Indian Marriage Ceremony vs Western-Style Wedding

I’ll say two things. First – India is a diverse nation of many cultural traditions, and “western” (this isn’t the second thing; the first is a two-parter) is a term so vague as to be largely meaningless.

(“Do you eat Western food?” I was asked last week. “Er… I think so?” I answered. And then, because I apparently can’t help waffling off on endless tangents in the hopes of expressing myself both precisely and exhaustively, I tried to be more specific, which got me into a complicated and somewhat confusing conversation involving a lot of recipe books and eventually I became the (very) local Cream Expert. We don’t often eat cream, but I do know at least eleven ways to curdle it such that your recipe is completely ruined. Now, you’d think four or five would be pretty sufficient, but I keep finding just one more. It’s a talent. Almost a superpower.)

Anyway. So what I really mean by the title of this post, given the diversity of Indian and “Western” culture, is “Recent Wedding Experience vs Wedding Experiences I’ve Had At Home”.

Secondly- Damn, can’t remember. I should type these things down faster. Well, it can’t have been that important.

I’ve held back telling you about the wedding itself, not because of a time-consuming fascination with curdled cream, but because I didn’t ask permission of the Bride and Groom to share their special day. I’ve been wondering how to tell you about the best part of our trip without thoughtlessly stepping on their toes – especially the intricately-painted toes of the bride, who spent well over an hour getting decorated with mehendi on the night before the wedding.

I’ve decided it wouldn’t be too out of line to tell you the differences which stood out to me and then show you a few photos, mainly of us, some of which were taken by a five-year-old.

Indian Marriage Ceremony vs Western-Syle Wedding-1

 

Once P realised I couldn’t use my hands until the mehendi dried, he went on a bit of a spree.
A slightly disturbing picture taken by P of T sleeping across two chairs whilst loud music and general commotion raged all around.
P found this lizard, and then systematically showed it to every single guest. This took at least two hours. It was a very patient and/or sick and/or terrified lizard.
I was right about the highly-choreographed Bolly-style dance numbers. Bride’s sangeet, on the eve of the wedding. (This was happening as T slept on her chairs.)
A does the celebrant thing. He was the quietest person in the whole proceedings, by far.
The couple are showered with petals. The groom was also bulls-eyed on the head by P, who misunderstood the spirit of the exercise.

Now, if you want Indian weddings up close and personal, you should head over to The Bangalore Snob’s Wedding Issue and Indian Love Story. Then tell me you don’t feel the magic.

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Category : India, Reality Holiday, Travel
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