Wednesday I got to go to an Indian Wedding! (well the reception anyway) It was sooo much fun but at the same time it was different than I thought it would be. It was a girl from my class that got married and it was fun because she invited the whole class (in which I got my very own invite!) and so we planned to go together (only 25 of us could go). So we met at school at 5:45 and waited for the twenty people that were going together. Stacy (another usac student) and I get funny looks... well more funny
looks than normal, when we are wearing sari's (which I tied my own!) but you just learn to ignore it. Everyone looked so nice in their traditional wear! So we all piled into a van which was way too small for the 20 of us but we fit everyone in and were off. We left at around 6:30 and got to the wedding hall at 7:45,
it wasn't THAT far but there was a lot of traffic. I had fun getting to know my classmates better and talking and laughing as we went. We finally arrived and as you walk in to a big room they give you almonds and tang-like soda. Once you finish that you stand in line to give congrats to the bride and groom... it wasn't like a typical "line" because it was the bride and groom infront of thrones and flowers getting pictures with everyone. So when we finally got to the front of the line there were too many of us to stick in one photo, so we split into two. You could tell she was
excited to see all of us, especially since we were the only young people there! After getting some photos with the bride, they directed us downstairs and said "You can eat and then go".... yep they actually said that! So we went down stairs and it was a hall as big as the one above it (just the ceilings weren't as high) filled with skinny tables. It is so fun how they go about feeding a large amount of people, what it is is they have banana leaves set out for everyone (which is your plate) and water, then there is a procession of men serving, each with their own dish. The first
procession consisted of about 12 guys and I thought they were done but after that pairs of guys come drop off more food! It was a lot of food. We had rice and a very spicy curry, roti (unrisen bread), some side dishes (vegetables) and hot sauces and sweet roti, fruit and sweet dishes. Then they came buy and gave party favors which happen to be coconuts, how totally awesome is that?! Oh I forgot... the camera man seemed to have a fascination with our group. As soon as we walked in he pretty much followed us around, even while we ate! It was fun though and the wedding party will have some nice footage of me eating (I think he wanted to see how I did... I think I passed!). So after we got all washed up (with no utensils it gets a bit messy) we had some very interesting "dinner mints" it was some sort of minty sauce, crasins, and a rose petal
mix all wrapped up in a leaf, some people chew and spit out but I didn't know this till I chewed and swallowed. I must say, it was interesting... in a good way. So after that we went upstairs so we could get one last look at the bride (all decked out in a reddish orange sari and bangles and jewlery,etc) and she actually waved to us as we were leaving. So all in all it was a bit different than I thought it would be but it wasn't bad. The wedding reception was the night before the wedding, I really wanted to go to the wedding the next morning but my classmates were going to school and I didn't particularly want to go by myself (you should have seen the spectacle we made... well,
make wherever we go). So that was my fun indian wedding experience!
