An Indian Wedding

At the beginning of 2014 when Alex and I were waiting in Kuala Lumpur airport to board our plane back to Melbourne, we took a seat next to a man sitting on one of the empty benches. Before long, the man struck up a conversation with us. Asking us if we knew what our necklaces meant (We both wear om pendants around our necks), talking about India, Melbourne and other small talk. He soon introduced himself as Kannan, a man who lived in Chennai, India. It just so happened that he was also travelling to Melbourne for a month for work. Soon enough, the loudspeaker rang indicating that we had to board the plane. We gave Kannan our details and invited him over for dinner if he ever had a night free whilst he was in Melbourne. 

Luckily enough, Kannan contacted us and we were able to cook him and Australian Indian dinner and take him to experience one of Melbournes' largest festivals, White Night.

A couple of months later, a notification popped up on the computer screen, a request to attend Kannan and Divyas wedding in Chennai in India. 

Excitedly, Alex and I didn't hesitate for a moment and booked flights (Cheap. So, so cheap) to Chennai for the upcoming celebrations. 

An Adventure begins....

An Indian wedding is like no other celebration. The celebration is not limited to one day nor is it limited in guests, foods, extravagant fabrics and more. 

In the morning of the celebrations the front door Kannans apartment was embellished with Banana trees and banana leaves, signifying eternal plentifulness for many generations.  It is a traditional ceremony to have the grooms friends and family bless him to ward of any negative energy that may be surrounding the union. Another custom is to make jasmine hair adornments for all women involved in the wedding. A seemingly easy task for the Indian women who have been doing it for years - and and awfully difficult one for Alex and I. No matter how hard we tried we could not manage to even loop one flower onto string. 

The first day of the ceremonies was to show off the couple. Alex and I both wore western dress - I a printed max dress and Alex a suit. My dress was adorned with a slit between my shoulder blades. Throughout the day women were coming up to me and trying to do up my non existent zip. It was entertaining trying to explain that there was so zip when there was such a massive language barrier. Popcorn and fairy floss and copious amounts of juice and tea were also provided. 

The second day of celebrations was the actual marriage. The couple are combined together and blessed in all lives. For this ceremony Alex and I wore traditional Indian wear - a sari and a Dohti. We had virtually no idea what was going on the entire time We were dragged up onto the alter whilst prayers were being said. We were dragged around - not ever sure as to what was going on and dreadfully scared that we would ruin the wedding. But all was well! They were kind enough to include as in all parts of the ceremony. After the ceremony whilst the couple were getting photos taken Alex and I played with the kids. They were fascinated by our cameras and were the only ones that could speak english. We let them play with our cameras and most of the shots turned out wonderfully!

Attempting and failing at creating hair wreaths

Blessing the groom