Sejal's Wedding!

Bright colors, loud music and gold jewelry everywhere- it couldn't be anything but Sejal's Wedding! I was so honored to be invited to Sejal's weekend wedding affair. Events started as early as Thursday with the actual wedding taking place on Sunday. While I would have loved to attended all of the events- Tommy and I just made the events on Sunday. And it did not disappoint!

 Above: Brielle Guerra and Emi try to convince Sejal to not get married! Brielle is seven months older than Emi and just 1/3 of the triplet madness!

Above: The stage is set for the ceremony. There was nothing about this that wasn't over the top.

I learned SO much about the Indian culture. Most importantly, Indians are not nearly as rude as I thought. It really just is their culture. Also, the entire day ran anywhere between one to three hours late! Once I embraced it, I really started to enjoy myself!

Above: This is the barat. Basically the groom's parade. Two city streets were blocked off and a boom box lead the freightened horse down downtown Des Moines.  No candy was thrown! But lots of Indian people jumping up and down!

 Above: My handsome husband at the parade!

 Above: More crazy Indians! I think the pink hat signifies family, but I am not sure about that.

Above: The forgeous Mindy Guerra served as the only white bridesmaid. And is she said "I finally iknow what it is like to be discriminated against." Tommy said he even noticed people glaring at her. I thought they looked gorgeous- you know, for a white girl! Mindy was supposed to dance in he barat but opted not to. She said she didn't know how to dance. Sammy,Sejal's brother, told her to watch Aladin to learn how!

Above: The BEAUTIFUL bride, Sejal, greets the groom, Jayesh, at the front of the temple hotel  and gives him this garland.

 Above: After seeing his bride, Jayesh is hoisted on to the shoulders to celebrate! So crazy- and it was only 945 am at this point.

A series of traditions went on after this. Here are a few thoughts from a white girl:

1. During the ceremony several chairs were pulled up on the stage like they didn't have it counted out before. Weird, right?

2. Part of the tradition is for the bridesmaid to steal the grooms shoes while the mother in law is washing his feet. Also, if Sejal's brother grabbed his toe, he had to barter with him to get away from him. So literally, in the middle of the ceremony, the groom is pulling money out of his pockets to pay people. Its al starting to make sense, right?

3. During some parts of the ceremony, Bridesmaids left the stage and went into the crowd to get items out of their purse

4. It was totally legitimate for the guy in the front row to have his cell phone ringer on, answer it during the ceremony, and walk to the back of the room to talk.

5. Of the 500 or so people there, about 480 people talked to the people next to them through the entire thing. The 20 who didn't were the white people there. I always thought Indian people were rude but that is really just their culture.

 Above: Sejal enters the ceremony.

So beautiful!

 Above: During the ceremony they served yogurt! Yum!

The beautiful couple!

My camera died at this point. The chef had the meal ready so while the ceremony continued people left to go eat lunch.

After lunch Sejal and Jayesh went to the temple near Granger to bless the vows. Then dinner started again at 6pm 930pm. It was so awesome! Tons of dancing, food, tradition. It was great. We sat at the only white table (and Tommy- who as considered white for the purposes of this wedding). We were the butt of all the jokes during the reception. They would say something in Indian and all look over us and laugh. Regardless, we got served first which was great since dinner was served 2.5 hours late!

As we left the wedding Tommy and I agreed- it was the best wedding we had ever been to! Those Indians sure know how to party!