Our 1st Indian Wedding - Bakul weds Viraj

We were invited to Dr. Ajay Patwardhan's daughters wedding on Thursday, 22nd Feb. We attended the ceremony at 11:30 ish and a lunch after that. There must have been 200+ guests at the ceremony and lunch alone and apparently the evening reception is an even bigger affair with up to 800 guests.

Dr. Ajay & Manik patwarhan (Brides parents)

It was a South Indian wedding but there is no way that you can club all wedding rituals together and package it as a typical South Indian wedding. The various states and communities of South India pride themselves on having wedding customs unique to their own. More on South Indian Weddings: http://www.sawnet.org/weddings/tamil_vedic.html

We arrived at the convention centre where we were greeted by the brides father that gave us each a gift (kurta's for the guys and I got a saree) and a Tilak was placed on our foreheads using Kumkum, a red and/or yellow turmeric powder.

About the tilak:
The tilak covers the spot between the eyebrows, which is the seat of memory and thinking. It is known as the Aajna Chakra in the language of Yoga. The tilak is applied with the prayer - "May I remember the Lord. May this pious feeling pervade all my activities. May I be righteous in my deeds." Even when we temporarily forget this prayerful attitude the mark on another reminds us of our resolve. The tilak is thus a blessing of the Lord and a protection against wrong tendencies and forces. Different colour tilaks, donates different things e.g. red - energy (I'm not sure what the yellow denotes but I got one).

We moved into a hall where the bride and groom sat on a stage. The ceremony rituals continued with the priest chanting prayers, rice grains coloured with turmeric and saffron are showered on the couple as benediction and to ward of evil spirits (something like that). Well, in the direction of the couple at least as most of the rice ended up on the head of the person sitting in front of you.


Guest then proceeded up the stage to congratulate the newly weds and give them their gifts.
Lunch was served in - the 1st group of guest sat down to a South Indian (Vegetarian) lunch that was served on banana leaves.


Once we finished our lunch the catering crew cleaned the tables and the next group of people sat down for lunch...and possibly a 3rd group after that.


Marc in his kurta (gift from the wedding).