Sarika and Anshul's Wedding Extravaganza

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Sarika and Anshul's Wedding Extravaganza

 Asia » India » Bangalore By jelibeli101
June 28th 2007
jzdNavneet, the training manager at GK, invited me to his sister's wedding. So I accepted the invitation and bought myself a Mysore silk sari.

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Photos

Sari Wrapping
I tried putting the sari on myself. Turns out its a little bit harder than I though.

Practicing
Tanuja agreed to help me put it on.

Sarika weds Ashok
Every wedding features one of the huge colorful signs made of flower.

New Friends at Breakfast
Navneet introduced me to all his cousins and aunties and uncles and I hung out with them all day. This is us in the reception hall waiting for breakfest.

Altar
This is the altar pre-ceremony.

Navneet's Cousins Awaiting the Groom and his Party
The entire bride's side gets to the temple first and awaits the arrival of the groom. Rumor had it the party was near by so everyone ran outside and music started playing.

The cousins
These are some of Navneet's female cousins.

Hiding behind the curtain
The groom stands behind a sheet while he waits for the bride to come.

Throwing Rice at Eachother
The bride and groom throw rice over the sheet at each other.

Groom and his Parents
The parents come up to the altar for some mantras. His family is from Lucknow, in the north. All of the saris they wore were super gaudy and glittery.

Puja's Special Ingredients
These are all the things the priest uses while saying the mantras and blessing the couple. Mostly coconuts, rices, bananas, flowers and mints.

Flower Necklace
They each have to put the necklace on the other person. But each of them tries to avoid it so its like a little game.

Blessed Tray
This tray is brought around to all the guests and every one blesses it by touching the coconut and bowing their head.

Bride and her Parents
They are Navneet's parents. They were so nice and gentle and funny.

Lunch!
We ate lunch on a banana leaf. I dont even know what I ate but it was too much.

Remains
These are the leftovers from the ceremony.

Happy Couple
Every guest goes and takes a picture with the couple at the end.

Shoe Tradition
The bride's side takes the groom's shoes and hides them. After the ceremony he has to bargain with them to get them back.

Ashok's Cousin Bargaining
After all the ceremonies, Anshul wanted his shoes back. But he had to bargain. His cousin tried helping him out. You can see Anshul's hat (dont know the name) and Sarika.

$$$
Anshul prepares to hand over 5,005 Rupees to Sarika's female family members. You never give in increments of 100 because it's considered bad luck.

Frenzied Exchange
Both sides thought they were going to be cheated so everybody was grabbing at the money and the shoes. It got kind of messy.

Aunty
Aunty lives on the first floor of Vikash's building. I met her on my first day and told her I really wanted a sari and she got so excited so I had to go show her... she freaked out and made us come in for tea. and more tea.