Sunday, November 20, 2011

Goa Unplugged: The Wedding: Day 3 *The Finale*

Super sorry to give you all the wedding story in bits and pieces but I have been swamped in work!


This is the final leg of the wedding that happened! The analysis will be next!


Now over to the wedding!

Since the wedding was a punjabi wedding, as per the rituals. We had the early morning puja for both the bride and the groom! Separately thank God!


It was the one ritual where my parents being the maternal uncle and aunt played a super important role! And the pandit ji that we had was really awesome! But droned on and on! After we got done with groom's puja and put Haldi, which btw was Vicco Turmeric cream, I helped in the preparations for the bride's puja! 



Much more elaborate fare, because of the chuda and the kaliraas! Had this been an Indian bride, she would've broken down, as this is normally the big realization of the marriage in the wedding! But our bride was American ( with an American family) and all of em looked confused! The highlight of the puja was me the dear getting all the blessings from the bride to be the next one (bride) *I am telling you, the entire family is obsessed with my marriage*! She even shook her kaliraas on top if my head, twice *First time she did it, none fell, and then masi ji told her, we did not see you do it on Sakshi, once more please!!*! And finally, one did break on me! So good luck! To me!
And because we were all into this puja, I could not have breakfast! Just had a bite here and there! 



And then because there was a good gap of four odd hours between the puja and the next evening events, instead of trying to grab a bite, I just got into the pool with my cousins... :) 


And after the dip in the pool, we had to start getting ready for the baraat and sehrabandi *Time was  of the essence, but we still managed to not to get things started in time!! :P*
And ready we did get! All of us in sarees! And, barring my father, no one particularly said nice things to me after I got ready! He was the only one, who was like, wow, you are looking stunning, rest of them were very uncomfortable owing to the fact that I was in a saree and looked twenty five instead of 18! I think I looked very pretty!
And then there was the dhol and the baraat! And I din care a damn! 
Okay, so we got thru seharaabandi  *You know manage get his pagdi on, the sehra, which my Bua and I had picked so lovingly from Chandni chowk along with the kalgi, then there was the sarbala, my nephew, who got so confused and cranky through all of this!!* But my brother looked really handsome and *touch wood to that* Oh, and the dhol guys, they tied pagdi's for the baraatis.. which was very awesome for the americans... and then finally we got my brother on to the ghodi! 

Realized that the chane ki daal we had carried all the way from Delhi was useless as we had not soaked it! Made the horse eat some sugar and tied the waange and got the baraat rolling!

Now, I have seen my fair share of baraats but this one was different! We had dhols with a live dj playing in jeep right at the front! And then there were us dancing to some weird rendition of snoop dogg with the live dhol mix! And on top if it, barring us, the Indian cousins and kids every one including the groom had a beer in their hands! And there was the elder brother, who was carrying, a big bottle of grey goose and giving us shots! And then there was champagne too, yes in the baraat!


Finally, we made it to the mandap, got the bride's brother to get my brother down, do the milni!

Now, The mandap- was beautiful! Simple and classy decorations! The ceremony  was in the hotel lawn and the madap, had in the background numerous candles and lanterns! With glass hangings reflecting their light!
 


There was proper seating and yes, we were ALL required to be seated during the ceremony! And we all did! Since, for the obvious reasons- there was nothing else to do! And mind you, only thing being served during the ceremony was water, and nothing else!
The ceremony also had a Goam twist, these priests who were there, they did a mix of konkani, punjabi and vedic wedding, I think. But it was really cool.*If the whole budget thing would not have been a constrained, I might have considered getting them for my wedding..*  So we just sat and waited for the ceremony to get over while listening to classical background music by two sitarists who were there and admiring the decor! And yeah, we had the brides maids and the grooms men also, they came in before the bride walked in just like you have it in Christian weddings!! 
Being the sisters of the groom, Sister, another cousin and I did the gath-bandhan for the couple and also did a little puja there on the mandap!
 
Finally, after the pheras and the pictures, we were ready to grab some drinks and get something to eat!


But, we all had to change for the Cocktails and Reception! My father wore a tuxedo and oh my Gosh- looked super handsome! *That was sorta a dress code, almost every one was wearing a tux but for my dad it was the first time, and trust me when I say handsome, I mean handsome with a BIG H*


The reception was American, inside the Banquet hall of the hotel! We had our tables assigned to us with our name cards!*Even though we were right in front our table was Number 10* There were the speeches, which were good but which were also a let down! (will tell you why in the analysis)  and since this wedding was just about surprises, the one for the reception was the Flash Mob dance!  Which went well, except..that the cake cutting and champagne were forgotten! *there was another thing about me not being able to get my other cousins involved in it, because they were sitting on a different table!!*
I got drunk that night coz there was nothing that I had to do! So all I to do was to get my drinks and have a lil food! And crashed, in my bed!
My parents were wary of drunk people around me and sister!So they came back after changing to get us from the party!   And honestly, I was glad that finally, the year long project came to an end!

The pictures, ( I hope)  you can see here!

And the analysis shall come soon! I mean, it was a big budget wedding and there are things that could've been done differently! And who knows, my analysis may help some one :)
Cheers till then!

6 comments:

Alka Gurha said...

Lovely pics and it seems you had a blast..Goa wedding is a dream.

Wicked Witch of the West said...

I only understand about half of that :D Such a lengthy process (far beyond my patience - half a day was more than enough of wedding for me...), but very cool, love the photos, beautiful, and your description too. Indian weddings are certainly far more visually impressive and interesting than ours.

Suruchi said...

wow-and the kaliraas finally fell..it's a sign, it's a sign;)
Get ready for your own band, baaja and baarat:-)

and this was like a blockbuster Hindi film ke shaadi madam:-)
Awesome pics too and sooooooooo many of them with you being conspicuously absent:-)

Tangled up in blue... said...

Ooh ooh ooh! What a lot of fun you guys had! A big fat Punjabi wedding and an American reception to boot! I am loving the photos and the bright pink pagdis look so beautiful and vivid in them. And wow there were so many people! :) This proves that all that running around and organisation went off really well. So, Saks, are you gonna have an even bigger wedding?

Jack said...

Sakshi,

WOW, what description! You take the readers along for the whole show. But could not see pictures as on navigating it say, this is not available at the moment. Hope I can see those later.

Take care

Me said...

Enjoyed the post :)

Chalo,ab agla number aapka hain... ;)