Wedding Day

The night before the wedding, they had a dowry ceremony. That is where the bride and groom's family come together and the groom's family gives the bride's family gifts. So they gave Shilpa and her mom pretty saris and then they gave bananas and a sweet to all of the guests that came. My brother and sister have pictures of the ceremony, so I will have to add them later.

Morning of the wedding! I did Shilpa's hair, so we had to start early on curling:)

All the girls watched Ashlie curl her long pretty hair and wanted it like that for the wedding, but they hadn't ever done it to their hair before, so Ashlie helped...

Nadia helping Shilpa with her jewelry

Nikki caught on and her and Reena helped Reema with her hair..

Finally ready! Shilpa designed this wedding dress and had it made just for her

My mom introduced Shilpa to the guests at the beginning of the wedding ceremony.

They sat up on this platform with these beautiful chairs..

Shilpa giving Venu his ring. Venu won't give her ring to her until the reception. But instead he ties a gold chain around her neck with a ring on it that she won't ever take off.

Bride's family

They feed each other the cake and they don't smash it in each other's face!

cousins!

This was kind of funny. It is tradition there that the groom's family invites the bride's family to their house after the wedding. So the groom's family was all piled into this car.

But then part of the tradition is that the girls on the bride's side of the family stand in front of the car and don't let them leave until the groom gives them some money. It usually is all fun and games and the groom gives each girl some money. Well this started all fun and games. They stood there for about an hour and half to two hours and the groom was not giving anything. Then the groom's family finally got out of the car and started to walk home. He still wasn't giving anything so finally the girls gave up and that ended the night. We went back to our rooms and packed up for the train ride home. At the end of the trip though, he ended up giving some money to all of us!

All in all though, it was a really beautiful wedding and lots of fun! Having to watch Carter the whole time, I didn't get all the pictures on my camera. There are some pictures I will be getting from my brother and sister.