The wedding ceremony itself was a dream! It was a grand celebration with lots of interesting rituals full of zest and fan fare.

The interesting thing is that both the bride and the groom have separate ceremonies taking place at their house with their respective friends and family.

I was friends with just the groom so I attended a total of four ceremonies which took place at some of Delhi’s fanciest hotels as well as the groom’s family house. Celebrations were mostly held outdoors even if its winter season in India, but with so much drinking, eating and dancing, it was very much necessary!

My favorite pre-wedding ceremony was the Mehendi & Sangeet ceremony which is when the friends and relatives get together for singing sessions at the groom’s family house. Indian people love dancing, music, food, there was great food at all times, I just couldn’t get enough!

The other neat thing about this ceremony is that guests wear their traditional dresses- Punjabis, Hindus, Sikhs…so colorful!

There was even a henna parlor, which is also part of the ritual- Mehendi- which is the art of applying henna to the hands as temporary decoration.

Here are some snapshots of the ceremony…the saris, the jewelry, embellishments…simply out of this world!

The bride

The groom

Bride and groom during the final ritual around the holy fire

Saris and their colorful décor (ps- love the midnite blue pompoms)

Jewels and henna

Scenes from the street celebration in which friends of the groom dance and sing to the beat of drums as he makes his way to the hotel where the bride patiently awaits him for the final religious ritual.

Behold, the much anticipated pictures of my beautiful Indian sari!

It doesn’t cease to amaze me how six yards of untailored cloth can create such a graceful and elegant dress. Just a few deft operations and you step forth with poise and presence.

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So what’s the verdict?

Tomorrow I’m off to India (Delhi) to attend a friend’s wedding. The first thing that came to mind when I received the invite…O-M-G!! what am I going to wear????

See these? FOUR different invites to the very SAME wedding= FOUR different outfits!!! Yikes!

The advice I was given actually made things seem a tidy bit less complicated. With the bewildering array of rituals and ceremonies connected with weddings in India it seems that the one thing us westerners have to keep in mind is to go all out and wear the brightest colors and fanciest outfits with wonderful jewelry!

At first I panicked because with the winter season coming in, my wardrobe looks anything but colorful. And I refused to go shopping, I convinced myself I had to make it work with what I have! And I must say I was able to pull off some decent outfits by mixing and matching the very few ‘vibrant’ garments still left in my closet.

Can’t wait to get myself my very own sari! How cool is that?! sooo psyched!

What do you think?

Is this enough for jewelry, you think???

and shoes! let’s not forget these babies…

et voilà, I’m proud of my work!

any tips?