This Thanksgiving, I attended a very memorable event that I will never forget — my very first Indian wedding. My cousin's wedding was in Missouri, St. Louis, so we left Atlanta at 6 a.m. and reached St. Louis around 2 p.m. to a warm, wonderful welcome at my aunt's red front door. Even the dogs were there to welcome us (but I ran away cause I have the greatest fear of them). We spent the night with a delicious Thanksgiving meal, and then on Friday afternoon, we went to the hotel where the wedding would take place for two days with three events.
The first event was the bride's mehendi!
This is when the bride and all the other girls usually have henna drawn on, but everyone had their henna applied the night before, so instead, there was a lot of dancing to start the wedding weekend. The first, and probably the most memorable part of this event was the jago. This is when the bride's whole family, including cousins, aunts and uncles, basically come in dancing with gifts as a way to kind of kick off the festivities.
After the jago, the bride and groom sat right in front of the dance stage where people performed for them, from cousins and sisters to friends, as a way to congratulate them. To end the performances with a bang, the bride performed with her sisters. Then, of course, like every Bollywood Indian weddings we've seen in movies, there was some more dancing, a whole lot more dancing. An array of Indian and American songs boomed through the speakers, and everyone kept on going till the DJ finally said good night.
On Saturday, the wedding was held.
All traditions were upheld for the ceremony, including the pooja the groom does before the bride walks in, and even before that, the pooja the bride does in the morning with her father and uncles during which they give her their blessings for the marriage. In the bride's pooja, the groom is not present and in the groom's pooja, the bride is not present. However, before the pooja for the groom, one cannot forget the fun: the baraat. This is when the groom's side of the family celebrate with the groom on a horse until the end when both of the families meet and welcome each other to one another's family with garlands and aarti.
Afterwards, the groom goes to the temple area.
The start of the music marks the end of the groom's pooja, and everyone looks towards the door. First, the bridesmaids and groomsmen walk in. Then the music starts, and everyone rises to their feet because the bride strides in, looking elegant as ever in her sparkling gold and red sparkling sharara and exquisite one-of-a-kind jewelry. Everyone was definitely ooh-ing and ah-ing as she walking swiftly through the aisle. And once she made it to the end, everyone sat down and enjoyed the rest of the ceremony that brought the two well-deserving people together. Once the wedding and pictures and everything ended, we attended the reception.
In the reception, the decorations were beautiful, with strings of lights on top of us and white candles as the centerpiece for each table. Another one of my cousins was the MC and announced when speeches would be given by my parents, grandparents, friends and family started as they took their time to congratulate the newly wedding couple. And, of course, you can't end an Indian wedding without dancing! So after another performance, everyone was on the dance floor again, swaying the night away.
The next day we all bid our farewells and went home, but on the car ride home I knew it even then — this would be one wedding I would never ever forget!