The Best Wedding I’ve Been to (This Year)

Hello lovelies, I am excited to announce that I now have one reader that I know of… my mother! Shoutout to my mama. Her suggestion was to add a subscribe-by-email widget, which is what I did. Now you have the chance to see my posts delivered directly to your inbox. Ahhhh so much pressure. I like the edit-as-much-as-I-want-because-no-one’s-reading thing I’ve been doing.

Please note, this blog post won’t involve anything about fitness because, let’s face it, I didn’t work out this weekend except for Friday morning. Instead, you’ll get to read the recap of our weekend in Minneapolis.

The Weekend: Anay and Anjli’s Wedding

Over the weekend one of Appan’s very good childhood friends, Anay, got married in Minneapolis and the wedding was an absolute blast. Below is a picture of Appan with the beautiful couple. I unfortunately did not get a single one with the two of them. :: anger ::

In fact, Anay was there when Appan and I were first introduced during SXSW in Austin. Many trips/vacations/meetups later I’ve become close to Appan’s group of friends and their girlfriends.

Appan’s mom and his sister also attended the wedding with us, and I think it’s safe to say we all had a great time.

For those of you who have not been introduced to the world of Indian-American weddings (no, not native American weddings), let me start by saying there’s a bit of a culture shock to someone who has not attended. Typically there are multiple events during Indian weddings, and this wedding was no exception.

Friday: The Sangeet

Sangeet literally translates to “as sung together” in Sanskrit, and is basically a celebration before the wedding day which involves singing and dancing from both sides of the families. It’s a chance to get to know the guests attending the wedding and to laugh and have fun before the seriousness of getting married the next day.

Unfortunately my flight came in a little later than anticipated and I missed most of the dancing and singing. I was pretty sad about that because I absolutely love watching the performances!

I did get to see a little bit, albeit I was in the jeans and shirt I was wearing from earlier in the day. I changed after I got to see a little bit of the performances, and had a blast dancing the rest of the night away. I mean literally, the party went until 1:30am even though we were supposed to be out of there by 11pm.

Here are some pics from the night:

Appan with the groom and his besties

My selfie with the bride at the Sangeet

There are some more pictures and videos that depict the crazy fun we had at the Sangeet, but I thought it was best not to publish them to the world for good reason.

Saturday

Baraat and Milni

The Baraat typically takes place an hour before the ceremony and is a procession of the groom’s arrival surrounded by his friends and family. The groom arrives on a majestic animal, sometimes an elephant, sometimes a horse, decorated in colorful garlands.

The groomsmen dancing in the Baraat

Milni: After all of the celebrating of the baraat is done, the groom meets the bride’s side of the family and each of the family’s pairs “meet.” Typically, the bride’s side is the host of the wedding, so it’s as if the bride’s side is welcoming the groom’s family to the wedding ceremony. Each set of the male members of the family from eldest to youngest place garlands around each other, and the bride’s side gives gifts such as sweets or clothing to the groom’s side. I feel this is patriarchal…since we have females make the majority in my family we may not follow this to the tee and will include the females in the milni.

Ceremony

The ceremony was beautiful and actually pretty entertaining, which is different from the norm. Usually Indian wedding ceremonies are long and boring (sorry everyone who has gotten married, you know it’s true), but this one was short and funny. Both the bride and groom are so animated and the priest aka Pandit, was making a bunch of jokes.

I couldn’t capture a better picture, but hopefully this will do. In Punjabi-Sikh tradition, the groom wears a turban or pagdi, sehra (the headpiece covering his face) and sports a beard. The sehra acts like a veil, adding an aura of mystery, pride, and prestige, along with protecting him from the evil eye. I had to look that up, but it’s good to know for our upcoming wedding since we will have a Northern Indian Punjabi-Sindhi wedding.

After the ceremony was finished, Anjli had trouble stepping down the stairs, so Anay literally swept her off her feet and carried her out of the room! It was so cute and surprisingly romantic of him.

Reception

The reception was held a couple of hours after the ceremony and was absolutely beautiful.

The food was tasty and the speeches were hilarious. My own fiancee delivered a speech that he didn’t prepare for, but he was actually funny. I hate how guys are able to do that. My speeches are never funny.

Appan and I during cocktail hour

If anyone is wondering, I got the dress from my trip to Indian when my family and I went back in June. It’s actually an Indo-Western style, and it is by far my favorite dress out of the ones I purchased while I was there. I love it because it’s so comfortable!

Their first dance

Anjli looked absolutely gorgeous at the reception and the bridesmaids and groomsmen looked like they were having a lot of fun.

The groomsmen did a silly and cute dance, which I may post the video to a little later. The sister of the bride, brother of the groom, father of the bride, father of the groom, best friends, and my fiancee all gave brilliant speeches.

DJ Chani and DJ Prince with Desi Junctions DJs are amazing DJs and kept the party going way longer than it was supposed to.Although the reception was supposed to end at 1am, it actually ended up going until 2am while the staff was breaking down the decor and chairs around us. It also helps that Prince was one of the groomsmen and one of Appan’s good friends. They will be DJing at our wedding and I couldn’t be more excited, wooo!

Appan with the fabulous DJs

If you’re looking for a way to spice up your reception, bring glowsticks. The groomsmen bought glow sticks and started tossing them on the dance floor.  Someone had the bright idea of putting the glowsticks in the bride’s beautiful hairdo. Not going to lie… it was hilarious.

I won’t post any more pics from the reception because they’re not the kind of pictures you want floating around the internet. Just know we had a great time. 🙂

Sunday

The day after the ceremony, the newly wedded couple goes to the groom’s house for post-wedding ceremonies and celebrations. Anjli entered the house and was greeted by Anay’s family with a brief prayer, or Aarti, to ward off evil spirits. She then topples a pot or khalash of rice.

I’m not really sure what this tradition entails, but the basic gist is that the groom’s side is welcoming the bride to their house. Traditionally in India, the bride comes to live with the groom at his parents’ house, so this is a housewarming ceremony of sorts.

The bride and groom before they enter the groom’s parents house.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and one of the best weddings I have ever attended. Love you Anay and Anjli! Congratulations!