about 6 months before the wedding. Here we are dressed up for the first night of the festivities (I look funny, but I loved Aashini's smile so I had to include it) :) First we went over to Jaya's house. People (mostly family) were at the house. We hung out for a couple of hours with them before the next part. Aashini played with the neighbor kids and had fun :) This event was different to me because the Bride wasn't supposed to come. Jaya...