Fun at a wedding

Last weekend I flew to D.C. for a good friend's wedding. I was bumped up to first class, and when I got into town, I joined my friend at her hotel, where we stayed in the presidential suite. I felt very spoiled! We had a big breakfast delivered by room service and spent the morning ironing her many outfits for the different events. I then left to spend the day at my dad's house, to help host a pre-prom cocktail party that evening. That provided me a yummy dinner of fresh nuts, fruits, cheeses, and mini-quiches. I love finger food...

Saturday was all-day at the wedding. In the morning all the girls gathered in the presidential suite and had people help us tie on our sari's. My friend had several people getting her ready to be the bride. I brought another friend of mine as my "+1", and I put her in my own sari, while I wore a new one my friend getting married had brought back from India for me to wear. Apparently giving gifts such as that is also part of the tradition.













Then we were in the wedding precession, which was part of a nearly 3 hour ceremony, complete with someone occasionally telling us what was going on, and a program to explain the rituals. My friend looked beautiful, and she seemed to enjoy her ceremony - including some friendly playing around with her husband during the ceremony, such as when they had to pour blessed rice over each other's head for abundance - they seemed to have a pretty good time with that one!










After that there was a huge buffet lunch, followed by a 4 hour break for resting and freshening up. Most people changed clothes for the evening affairs just to show off their pretty saris.

Then the festivities began - cocktail hour, 2 hours of speeches and dances for the bride and groom, as well as everyone dancing with them (including me, though it was hard to dance in a sari), then a huge buffet dinner with the biggest dessert spread I've ever seen. There were 620 guests at the wedding, but still there was an over-abundance of desserts and a huge selection. What fun!

After that I think there was more dancing, but we didn't stay any longer because my friend had a long drive home, and it was already 11:30pm (we got there at 10am!!)

I now have a much better appreciation for big weddings - theirs was festive, and I felt like everyone was an appreciated part of things. It was a joy to be there!