our weddings are always spread over 3 days !! i know this would sound shocking for a lot of people.all i could hope and pray was for me to come out of this in one piece and keep myself sane througout the length of all the rituals.
so onto day 1 ..Aug 30th,2007
the alarm went off and i woke up with a start..where was i, why did i wake up so early ..oh i was so confused. i could hear voices in the kitchen and then everything came back to me.we had to reach the mandapam before 5.30 am. i shot out of the bed, only to find that the power had gone off and there was very less water coming out of the taps as the overhead tank was almost empty and no power to fill it up.things couldn't get worse than this!!!
everyone was running around, thankfully the kitchen tap yielded little more water than the other ones.so we filled up the buckets from there and headed to the bathrooms.
the power had still not come back and the worst nightmare for a girl, dressing up with an emergency lamp for your wedding ( well not quite the wedding yet ). Anyway, managed to dress up in the dark and then me, my parents and my granny started off for the mandapam while the others followed a little later with the suitcases and boxes.
the agenda for the day went on like this.
vratham - from morning till noon
engagement - from noon till evening
reception- evening till night
and hopefully some sleep afterwards..
Thursday, June 26, 2008
My wedding-preparations
March 28, 2007:
This was my " ponnu paakara" day!!! Sundar (S) and his family came down to my place to meet my family and formally "see" me.It sounded so formal and cinematic, more so that I have been knowing S for so long, that I just wanted to laugh out aloud at the drama that was happening, but managed to maintain a dignified silence. After all the regular high level talks, a few clicks of the camera,bajjis and filter coffee, everybody was happy.
April,2007 ( not sure of the date)
The D - day was fixed at August 31st,2007 :-)
April 14,2007 till the wedding
The best part of any wedding ( atleast for the girl ),SHOPPING !! we started it off on this auspicious day of tamil new year.bought some jewellery for me . this was just the beginning of almost 3 months of intensive shopping.we shopped only on the weekends. i can still remember how much fun all those days were.we( me, my parents and my sis) would start off from home after some heavy b'fast and go from shop to shop buying sarees and other dresses( for me ,family and relatives),jewellery, vessels( copper,stainless steel,silver),things needed for the marriage ceremonies.....the list was just endless.
well, shopping was just one part, getting things stiched was the other and more painful part. The tailors are always over flowing with things to stich, they always run out of people to stich things and perfection is never acheived..either the sleeve is long or short, tight or loose,and it is oh so frustrating. I remember that I was waiting for my stuff even o the day before marriage.
During this period, me and my parents finalized on the traditional wedding card( pink and yellow one in tamil). Me and S wanted the card which was meant for our friends to be something different. But the price you have to pay for " something" different was always on the higher side.
Then we would wonder if we had to spend so much on a card when we could spend it on something useful (already planning, you see!! ). Anyway, we settled to card that didn't too ordinary and at the same time didn't make a hole in our pockets.
Now for what to put on it..we googled and googled ..from shakespeare to every anonymous person who wrote something on love, wedding...and almost anything.from english to tamil to sanskrit..you name it we searched for it..and finally we just gave up.
what finally appeared on the card was a mish mash of verses taken from all the sample cards the shop had, however it turned out to be pretty good.
well, all this shopping went on almost till 2 weeks before the wedding, and i was part of all of it, when my grandmother stepped in to show her authority by saying that the bride-to-be is not supposed to roam around in this fashion.
So i finally took a leave a month's leave from office,and settled down to the cool comforts of home, with everyone from my mother to aunt to granny falling over each other to make me comforatble( in my own home).I was fed with grt food,fruits and juices, didnt have to move a finger and chat and gossip endlessly.What more can anyone want!!
A week before the wedding we packed all the dresses and vessels and everythign needed for the marriage in suitcases and boxes,labelled them and kept them aside. Sounds simple and neat, but the confusion that took place before doing all this was unbelievable.anyway, we were done with that.
August 29th,2007
Woke up early to find that it was just pouring outside.Everyone was upset and worried if this would continue till the wedding. i was excited coz today was my mehndi day.nothing like the north indian weddings.but me and my sister went to the beautician to get it done. back home we sat with our hands and legs spread out under the fan while my mother fed me( this is bliss!! )..butsoon it started getting painful . finally when i took out the mehndi , the beautiful red color turned the pain into joy.
not much to be done on that day. when we finally went to bed, none of us could sleep. atleast i couldn't bat an eyelid. it was raining like hell,the thunder and lightning adding up to all the excitement. my sis told me that this would be my last night at home and suddenly all of us started feeling awful.somehow one by one we started talking about my childhood, my pranks and about those good old days. we talked and talked till we dozed off unknowingly.
that night would remain in my memory forever.
This was my " ponnu paakara" day!!! Sundar (S) and his family came down to my place to meet my family and formally "see" me.It sounded so formal and cinematic, more so that I have been knowing S for so long, that I just wanted to laugh out aloud at the drama that was happening, but managed to maintain a dignified silence. After all the regular high level talks, a few clicks of the camera,bajjis and filter coffee, everybody was happy.
April,2007 ( not sure of the date)
The D - day was fixed at August 31st,2007 :-)
April 14,2007 till the wedding
The best part of any wedding ( atleast for the girl ),SHOPPING !! we started it off on this auspicious day of tamil new year.bought some jewellery for me . this was just the beginning of almost 3 months of intensive shopping.we shopped only on the weekends. i can still remember how much fun all those days were.we( me, my parents and my sis) would start off from home after some heavy b'fast and go from shop to shop buying sarees and other dresses( for me ,family and relatives),jewellery, vessels( copper,stainless steel,silver),things needed for the marriage ceremonies.....the list was just endless.
well, shopping was just one part, getting things stiched was the other and more painful part. The tailors are always over flowing with things to stich, they always run out of people to stich things and perfection is never acheived..either the sleeve is long or short, tight or loose,and it is oh so frustrating. I remember that I was waiting for my stuff even o the day before marriage.
During this period, me and my parents finalized on the traditional wedding card( pink and yellow one in tamil). Me and S wanted the card which was meant for our friends to be something different. But the price you have to pay for " something" different was always on the higher side.
Then we would wonder if we had to spend so much on a card when we could spend it on something useful (already planning, you see!! ). Anyway, we settled to card that didn't too ordinary and at the same time didn't make a hole in our pockets.
Now for what to put on it..we googled and googled ..from shakespeare to every anonymous person who wrote something on love, wedding...and almost anything.from english to tamil to sanskrit..you name it we searched for it..and finally we just gave up.
what finally appeared on the card was a mish mash of verses taken from all the sample cards the shop had, however it turned out to be pretty good.
well, all this shopping went on almost till 2 weeks before the wedding, and i was part of all of it, when my grandmother stepped in to show her authority by saying that the bride-to-be is not supposed to roam around in this fashion.
So i finally took a leave a month's leave from office,and settled down to the cool comforts of home, with everyone from my mother to aunt to granny falling over each other to make me comforatble( in my own home).I was fed with grt food,fruits and juices, didnt have to move a finger and chat and gossip endlessly.What more can anyone want!!
A week before the wedding we packed all the dresses and vessels and everythign needed for the marriage in suitcases and boxes,labelled them and kept them aside. Sounds simple and neat, but the confusion that took place before doing all this was unbelievable.anyway, we were done with that.
August 29th,2007
Woke up early to find that it was just pouring outside.Everyone was upset and worried if this would continue till the wedding. i was excited coz today was my mehndi day.nothing like the north indian weddings.but me and my sister went to the beautician to get it done. back home we sat with our hands and legs spread out under the fan while my mother fed me( this is bliss!! )..butsoon it started getting painful . finally when i took out the mehndi , the beautiful red color turned the pain into joy.
not much to be done on that day. when we finally went to bed, none of us could sleep. atleast i couldn't bat an eyelid. it was raining like hell,the thunder and lightning adding up to all the excitement. my sis told me that this would be my last night at home and suddenly all of us started feeling awful.somehow one by one we started talking about my childhood, my pranks and about those good old days. we talked and talked till we dozed off unknowingly.
that night would remain in my memory forever.
I'm back...for good !!!
Yes..I'm back.I know this is the nth time i'm saying this, having disappeared from this space far too often.but this has been the longest, 15 months to be exact.Incidentally, these 15 months have been the most eventful ones in my life.my title has changed from Miss to Mrs, we've moved abroad, the latter being the most unexpected.
life has definitely changed and I'm constantly trying to keep pace with it.
anyway, i hadn't planned on writing about anything specific till the time i started typing. but now i so badly want to recount my wedding and the experiences and events leading upto the most memorable day in my life.
this might not be as interesting as an abhi-ash wedding !!! but somehow all indian weddings are fun..and so was mine.
i know that my cousin sriram (something to chew on) has already given a detailed account of it in his blog, but i would still like to go ahead.
so happy reading !!!
life has definitely changed and I'm constantly trying to keep pace with it.
anyway, i hadn't planned on writing about anything specific till the time i started typing. but now i so badly want to recount my wedding and the experiences and events leading upto the most memorable day in my life.
this might not be as interesting as an abhi-ash wedding !!! but somehow all indian weddings are fun..and so was mine.
i know that my cousin sriram (something to chew on) has already given a detailed account of it in his blog, but i would still like to go ahead.
so happy reading !!!
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