Indian Wedding Story

Our Indian Wedding portrait with Ganesh and Palu and two cute kids that couldn't resist having their pictures taken with us.


Krissy's mehndi, drying on her hands.


Palu's fabulously applied mehndi, showing off for the cameras.


Geo having a bite to eat at lunch on the wedding day in traditional style.


The remains of the altar after all of the ceremony traditions had been completed.


Palu and Ganesh and a priest performing the wedding ceremonies.

I have to say it was a bit anti-climatic (anyone who has seen Monsoon Wedding might know why we think this) but that's only because Geo didn't get to see any white horses. We were honored and privileged to be invited to Palu and Ganesh's wedding in Mumbai over the weekend to celebrate their marriage. We were the only non-Indians there but we felt so welcomed and everyone was so hospitable. There were plenty of people who spoke great English to visit with and help interpret some of what was going on.

The first activity was the Mehndi celebration. This was on Friday night. We arrived moments before it started, so we met up with an Indian who has lived in Connecticut for the past 40 years and he helped us get our bearings. Mostly, there was music and stories about the bride and groom, but very little of it was in English. We amused ourselves by getting our hands painted with henna. Palu (the bride) had mehndi applied on both arms and feet, I just had some put on my palms. One tradition they observed was that Ganesh's name was written in her arms somewhere and he had to find it before the wedding could actually take place. I wished him luck! There was snack service during the story-telling and dancing, and then there was a full food-court style meal service for dinner. You walked around with a huge plate to different stations and took whatever looked interesting. What fun!

Sunday was devoted entirely to the wedding celebration. Prayers began at 7 am and after a few more wedding traditions, breakfast was served. (We actually slept through this part, although originally we had intended to be there for this part--more on that later.) We arrived around 11:15, and the priests were just finishing the actual wedding part. There was an altar-type structure set up in the middle of the room where the bride and groom sat, carrying out a number of traditions. Then it was over and lunch was served. This was served to us as we sat at long tables with a banana leaf for a plate. Yummy! After lunch, there was some more entertainment. There was music sung to tell the story of the bride and groom. I'm not sure if they had professionals singing, or if the performers were all somehow related. The families are huge, so this is entirely possible. The monologues were in English but the songs were all in various Indian languages. This went on for about an hour and a half. The last song we were invited to dance to, so we got up and did a little dancing. It was fun.

Then we watched the hall get transformed again into a beautiful stage. The bride and groom stood on the stage while family after family came up to be properly received by the bride and groom and then they posed for a picture. Every guest was invited to the stage. This is also where we presented the happy couple with a small envelope stuffed with rupees (the only type of gift that makes sense at a foreign wedding). We had our picture taken and then we went to eat again, this time at another elaborate food-court style buffet. Amazing. The food was so good. I was so full I didn't eat anything except breakfast on Monday.

The weekend was quite an experience in itself, given the travel to the BIG city and our first Indian wedding. But add to this the fact that Geo had to fight off a persistent stomach bug all weekend...we had a doctor come to visit the hotel because Geo was so uncomfortable. I actually thought he might have malaria, but the doctor decided it was just a stomach bug, so he took the antibiotic and was much better within 12 hours. Thank God for antibiotics. We had already been prescribed some for cases like this, but you never know exactly how bad it has to get before you should take them. Now we know.

We didn't do much else in Mumbai because of Geo's illness, but we did get to see the Gateway of India, Marine Drive, and Chowpatty Beach...pretty much the big landmarks in town. I'll try to come up with another blog entry for that experience after I post this wedding blog!