Engaged for a day!

This past week my roommate and I went up to a northern state for our neighbor's wedding. (Remember, the one we gave the "bachelorette party" for?) Before this, I had been to two weddings in South Asia... one for a Muslim couple and the other a Christian couple... but this was my first time attending a Hindu wedding! It was filled with MANY rituals and traditions. I'm not sure what they all meant, and I know I probably missed half of them... but I wanted share with you a little of what I learned and experienced!

On Wednesday, we traveled by train for 2 and a half hours and then 1 more by car. Once we arrived in the small town, we checked in to the hotel and got settled in. We ate breakfast around noon and then had lunch two hours later with the bride's family. Our food and stay at the hotel were all paid for by the bride's family. This is what they see as their duty when friends and relatives come for weddings. The first evening was the engagement ceremony... 

The party started at 8 p.m. and was held at a banquet hall in the hotel. The groom was already there along with family and friends, and we waited -  snacking on veg-only appetizers and sipping vanilla milkshakes - as we waited for the bride to make her entrance....

Some time later, the bride entered with her entourage :) She looked very beautiful! She isn't looking up and smiling very big because it's tradition for the bride to be "shy."

Even though the bride and groom have know each other for a few years and were originally friends, their marriage is considered arranged because they went through their parents and had it approved first. They've been "engaged" since January (and actually, since the groom lives in America, the bride hasn't seen her fiance since then, except for video chatting), but they weren't officially engaged until this ceremony... making their engagement a total of one day! In a traditional arranged marriage, this engagement ceremony would serve as the first meeting of the future bride and groom.

The bride and groom! See the dot on the groom's forehead?  That was applied by the bride's family...

The groom's family gives gifts to the bride to show their acceptance into her family.... Also, both families exchange baskets of sweets, fruits and dry fruits.

More gifts being given... and look at all the cameramen! It was quite the production!

Since we weren't with the groom's side, we couldn't sit in the front, so we didn't get to see everything that was going on. Also, it isn't like a wedding/ceremony in America where everyone sits quietly and watches. While everything was happening, some people were watching, but others were walking around, talking, going outside, eating... and the little boys? Well, they were running around and playing like little boys do!

 After gifts were given, the couple exchanged gold rings - the gold representing a long married life... Something might have been said during this time, but I'm not really sure!

exchanging rings

After the exchanging of the rings, family members could go up to the couple to congratulate them and give gifts (mostly money gifts)... and have their picture taken with them!

There was a DJ playing music the entire time... After all the congratulations and picture taking, some of the family and friends danced for a little while. The bride and groom even joined them for part of a song! We didn't get in on that unfortunately. Our south asian dance moves aren't quite up to par. So, since we didn't dance, we ate dinner and enjoyed the show. :)

When the dancing died down, the family finally had a chance to eat... By now it was after 10 p.m... and of course the cameramen were capturing every moment!

While they ate we decided to make our exit and get some rest for the wedding day!! 

In case you were wondering what Erin and I wore... here you go! :)

These are "fancy suits" and were gifts from the bride

Here we are with one of the bride's hometown friends - we were able to have lots of good conversations with her, so that was something we were very excited about!

Bangles are worn with any nice South Asian outfit... All Erin and I had to do was go to a bangle shop, show them our outfits and Voilà! They put these together for us and they matched perfectly!