An Indian Wedding

The wedding couple

The culmination of our festivities has arrived along with the reason for us being here. We started off a little bleary-eyed after the previous evening’s party and managed a quiet morning with the only excitement being hearing and then seeing a troop of monkeys bound over our rooftops and decks. These are large (the males look like baboons) and people avoid them - we watched Piyush ascend the external stairs very cautiously to check that we were ok and that the monkeys had departed.

The girls dress up (for the previous evening)

Katherine and some of the women went to a local “beauty shop” to have their make-up and hair finished and to get dressed before she and Emma (her sister) headed straight to the venue to wait for the arrival of the groom.

Then to warm things up a band arrived. They didn't sound like they were playing the same tune, but they made a lot of noise, looked the part and the locals obviously thought they were doing what was expected of them!

Groom and his soon-to-be mother-in-law

Practising on the wedding day

Scrubbed up and ready to go ...

Yet another present/photo/smile

The afternoon was supposed to start with a small ceremony at 3pm (“Indian time” – so much later in reality) followed by the family giving out presents to all extended-family members. As far as we could tell these gifts consisted of clothing - it is usual here to buy outfits as material, all printed and decorated, ready to be cut and sewn to size around the design, and Piyush's family had purchased boxes and boxes of these to give out. When these had been dispensed the relatives proceeded to give the bride and groom their presents. While Piyush sat steaming in the sun, dressed in his finery, each group of relations would place a garland of rupees around Piyush’s neck, and give him a present while having their photos taken. We noticed a person whose job was to record who gave what.

As everyone was dressed for the wedding by now I noted that most of the men, like me and the fathers of the bride and groom, were wearing Western-style clothing, unlike the previous night when traditional garb was the order of the day. Apparently this has become common in the last few decades.  Vicki adds: "The women were making the most of their beautiful national costumes - why would they wear Western clothing when even a 'simple' day-time sari can far out-shine most of our evening wear options?  The women were stunning and those who were part of the celebrations for most of the day changed their entire outfit three or four times over the course of the day. They shone like colourful, gem-studded butterflies!"

At last all the presents had been delivered, the band had arrived, and it was time to mount Piyush on his horse and parade through the main street again. It is always tricky walking around at night in a crowd and watching where your feet are going. We scooted ahead to the venue along with most of the visitors so we could be there to watch Piyush make his grand entrance. This he did with his family until they met a ribbon placed across the entrance. Emma arrived with a tray containing a pair of scissors and after Piyush had handed her a large enough payment (it's supposed to be a bit of a bartering session, and fun, which it was!) he was able to cut the ribbon to make his entry. The scissors added to the hilarity as while they were pretty, they were also pretty useless and Piyush had to almost saw through the ribbon!

Ribbon-cutting ceremony

The bride arrives

Katherine and Emma had been waiting at the venue for hours while Piyush went through the present-giving process, so she materialised from within the venue, escorted by her female family members, and they proceeded to an outside area where the actual ceremony was held. The rest of the outside area was full of tables and chairs where various guests reclined to talk and seemed to ignore the entire ceremony.


At the ceremony Piyush and Katherine sat opposite a priest with his family on one side and Katherine’s on the other. The actual ceremony took 2.25 hours during which time the priest performed numerous rites using a very ancient-looking book as a guide. During this time Piyush’s mother wandered off for long intervals, Mike (Katherine’s father) stayed but Julie (her mother) was replaced briefly by Vicki and finally by me for the latter third. While someone offering food to those partaking was shuffled off quickly, the priest didn’t mind stopping to answer his cellphone! And what amazed us more was that apart from the dozen-odd people involved in the ceremony and 20 or so watching, the remaining hundreds of guests ignored it completely and spent their time eating and talking elsewhere around the venue. Even the band started up at one stage but were shuffled off pretty smartly as they were drowning out the proceedings.

Enjoying a "Nascafe" or three

After the ceremony, while we stood around in groups, numerous waiters arrived with trays of food and drink (no alcohol though). As the venue had only just opened they had over-catered on the waiters who were hovering around waiting to jump into any breech. We made a small faux-pas by placing a couple of empty plastic cups back on to a passing waiter’s tray. He quickly threw them onto the grass. Another staff member duly arrived to pick them up and dispose of them. Obviously below the waiter's job-grade to deal with rubbish. 

The girls generally made more of an effort than the boys ...

Zealous waiters ...

Inside the venue there was a buffet set up though we didn’t venture there as there were several buffets set up outside, including one of just Punjabi dishes as we are right on the border with the Punjab. Even though we’d had numerous dishes from the waiters, I couldn’t resist when a friend, Manu, took me around some of the stalls and helped me choose more dishes. Luckily we have had no stomach issues yet, partly because the family have been feeding us very lightly-spiced food and also as we have been taking probiotics daily. This was our biggest challenge to date but probably more due to over-eating! I can’t say I enjoyed all the food but it was certainly interesting. Just when I couldn’t possibly fit any more in we were invited over to a seating area with the close family for the real meal! It was a bit of a struggle but we put a brave face on. The good was the little cups of “Nascafe” coffee, the bad was the sheer number of waiting staff. At one stage we had just seven of us sitting on couches with 14 waiters lined up in front or behind us, each jumping in with a dish or two as soon as a gap appeared. Somewhat intimidating.

Most of the guests started drifting off once they had eaten though a few stayed on for a small disco.

The mothers keeping an eye on the disco floor

The colourful venue

Everyone wanted a selfie with us ...
even the waiters (regardless of the background)