chronicles of a stay at home!: Real Weddings..... My Wedding Part Two!

So, part two of my wedding!!! how exciting!!

Basically we had two ceremonies, since my husband is a Sikh and i'm a Hindu.... we had the Sikh ceremony in the day and the Hindu one at night. I loved it since i got to wear two wedding outfits!!! yay!!

So this is my husband....on his way to the wedding venue. The Sikh wedding takes place in the Gurudwara, the Sikh temple. Doesn't he look handsome!!!

This is the "Baraat" that is the boys side. Its so much fun... they have this band playing fun music and they dance all the way to the venue.... :) i missed it damn!!

This is me getting ready for the wedding! I was a very calm relaxed bride to be honest.... This was my most favorite look... my friend had done my hair and make up and it was just stunning!!!!

The Sikh wedding ceremony is called "Anand Karaj" which translates to "Blissful Union" Its a very simple and peaceful ceremony.

The couple takes four pheras or rounds around the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, while the priest explains their duties as a married couple. These are called Lavan Pheras as the priest reads out the Lavan Hymn by Guru Ram Das. The four stanza of the hymn describes the progression of love between a husband and wife which is analogous to that between the soul (bride) and God (the husband). For more information on this ceremony you must visit http://www.sikhs.org/wedding/ they have explained it so well.

There is something about the silence in the Gurudwara along with the meditative rhythmic chanting of the priests that just touched me.... suddenly i realized it was happening... i was getting married to this incredible boy!! It really was one of those moments when you feel time is standing still and there is nothing.... its just a perfect moment!

I was officially a missus!!!

So by the time the next wedding ceremony was ready to take place I was all the more relaxed and happy! Now nothing mattered!!

The wedding styling was done entirely by me, as were the rest of the ceremonies. Mum and I choose the most beautiful venue called Kanak Vrindavan. It is basically a number of gardens put together and really makes for a very traditional and yet somehow enchanting wedding venue!

I love fabric and i love marigold flowers.... so this mandap was just the perfect combination! Also i wanted it to have a very nice draped look .... i think it worked out just perfect!

This was the entrance to the dinner area.... I love love love elephants!! And i always knew i would have them at my wedding!

I hate typical wedding lights. So i had the decorater just hang these beautiful rice lights in the big trees around the venue. He went one step further and knotted the ends to look like balls of lights, I'm so going to use this idea!!!!

I always hated buffet set ups at weddings. As a kid i remember most Maharashtrian weddings had a sit down lunch where the family of the bride and groom would serve all guests. Since we were in Rajasthan I decided to go with their very traditional sit down layout. Every single family and friend loved it!!!

Lastly as a sweet wedding detail i had a wish tree... I had a friend tie ribbons on a tree with a table below which had pens and note paper. So people would write a little note and tie it to my tree. But since the concept was kind of new here, not a lot of people knew what to do!!! So i have a few wishes... which i turned into a scrap book!

This time the husband came in this beautiful carriage!!!! There was a full on band baja baraat again :)

As for me, no coy bride this time.... i threw a little tantrum in front of my brother about how unfair it was that the groom always came in with full on dance and music and the bride had to come in like she was getting prepped for a slaughter!!!!! So he arranged a beautiful doli for me, as that was tradition, but had all my friends and sisters dance like there was no tomorrow in front of me as i danced in my doli!! The boys side was "Shocked"!!!!!

The Hindu ceremony was a full mash of the Marathi customs the Gujarati customs and the Rajasthani customs!! The Mundawali (string of pearls) is Maharashtrian, both the bride and groom wear it on their foreheads. My two sarees were worn like the Gujarati bride wears, one from her side and one from the grooms side. The Maang tikka i wore was purely Rajasthani!!

I was just pretending to be all demure.... in truth i was soooooooooooo bored!!! there was nothing for the bride to do... everything that had to be done was done by the parents and the groom... now i know why the make the bride dress all pretty... that is all she has to do!!!

I love this picture. Thats my mum's pretty hands applying turmeric to the husbands hands. Its all so pretty and glittery!!!

This was really funny! I bought him a wedding ring at least two sizes too small!! and i insisted on pushing it down his ring finger!!! It was so bad that during dinner all the catering guys actually had to get oil and soap water to get the damn ring off his finger since it was swelling up!!!!!