The Pre-Wedding Day

Pete and Sara are having two days of wedding. On the afternoon before the wedding (in this case 6am tomorrow) there is an informal reception and a formal reception. During the informal reception, which was two hours long, the bride and groom are officially engaged and are given flower garlands by holy men to prove this. Yes, this takes two hours! On the plus side I got to wear a lovely blue and green sari and bling to match. Sara looked radiant in orange and red with jasmine in her hair and gold around her neck.

There was food and a change of clothes before the formal reception and this involved both fathers and an uncle inviting us to eat. The vegetarian curry was served on a banana leaf and was yummy. We even did as the locals do and ate with our fingers (right hand only, the left is considered dirty), thank Ganesh for poppadums and chapatti. Hubby got told off by the waiter when he tried to eat the lime pickle and of course they felt sorry for us and brought spoon and forks. We struggled, but prevailed in the end.

In the evening there was the official reception. Four hours of Pete and Sara sitting in big chairs wearing red and gold sari for her, biscuit suit with cream shirt and tie for him. When someone came onto the stage to give them a gift they would jump up and have their picture taken. This happened for FOUR HOURS! Maybe this was why Pete was late?

There was music provided by a pair of saxaphone playing, sari wearing ladies who were backed up by drums. They played all the tunes you know, if you live in India, if you don’t they all sound the same after the first three, so you’d better like them. We did.

We had our picture taken with the bride and groom. Twice.

We also smuggled a quick chat at the same time and found out that they were both bored and just wanted it all over with. With all the hassle of the last few weeks, weddingoveritis had well and truly set in, with only one more day to go.