A Day in the Life of an Indian Wedding

(This weekend, my cousin Gaurav got married!  Keep in mind, this post is only about the wedding day...this does not include all the other functions of the wedding festivities!  Be on the look out for a post soon about all the functions.)

2:00pm - Went over to my aunt's home to hang out (Gaurav, the one who got married, is her son).  I played with Gaurav's older brother's kids, ages 2 years and 4 months, and had fun.

3:00pm - A local beautician came to get the women in the family ready.  I had my hair straightened and wore a sari for the first time!

My first time wearing a sari!

5:30pm - My aunt, uncle and I went to Biji's home to show her our wedding attire and pay our respects before going to the wedding.  We were supposed to leave at 5, but of course that means 5:30 in Indian Standard time

7:00pm - Delhi is a big city and the wedding hall was on the other side of the city, so finally we reached at 7.  But of course, no one was there yet.

8:00pm - Finally the groom shows up and people in our family (from the groom's side) begin to show up.  We all start to congregate outside ~100 yards away from the wedding hall.  The girl's family is already at the hall, and it is customary for the boy's family to meet them there seperately.

8:30pm - The punditji (the priest) does some rituals to the groom, like puts a turban on him and hangs a small curtain of beads front of of his face (so he doesn't see the bride).  Different family members have different roles to help him in the rituals.  As his cousin sister, I got to put a scarf around his neck.

Gaurav (in the white) waiting for the ceremony to begin before the Bharat

9:00pm - Gaurav gets on a horse decorated in beautiful wedding garb and there is a band all around us ready to play music.  We are all part of the Bharat - this is the special name for the boy's side of the family when going to the wedding place.  As the cousin sister, I had to feed the horse.  Lovely.

Gaurav, chilling on his horse while we are all dancing around him

Our whole family having fun dancing in the Bharat!

10:30pm - After a crazy amount of dancing in the Bharat, we finally get to the wedding place.  We can't go in though until the brother of the bride comes out and allows the groom to go in.  So after that, in we go!  There is a ceremony called the "Milni" were each family member of each side have to meet each other and give the other person a garland of flowers (parents meet parents, aunts meet aunts, uncles meet uncles, etc.).

The wedding area

12:00am - After meeting everyone at the wedding, smiling for pictures, etc., the bride and the groom can start to think about eating.  Note: For Indian weddings, 300 people is considered "small."

1:00am - Most of the guests have eaten and left, but now the actual wedding ceremony is about to begin.  Us few family members (maybe 50 people) who are left, pulled up chairs to watch the ceremony.

1:30am - Of course, everything starts late, so finally the ceremony started at 1:30am.  Both sets of parents and the bride and groom had to sit around a fire and do the appropriate rituals with the priest.  At the end of the ceremony, they have to walk around the fire 7 times (called the seven feras).  Throughout the ceremony, different family members had different roles to play.  For instance, as the sister, I got to tie a coin in Gaurav's scarf and a flower in Kinshuk's shawl, then I had to tie them together.  This way, they were connected as they walked around the fire.

The actual wedding ceremony place (took place in the wee hours of the morning)

3:00am - Finally the ceremony is done, but there are more rituals to come!  It is customary for the girl's side cousins to steal the groom's shoes.  At the end of the wedding, those cousins go to the groom and demand money in exchange for his shoes back.  Another ritual is when everyone leaves the wedding hall, the girl has to 'say goodbye' to her mother and father, and throw puffed rice behind her as she walks away.  This ritual came from the olden days when the girl left her family after marriage to go live with her husband's family (which still happens now adays)

4:00am - I get home, take out the 50 bazillion safety pins that were used to tie up my sari, and collapse into bed.