A Wedding In India- Pt I

As some of you know, I have just returned after two weeks in India for a friend's wedding. It was my first time to India and it was, in many ways, a trip of a lifetime. Not only was it my first time ever in India, which can be a very overwhelming place filled with culture shock, it was an experience to see my friend get married , and it was a university reunion since Shreya (Bride), Esther and I had met in first year in undergrad, and don't get to see each other often. I want to re-cap my time there, and to share with all of you my thoughts from this trip. 

The trip can be broken down into two segments. The wedding and then a tour of some of India's famous landmarks. I spent 5 days in my friend's hometown Vadodara ( aka Baroda) before going on a weeklong tour. I'm kind of really glad we did it this way since I felt like I got to see more of India , and got to go outside of the touristy parts.  You can see the approximate locations in the map below. 

Arrival

My journey began when I met up with Esther in Frankfurt and the two of us flew into Mumbai together. I actually got somewhat "scammed" on our first day while transferring airports in Mumbai. There were these guys "helping" out with the luggage and demanding tips from unaware tourists. Since they asked me for a tip, I gave them 10 ruppees, which was apparently not enough. But in my mind, since they didn't do much in the first place, they don't deserve much of a tip.

Thankfully, we managed to make it to Shreya's house without anymore hassles after that, and good thing too because there were lots to do. One thing that I was taken back by was the number of ceremonies, prayers, activities, and gifts that had to be prepared for the wedding. It really takes a village to get married and it seemed like her whole family came to help out.  On my first day, I was mostly helping out with making some of the gifts to guests. Shreya's mom made some homemade chocolates.

They look so professionally done :)

And we were responsible for wrapping the chocolates with custom wrappers for guests. 

There were lots of gifts to be made, which Shreya's aunts and cousins helped make. I really have to say that I had a great time making the gifts and getting to know her family. They really made me feel so welcomed and even though we had a short time together, I somehow felt like I, too was a long lost cousin. 

Henna Day

Another important event was getting henna on your hands. A team of ladies came in and did such lovely designs for everyone.

This was pretty much a full day event since you couldn't touch anything until after the henna had dried and started flaking off. The longer you leave it on, the darker the colour would be the next day.  The drying process took up to 3 hours, and even after that, you were not supposed to wash your hands until the next day. Poor Shreya had to keep it on for six hours to let the colour get even darker.

The bride's lovely henna details

The bride gets extra henna on her feet

Sangeet

Before the wedding, it's customary to hold a big party known as the Sangeet. Shreya's family went all out and rented a part of the local palace as the venue. 

So grand.

They had catering outside which served fresh dosas and other Indian delicacies which were really good.

Speaking of food, I was on a vegetarian diet for my entire trip. I did sneak in some beef jerky into the country for the trip since I thought I would miss meat but surprisingly, I was not craving meat at all!

A typical meal 

I hope you've enjoyed the first part of my adventures in India. Stayed tune for the next part - the Big Day.