Abhishek weds Pinks

I attended my first Indian wedding last week. A business associate of Erik's invited a few of the crew to his wedding. The ceremony was on a Wednesday, starting at 9:30am, so we decided I would attend the daytime celebration and Erik would attend the night time receptions.


Entryway to the banquet halls just for this wedding


Friends Jon and Cecile all dressed up for the festivities

First impression: WOW! I had never seen so many flowers in one place. Flowers everywhere - huge garlands of flowers draping everything, flowers on every surface, and the stage where the ceremony took place is completely indescribable. There are pictures but they in no way do it justice.

When we walked in we weren't quite sure what to do... is there a groom's side? bride's side? Do women and men sit together or separate? But soon a friendly gentlemen told us to sit anywhere.


They estimated 2,000 guests

We watched as the groom, Abhishek, did some rituals with a Hindu priest. The bride was not introduced yet. Soon we were asked to go have breakfast and we were escorted into a large banquet hall where we sat down in front of large banana leaves. We were shown to wash our leaves with bottled water. Then server after server put piles of food on our leaves. We enjoyed the experience of an authentic celebratory Indian breakfast.

Then we went back into the wedding hall where eventually the bride was introduced. At this time Abishek had a cloth held up in front of his eyes so he could not see his bride. She did some ritualistic circling around her new groom and finally settled in front of the cloth. The couple threw rose pedals at each other over the cloth for a few minutes and then the cloth was taken down and they could see each other.




Bride and groom sitting, family and friends are throwing turmeric covered rice at them


The inlaws had their own small ceremony




We were given turmeric rice on several occasions to throw at the couple, my hand was stained yellow at the end of the day




About two hours after our HUGE breakfast, we were escorted into the banquet hall again for a HUGE lunch.


Again, served on banana leaves and eaten with your right hand.


On exiting we were given a coconut, a rose, a puja, and some sugar crystals.
So fun.
All the best to Abhishek and Pinks!
Thanks for having us!