Charleston Wedding

My first Indian American wedding experience was actually really cool. When I saw that there were so many events, and especially how long the day was going to be on Saturday, I was a little nervous, but it turned out to be such a cool and fun experience!

On Friday night from 7-10:30 was a celebration for everyone who was in town. Basically it was like a mini reception and there was a ton of Indian food, Indian music, and lots of dancing! And the saris that the women were wearing were so so pretty!

We got to do this dance with two metal sticks (I don't know the name of it), but it was a lot of fun and the groom's family had a fun time teaching us, and we had fun trying to keep up!

(I had more videos than I did still pictures)

Poor me and my gestational diabetes diet where I had to watch carbs went out the window for dinner when my options were various breads (which I so wanted but stayed away from), potatoes, buttered chicken (my fave) and lentil soup. Needless to say, I did not test my blood sugars that night, but all of the food was really yummy!

We all liked the trays so that we could get a taste of all the different things, but without the different flavors blending and getting mixed together

Saturday the festivities started at 1:15 in the hotel parking lot where the groom got lead to the ceremony with a processional. They had music playing (a mix of Indian music and some traditional hip hop music which was a ton of fun), and we lead the way around the side of the hotel, waving colorful handkerchiefs while the groom got pulled along on a carriage behind us (apparently they had wanted to do a white horse but that didn't work out for whatever reason). Lucky for us it was a gorgeous day out!

We proceeded to the Indian ceremony. I won't lie, we didn't understand any of what was being said, but we followed along with what was happening based on the information in the program. It was a really neat ceremony to watch and the bride looked stunning in her attire!

I loved that the groom was hidden behind a sheet while the bride walked in, and they had to wait to see each other until the sheet was lowered--the anticipation was really fun!

We had cocktail hour after the Indian ceremony out on the terrace of the hotel which overlooked the water, and the weather was so nice so we took advantage of the photo op!

Following that was the Christian ceremony which was really quick, and once again the bride looked stunning in her dress!

After the ceremony we got ourselves together to head to the reception, but caught a glimpse of the married couple darting off into the sunset in their gorgeous wedding car

We headed out to The Cedar Room in Charleston on 1960's white buses which was a trip. The Cedar Room used to be an old cigar factory(?), and it had such a cool industrial/loft feel--it was beautiful!

Unfortunately, there weren't enough tables to sit down at, so our group ended up eating dinner at a standing table, but the delicious southern food made up for it (another carb-buster of a night for me).

And then there was dancing. The music was really good (the DJ's transitions could have used a lot of work), and we all had such a good time tearing up the dance floor. Preggo mama over here even did the limbo (MG asked the guys to raise it for me and then the effers lowered it while I was going under....mean!)

 The whole weekend was awesome and it was so much fun to get to experience another culture's wedding festivities and customs. Lots of blessings to the newlyweds!

I do know that Baby G enjoyed all of the dancing :)

And that wraps up MG's and my last airplane trip anywhere before we become parents!