This is what it looks like when it is first done, its a sort of mud that sits on top of you hand for a while until it dries out and then you wash it off and just the dye is left.

This is me looking like “Oh my goodness, I look like I have a tattoo!”

Henna is a plant that is used as a dye, so yes, this is temporary. Beautiful no? One of the parts of the sangeet that I really loved is the part when all the women come into the middle to dance, a circle is formed and one by one all of the married women dance by themselves in the middle of the circle with this gold pot on their heads, finally after all the married women have contributed the bride is invited into the circle to dance with the pot on her head. It symbolizes the passage of wisdom from the married woman to the new bride. We all participated. Tom and I danced a lot at the sangeet and had a wonderful time.

Sunday was the wedding ceremony. We arrived at 3:30 to participate in the Barat- when the groom is pulled by a horse in a carriage to the “bride’s house” in this case a very fancy reception center. We all danced in front. (There is a LOT of dancing at Indian weddings.)

The women all wore Sarees but at the Sangeet and at the wedding ceremony, but the saree’s at the wedding were much more elaborate and as you can see very beautiful. All of the bright colors and jewels and beading was quite exquisite. I felt quite plain the whole weekend.

The wedding ceremony was delivered in Sanskrit, and explained in English by a man who’s Indian accent was so strong I couldn’t understand anything he said. Fortunately the symbols and proceedings were all outlined in the program. It’s a very symbolic and ritualistic ceremony that I found very beautiful. There is one point, which is quite comical. The sister of the bride comes up and barters with the groom. She says she is going to break the string that has been tied between the bride and groom if he doesn’t pay her. They negotiate as to how much the groom should pay. In our case, the sister was not Indian and thus settled for $40. But family members in the audience were shouting out “$400, $1,000!” Apparently the groom has to pay up. One of the things I thought was very fascinating was how much family participation there was in the ceremony. Indians see weddings as a union of not only two individuals but two families. The Bride’s family in particular plays a very large part in the marriage.

The bride, our friend Marinda, entering with her two brothers. Red is the traditional wedding color representing life and vivacity. Interestingly, neither the bride nor groom were Hindi. Both are LDS. They had their temple ceremony the weekend before, however the grooms family didn’t see them as married until after this Hindi service had been performed so they lived apart until after this.

Following the wedding, there were a few hours of mingling and appetizer eating, then the reception began, there were several more hours of talking, dancing, performances, and toasts, followed by more dancing, talking, and general waiting by most of us, until dinner was served at 10:30. The food was delicious. The bride wore yet another saree to the reception. (Three sarees in all.) After dinner the real dancing started but by then I was so beat that we headed home.