The Royal Wedding

Pre-script : the title of the post should have been 'The best friend's (III) wedding'. But this one suits better, as you will know why :)


In between a horrible work week (in terms of volume and dependencies) and stupid rains, I was really looking forward to Pradnya's wedding! Yes despite the mental and physical dead-ness. (They had to pick me up from office itself!!)


A brief showdown of my history with Pradnya. We have popularly had great chemistry, being the only class mates who stayed in hostel. With the inherent stubborn attitude, things were not always rosy with us. But we bonded well in spite of our differences and have stayed close friends for 9 years now :) Life has taken us places, literally and figuratively. We have been to abysmal depths and awesome highs and its always been a comfort to have her by my side :) (and vice versa too ? )


Anywho, coming back to the wedding!! The journey was super different as we had respective parents along. I have not traveled with my parents and my friends' parents being together. So this journey turned into a major kitchen-talk and gossip-fest. Well the mothers could not resist noticing how we take them for granted and gossiping about it IN FRONT OF us!!!! Poor driver! Must have felt really put of place :P
I enjoyed both, cos I like cooking and manage a kitchen myself and the other part too, cos aai no longer feels like I am the only one who does't listen to her at times :P (Come on aren't all daughters like that ? ;-))
So the journey which was a 6 hour long drive felt like a stimulating bonding session.


When we reached the venue, we had already missed the events like engagement and haldi. Thanks to our amazing navigation skills :-/ We got to have the best dinner though, cos we dined with the bride and groom :D
We clicked loads of pics with mother-daughter poses and tried to make up for time lost :)


It was decided that all the girls would stay over at Pradnya's and not at the hotel, which just made the rather dull night (for us cos we had missed all the events) funner. Many many folds!!! Once at Pradnya's after taking care of next day's preparations and helping pradnya clean up, we indulged in loads of girl gossip. From group to one on one. Which is always fun and enlightening! :P

Next day we responsibly reached the venue on time with the bride and got back to get ready ourselves. Little did we know that what all grandeur awaited us! (I wore my own saree FYI, just a little help from aai for the pallu tuck :))

Tutari :)

There was Peshwai welcome for all the guests, with flower petals showered on us by girls clad in Nauvari sarees and putting haldi kunkoo on our forehead (I was on a office call so I was saved! :P) Oh btw Nauvari sarees are very traditional and are becoming rarer these days owing to not many knowing how to wear one.
There were guys with Tutaari (another traditional musical instrument..to listen go here) wearing pheta and dhotar (called dhoti in hindi). Very traditional and royal stuff indeed!

Amid all these, the groom made a very royal entry (on an elephant) and swept off the bride to the stage to wed her officially :) Mangalashtaka were chanted, akshata were showered and thus they got married. Do you realize I did not miss any of these, like last time :P


A lot of stage-photo-shooting happened. Amazing food was eaten. And we had to leave without witnessing any other rituals/ceremonies cos I HAD TO WORK!! sob..


A few more pics to end the post..



Here's wishing both the bride and groom a lifetime of happiness and sunshine :)










~nightflier

The best friend's (II) wedding!! - II

The worst part about any function is it gets over so soon! As in you are busy planning, strategizing, anticipating hiccups and bam its over!


I am in the wedding hangover phase. Considering how I have never liked attending weddings, I suffering a hangover, is an urban myth (:P). Well, I basically dont like the superficial conversations and artificial warmth oozing out of people on such occasions. But I have now grown over it and can actually mingle with loads of people without getting typecasted in the above mentioned evils. Thanks to my improving social skills (in my own way) over time. :D


So apart from enjoying my hot favorites in the entire wedding hungama, mehendi and good food i.e. I did a lot of people watching, as my busy schedule permitted. And since there is a huge possibility that the bride will come to know that I missed being on the stage when the var-maala (wedding garlands ?) were being exchanged, I will confess it in public.


There was lots of running around, search parties for trivial stuff, amends in plans, attending to friends' parents and relatives, where did this go and where did that go crises but the wedding went on pretty smoothly. And since India eventually lost the cricket match on 12th evening (which took place in my home town btw and I was really psyched about missing an opportunity to watch the match sitting inside the stadium) things remained normal in the wedding household. People had given up any hopes they had, after that abysmal batting order collapse. So yes things did go smoothly. ;)


This was my first time at a wedding organized entirely by the bride and groom by sharing responsibilities. Quite a proud moment for all of us remotely involved. And this is my cynical touchstone, when it comes to the concept of weddings inside my head. 


here's wishing them both the very best out of life together :)


~nightflier

the best friend's wedding - III

ended yesterday. Amidst fun, frolick, yummy food, really grand banquet hall, nice clothes, very less formality, meeting friends, gossip sessions, saree watching, aunty talks, running around the bride, and a few jitters. :)


I wore saree for more than 15 hours and that's a record of my lifetime. I like them but I have to teach my body to behave like a lady and not be the usual jumpy, happy me. But I managed well. that too with heels and toe nails painted! Was super fun to prance around holding the saree, and balancing the heels!
And I got to meet and spend time with all the wonderful family of the bride after 5 years. That made me a happy baby! 
We danced during the mehendi ceremony. What fun! Thank you ipod touch for being so helpful and productive for that impromptu decision. It was all possible because of your portability, invisible-ness, ease of control and compatibility with all kinds of speakers! 
We also got loads of bangles for us during the chudi-bharana rasam (bangle putting ceremony ?). I think I like bangles for the sounds they make and the reflections and the dazzle!
And I now have mehendi (henna) on both hands. In really dark shades of brown. I am obsessed with mehendi and have devised many-a-ways of not letting it fade for the longest possible time since childhood.
To add to all this the successful surprise of getting a friend from chennai for the wedding! It was slightly filmy as we cried when we met. Tears of joy! I was also crowned the official surprise queen owing to the number of them I have been part of in planning and execution. But after executing this one after keeping the information to very few people for more than a month I was literally feeling empty stomach! I swear. (A day before the actual event I was so overwhelmed with excitement that I started telling almost everyone around about what we were planning. Thankfully 'everyone' did not involve the bride).


Oh, and the bride was looking like a doll and really pretty in all the functions and in all costumes. I cannot post pics though.


~nightflier

the best friend's wedding - II

Post the shopping blues we started with the bride's grooming and packing. A week back we had a little fashion parade where she dress rehearsed for all the functions. Thereby making a huge pile of the stuff which needed altering, modifications, clarifications - we were confused how to wear a ghagra saree with peculiar design issues. So moral of the story such stories happen if you have shopped for you wedding 6 months in advance owing to living in US. Anywho these were minor issues compared to what lay ahead (exaggerating for gasps :P)


Oh and do you guys know how painful it can be to not know a lot of shopping places, those precious corner shops in the city one grew up in ? Well I hope you don't. Because the both of us were literally clueless when we needed to get matching bangle sets done. Anyways we got things done after 3 hours of hard work and arguments with each other and bangle lady. The bangle lady was obviously better equipped than us with respect to experience so we let her win all the arguments as long as we got what we wanted. We are smart that way!


And today came the time to pack the bag for the d-day. Indian weddings are elaborate. We have loads of functions strewn around the actual ceremony and almost all require a costume change. So knowing what the bride is wearing and making sure it is in place with all the matching sets and in the proper order was a pretty huge task. But our ability to crack jokes, induce double entendre s where not needed and internal jokes about stuff proved a lot helpful! Plus aunty's pampering with herbal tea and other snacks kept us going. And while we were busy packing the bride's bag, the ladies were packing the 'rukhawant/shagun'. Mighty impressed with all the creativity and efforts that they put into making things look so beautiful.


The wedding is 3 days away and I can already feel the butterflies. Of course there will be jitters, some chaos, a lot of running around. But that's what makes the big fat Indian wedding, right ? :)


~nightflier

the best friend's wedding - I

Pre.S. I have many best friends, who entered my life (and I also entered their life) at different phases. This is one of the oldest!


I know KT since bachpan, first standard to be clear. We were in the same 'group', childhood groupism was more about eating lunches together, playing any game as a team, sitting together in all the school functions, and also in the scholarship class. And then we changed schools and kept on meeting on and off until we got into coep where we studied together for another 4 years. So you get the gist that how old and long the friendship is. I can get to business now, right ? :-)


So missy is getting married in a week and the fun has just begun! I would start off this series with my own shopping woes. I am attending and hence preparing for a wedding on such a large scale (include 6 different functions) after 4-5 years. Deciding on what to wear to actually getting that stuff has been a really tough job. I roamed around Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur to buy myself a decent saree. Mumbai was too designer for me and Pune looked all de-glamorized after my brain registered the Mumbai dazzle. In the end I resorted to Nagpur as I did not really have an option. Oh but saree buying business doesn't really end at saree, does it ? Getting it picco-fall-ed, buying the petticoat, getting the blouse stitched with all the designs and keedas one wants to do and making sure it all fits well and is accessorized properly. uuufffffff.....
During the entire process at one point my friends were really frustrated with me as I would not buy or even shortlist even a single saree/dress. I applaud your patience girls for not giving up on me! As I do have at least 2 costumes ready! :D


Considering how choosy I have become with buying stuff, I really miss hostel days, when you would just spread the word that you were looking for 'some''thing' and you would get a range of that 'some''thing' to choose from! But guess a girl has to grow up and get her own wardrobe upto-date to be able to lend stuff to other girls in a different situation. That's my only motivating factor and plus the fact that I have become this fussy converting all the ideas in her head to reality person!


So my wardrobe is looking pretty decent now with most of the costumes ready. More on the actual wedding coming soon. 


Parting song of the moment - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8OOWcsFj0U


~nightflier


P.S. While cruising on Santacruz roads we came across this very amazing bag shop which housed all kinds of bags - designer to daily use. They had a really pretty collection of clutches. The way we indulged in binge bag shopping the owner was mighty impressed. Here's the link for the same.  - http://www.sunbeams.in/Index.html
They also take online orders, but the shop has a better collection than online store, so must visit