Big Fat Indian Wedding, But Not Mine!

Hey lovelies, Happy Friday!! I have been such a horrible blogger, I swore I would get better once I got home, but with work and school taking over my life again, I can't dedicate adequate time to the blog. Here's another attempt at being a better blogger. So if you already know, I was in New York/Jersey for the past 2 weeks and had been crazy busy with a family wedding. If most of you don't know already I am 100% Indian and an Indian wedding consists of 3-4 days of festivities/craziness. Now my family and I got to Jersey about a week before the wedding weekend and that meant we got straight to work, decorating and prepping for this huge wedding. I won't bore you all with all the details, but I will go over all the fun events that happen during a big Indian wedding! 

The first night usually consists of the bride's family calling over close friends and family for a night of music, food and henna. If you don't know what henna is, it's basically like a paint that you decorate your hands with to celebrate the start of wedding festivities. Now the rumor is that the darker the bride's henna, the deeper the love she has. Well I'll tell you this much, her henna was DARK!! Here are some fun pictures from that night. {By the way, all the decorations you see in the background is from the hard work of all of the family!!}

My creation for the decor

The beautiful bride getting her henna put on

Bride's all done, only took 3 hours!!

My turn!!

My henna, I'm in love with the peacock!!

So after all that fun {and crazy amounts of food being ingested}, we all woke up bright and early the next morning for the next day of events. The next morning was a prayer that the bride and groom do separately at their homes and it's basically like a big blessing from each family to the pair and all that jazz. Personally, this is the boring part, but at the end we all go out to the street and basically dance and have a mini party. Since we were in Jersey City and the family knows the police around here we were able to shut down a few streets to be able to do this. Here are some shots of the event.

The morning of decorations

Pretty bride-to-be {the yellow stuff on her face is for blessings & to make her skin glow for her wedding}

I spy lot of Indians dancing & a cop car in the back :)

The same night is another super fun evening because it's the night of dancing. Now this is not always done at Indian weddings, but the ones who go all out have this night. The bride's side invites the groom and his family to come out for a night of dancing and fun. I don't have too many pictures because I was busy dancing the night away and the blisters on my feet were proof of a good night! 

My younger sister, the bride-to-be, and I

The soon-to-be married couple starting off the night's dancing

If that night wasn't exhausting enough, all the "younger people" went to the hotel that night, which was an hour away from where we were. To say we were all sleepy was an understatement, but we couldn't sleep, you see we were all participating in a surprise flashmob dance for the couple at the reception and had to practice while we had everyone there. Granted it wasn't a great practice, but at least we were able to get everyone together and run through it a couple of times. After that, we were all good and tired and ready for the excitement of the next day, wedding day!!! I woke up before the sun had even come up to grab the shower and start work on looking somewhat presentable in public {it apparently takes a long time, sucks I know}. Well after everyone got ready, we all went down for family pictures with the bride & groom before the wedding started. After chugging down 2 cups of coffee, I was ready for the day. Indian weddings are long and very involved. Being to a lot of weddings, I kinda of knew the jist of things, but was definitely glad when it was all over and lunchtime was upon us! 

The happenings of an Indian wedding {read this if you are curious what all happens during the wedding ceremony}

Sissy, "cousin", & I

Fave bridesmaid & I

The gorgeous couple "coming into" their wedding

Their officially married!!!!!

Saying bye to the newly married couple {until the reception that is}

Now during an Indian wedding, lunch is usually served and then you have a few hours break in between the wedding ceremony and the reception. This time for me meant dealing with the set up and layout of the reception. I was the bride's voice down there trying to get everything the way she wanted it so she could get ready for her night as a Mrs. Right off the bat, things were not going as planned. The table place cards which the bride had a fantastic idea for, went all awry. There were sticks to be placed in a Ferrero Rocher, but the hotel staff decided not to refrigerate the chocolates, idiots. Well that was problem number 1, the next problem was that the sticks were not staying upright once they were in the chocolates. After over an hour of fidgeting with the place cards, it finally looked decent enough to just let be. I was still running around making sure the photobooth accessories were in the appropriate hands, and any other last minute things were dealt with. After all that, I had a good hour or so to get ready! After all the running around, my curls had fallen out and my makeup was all but gone. Somehow I managed to get ready and join everyone for strawberry & champagne/cocktail hour. Seeing everyone transform from daytime wear to night time swag was such a great feeling! I was ready to have a great night and I know everyone else was as well. Drinks and apps were flowing steadily and as the clock hit 7pm, everyone made their way into the ballroom which was transformed to a pink & gold fantasy land. The first thing I noticed were the sky high orchid centerpieces on the tables and everything being pink, I was in love! Without too much more talking from me, here are the pictures and the two awesome performances that were done that evening. 

Gorgeous centerpiece at our table!!

Sissy, cousin, & I

Me, new bestie & the sis

Enjoying some bubbly with the new Mrs!!

The gorgeous couple during their first dance!!

Groom popping some bubbly to start the night off right!

Aren't they adorable?!?

Definitely the fun/party group!!!

The damage we did at the after reception party!

^The bridesmaids & Bride's guy cousins dancing to Chris Brown^

^Our 30+ surprise flashmob for the couple^

If you guys don't recognize the songs, don't fret, most of the songs are Indian songs from popular Bollywood movies! The flashmob was SUCH a blast and a great surprise for the Bride & Groom and everyone's hard work definitely paid off! 

I know that was a lot of reading, pictures, and videos to get through, but hopefully you all had as much fun as I did attending this wedding! 

If you have any questions about any part of the wedding don't hesitate in contacting me!! 

I absolutely love my family & friends and all the amazing people I got to meet during this wedding weekend. It was definitely one of the best weekends this year and I hope this gorgeous couple have an amazing life together!!! 

Have an amazing & safe weekend lovers!!