An All-Nighter Indian Wedding!

We were all invited to our first Indian wedding here, of course I was super excited to go and so was everyone else! We all got dressed up in our sarees and then Durga and Sailaja helped us get super fancy by putting fancy bindis on our foreheads, flowers in our hair, and of course lending us beautiful necklaces, earrings, and bangles to wear!  We arrived around 8:00 p.m., we first went into the main building to see the bride and groom.  The inside was set up with rows of chairs all facing a very decorated stage where the bride and groom were standing taking pictures.  We got to go up on the stage to meet them and congratulate them, and their photographers took pictures of us with them.  

Here was the outside entrance.

She was so pretty!

After that we went to the other section of the party which was outside next to the building.  This was where everyone was getting food and visiting in a big open marble courtyard.  They had tons of food stations all along the sides of the courtyard with such a huge variety of foods!  We went around and visited each station completely filling our plates with delicious north Indian food.  It was delightful!  It all tasted so good, and the best part was the dessert table because it had ICE CREAM!!!  Yep, we loved that part the most; there was no keeping track of how many times we went back to that table!  

All of us with our Guru!

Seriously, this food was SO good!

While we were trying to eat our dinner, there were SO many people who would come over and just stare at us haha and many who would ask to take pictures with us.  One of our Telugu teachers had invited us to the wedding so we found her during dinner to ask her when the actual marriage ceremony would be.  She told us that the decided time for the actual marriage was at 3:17 a.m.!!!  This was the auspicious time chosen by the priests, I think this is determined using their horoscopes and something about the alignment of the stars… Anyways, basically we had to entertain ourselves until 3 a.m.  Most people don’t even stay for this part, but it’s more of just family members who stay the whole night through.  We walked around and did some exploring while most of the other people there disappeared to “take rest” till the ceremony.  It was such an interesting experience because there’s so many different rituals and things that they do for the wedding.  Once it began, the bride and groom started separated and weren’t allowed to see each other.  We got to watch the priest do some sort of ritual with the bride and her parents, while the groom was across the room doing something similar.  

Exploring on the roof, it was really pretty!

The set up for the bride's ritual.

The groom's ritual before his bride joins him.

Then the bride was carried in a basket up to the stage where the groom was and they sat across each other with a sheet in between them so that they still couldn’t see each other.  

Separated by a curtain so they can't see each other till the right time.

Yay! Time to throw some rice!

These people know how to party I guess!

After another long ritual they were able to see each other and then the priests and family members up on the stage started throwing rice on their heads.  We went up on the stage with everyone else and got to take turns throwing rice on their heads which was lots of fun!  The ceremony continued with nonstop chanting and when 5 a.m. rolled around some of us decided to go back home and go to bed!  Two of the other girls decided to stay till the end; they ended up leaving at 7 a.m. and I guess by that time it still hadn’t ended!  Crazy!!!  It was a really fun experience, and I’m so glad that we actually got to see an Indian wedding while we are here!