India!...Bridal Showers

After London, we headed over to India for my cousin's wedding. They had already been celebrating before we got there with an engagement party. They day after we got there, we started with the bridal showers.

Bridal showers in India aren't quite like bridal showers in America. Yes she gets gifts, but that is not the main focus.

Bridal shower number 1

The bride sits with someone on her right and everyone takes a turn putting rice and oil on their heads and rubbing these spices and oils on their head, face, arms and legs. It's kind of funny because here in America we all envy darker and tanner skin. There in India, they all want to be lighter. So some believe that if you rub these spices on your skin for a week to 10 days before the wedding, it will make your skin lighter and you will be glowing. My family more so did it for the tradition. When I got married, we did this same shower for me. It was so much fun! Also by putting the rice on her head, you are giving her blessings and good luck with her marriage. This is only after the first couple of people.

Carter didn't know what to think at first. But here we are taking our turn. They always start with the eldest in the room and work their way down.

This is what they looked like after the last person!

Then after everybody has taken their turn, the bride will go shower and dress up in her pretty sari and jewlery and come recieve her gifts. Cute family.. Prasad, Reema, Shilpa (the bride), Nikitha, and Anitha

Bridal shower number 2 at Aunty Lucy's house. Taking my turn..

Aunty Prema got sneaky and after each person's turn, rubbed it on our faces... Oh and that is Heather, one of my cousins, sitting with Shilpa this time.

I tried to hide my face from Prema while she was trying to get me, but I obviously didn't win that fight. But it sure freaked Carter out! Poor little guy thought I was getting hurt...I'm glad he loves his mama:)

Heather, Prema,Shilpa, Lucy, Pushpa, Nadia

Bridal Shower number 3. This was just at our home and more of a spur of the moment thing to keep it going. We had already done a couple and they decided why not just do them everyday! But Shilpa was kind of tired of getting the spices rubbed all over her and having to clean it all off again (which I totally don't blame her!) so we only did the rice on her head this time. Eric had stopped in Delhi to visit his old mission area and my brother Travis who is there now and had just made it to Hyderabad. So he got in on the festivities too:)

Ashlie sitting next to Shilpa and taking her turn..

Mom handing over her gifts..

After being blessed...

Bridal shower number 4! By this point, it was just for fun:) Reema sat next to Shilpa this time and got smart and put her hood on so she wouldn't have to worry about getting all the rice out of her hair! Smart girl!

And after they got blessed...

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.

Christmas Day

Christmas day definitely was much different than Christmas day is here. Since my grandpa had passed away earlier this year, out of respect, they don't really celebrate anything for a whole year after the death.

But we still had a blast. We got up that morning and went to a breakfast buffet. And the had american food at the breakfast along with the indian food! So we had bacon, eggs, waffles, muffins, and pretty much anything we wanted. Carter was LOVING his chocolate donut!

These palm trees right outside of the hotel/restaurant were beautiful. We sent this picture to our family at home wishing them a Warm Merry Christmas!

My beautiful mom and her beautiful sisters Anitha and Raji

Nikitha, Chikki, Ash and me

After breakfast, we went home and had our mehendi put on our hands for the reception. Mehendi is basically the same thing as henna. All the girls got it done to be fancy and pretty for the wedding:) This girl was at our house from noon to about 8 and did 13 girl's hands front and back. She was amazing!

So there, it is tradition to have the bride somewhere in her mehendi hide the groom's initials in all of the intricate art. So in lei of missing my hubby, I had her write his name on my hand.

Waiting for the mehendi to dry. You have to leave it on for at least 3 hours before you peel it all off. The longer you keep it on, the darker the color gets. It also gets darker depending on your body temperature.

This is what it looks like after it is all peeled off. It is a really pretty dark maroon color. And it only lasted about 5 days before the color started to fade and after about a week to a week and a half it was completely gone.

Reception

December 27 was the reception in Hyderabad. It was very similar to receptions here, just with an Indian twist I guess you could say.:)

To start off, Venu gave Shilpa her ring as a gift from him. They don't really have a "ring ceremony", they just exchange gifts.

My mom then introduced the couple to everyone at the reception and then her and her sister Raji escorted Shilpa and Venu over to the cake and instead of the bride and groom feeding each other, my mom and her sister fed the couple.

Chikki, Eric, Reema, Venu, Shilpa, Nikitha, Ashlie, Reena, Carter and me

Daniel family

Eric giving them blessings and good luck!

This little girl LOVED Carter. I'm not sure she spoke too much english, but all she wanted was to hold him and take a picture with him. It was so dang cute! He was the highlight of the night!

Uncle Prasad

Sirisha and Chikki

While we were dancing, Carter found this little girl and just giggled and loved her!

He kept trying to hug her but she didn't like it too much. It was funny but it was SO cute! Sorry about the bright light, but the guy who does the video camera has a HUGE spotlight on his camera so everytime he filmed you, you could hardly look at the camera cause it was so bright! They were filming this moment also...

Carter's favorite part of the night by far was the dancing. It was so funny cause I was feeding him his dinner and before he finished, the music turned on and he saw everyone gather in a group to dance and all he kept saying was dance! I don't think I've ever seen him climb out of his seat so fast, run over and just start bouncing up and down. It was hilarious! And he went all night long!!

All the girl cousins after a fun night of lots and lots of dancing! :) Chikki, Nikitha, Reema, Ashlie, Heather, me, Reena and Nadia

Shilpa throwing the bouquet. I love Nikki in the picture! She is ready!

But Reema caught it! So when will it be Reema?

The family right before leaving for the night. The reception was beautiful. I didn't take any pictures of the food, but it was delicious like always. They had so many friends and family come support them and it was just a fun way to end the wedding festivities.

Random Pictures

This is how we had to squeeze into the auto rickshaws everyday! Carter loved just sitting out on the balcony and watching the "vroom vrooms" in his words :)

This is a power pole that is directly across the street from my family's house.

One day while we were in Rajimundry, our driver took us around the village and Eric showed us around his old area. While driving down the street, we passed this truck that had two elephants in it! And yes they were live elephants! It was crazy!

On Christmas day, we went to a Hindu wedding of a relatives. It was amazing! Apparently, they plan their wedding time according to the stars. So that is why there's landed on Christmas day. The couple sits on this platform and their family sits around them in a tight circle. And then the hindu priests sit in front of them and chant these things. There is loud music playing the whole time. And then the guests could come up and bless them with the rice on their head. This marriage was an arranged marriage.

One of the nights, we all of the sudden heard these loud bomb like noises outside our door. So we ran out and saw this parade of people standing right in front of the house. It was some kind of hindu holiday and they all walk around without shoes and carry these candles while some people play the drums and others dance around in a circle.

And this parade went all the way down the street.

And they would dance and light fireworks (the big ones! You know..the kind that are illegal here) and make there way through the whole neighborhood. At the end of the parade line was their God that they were worshipping.

Think Christmas!

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