Indian Wedding

Wedding ceremonies are nice, but everyone knows the best part of a wedding for the guests is the party afterwards. That is unless you attend an Indian wedding as a guest of the groom.

Our friends Justin and Preeti recently tied the knot right here in Delhi. Justin is a good ol' Michigan boy while Preeti is from a state in the north of India. There are so many interesting and intricate pieces to an Indian wedding, but they are most of all a great celebration. In India, there is a wedding season that generally coincides with the cooler months. Weddings are extremely colorful affairs, and we often drive past beautiful displays of lights and flowers. In February, it was our turn to join the festivities.

We went to Justin's house first to offer our support, as you do with any Indian groom. After a small ceremony to prepare him, his support crew headed towards the wedding venue. This is where the real fun started. 

I am not sure how long Becky will allow this picture to remain on the blog. Go Blue! - Love you, Beck.

Jason helps Justin get ready.

Becky getting a Bindi. This was after about an hour of trying to figure out how to put on a Sari by watching youtube before finally giving up and asking an Indian woman to help.

We unloaded a few blocks down from wedding hall, joining what was described as the 'best wedding band' in Delhi. The job of the band and the groom's friends is to make as much noise as possible as they parade towards the rest of the wedding party.

We jumped right in as the band aimed their horns directly at my ears. Directly. Blowing as loud as they could. We jumped and twirled and hopped on the side of the road while cars careened past us, amused by the gaggle of foreigners. 

As we danced, Justin mounted his white wedding horse and colorful lanterns lined our path. We blazed the path as Justin followed behind high upon his steed.  This was one of my favorite parts as I realized about halfway through that this loud truck was following right behind Justin and his horse. It turns out that all the lanterns were connected to the truck by extension cord. 

To make things even more interesting, no wedding would be complete without a fireworks guy. Fortunately, Justin put softball teammate and p.e. teacher Rick on it. ............... So as we danced down the street to the sounds of drums, horns and honking cars, our path was lit by a smorgasbord of fireworks.

Once we made it to the facility, we followed Justin in and were greeted with flowers and blessed with color marked onto our foreheads. This is where things get a bit confusing. There was a dowry ceremony where a suitcase filled with stuff was handed over. Dowries are still an inmportant part of the culture in India. So are arranged marriages. In fact, Indians distinguish between the two types of marriage calling the other a 'love marriage'. 

Mother of the Groom and Mother of the Bride.

Finally, Preeti made her way in. A typical Indian wedding actually takes place over several days. The bride is not really even allowed out of the house once the process of preparing her for marriage has begun. And jewelry and gold are very important parts of what a bride wears. Sometimes this is rented, but only as a last resort. 

Preeti entered surrounded by people and with a ceremonial sheet held above her. She walked to Justin. Once together, the two are supposed to put a decorative cord on the shoulders of the other. The fun here is that the grooms men pick him up as high as they can to make this as difficult as possible. 

From there it is mostly picture taking, eating and dancing. This ceremony is only one small piece of the entire wedding process. There are many more ceremonies surrounding this one, usually smaller and with different parts of the family. The lesson for you here is this, if you ever get invited to an Indian wedding, go.