Kajal's Wedding

Last month one of my closest friends from high school, Kajal, got married! Hurray! I'm so happy for her as she has been searching high and low for Mr. Right! Neeraj seems like SUCH a nice guy and they are so happy together! I got to fly out for the wedding with only little Nathan, leaving Brandon to tend to the rest of the troops alone. Thank you so much, Brandon, for being such a supportive, wonderful husband! Kajal is from India and had a traditional Indian Hindu wedding. It was a fascinating experience. Luckily, another of my good friends from high school, Jessica, is still in our hometown and attended the wedding festivities with me. We didn't get to talk to Kaj much, since she was a little busy with other things, but Jess and I had a fun time catching up and sympathizing with each other about all the craziness of having young, busy families. It really was a wonderful weekend. Plus, the free lodging, food and babysitting by my own mom was an additional perk! Thanks, Mom! I tried really hard to get some great pictures to capture Kajal's beautiful wedding, but came home really disappointed with my pictures. I guess I don't know how to use my camera very well with low lighting and such. But here are some of the pictures I got, for better or for worse!

Here are the invitations to the wedding festivities. It was a 3 day wedding with 5 different events. Jessica and I went to all but one of the events! Beautiful invitations!

Here's Jessica, Kajal and me at Kaj's Mehndi Party, the 1st event of the wedding. This is when she got her henna tattoos. It took THREE hours for Kajal to get her hands, arms, feet and legs tattooed. The tattoos are so beautiful and very ornate. Kaj said she chose a couple of specific symbolic designs and the rest were just beautiful designs.

Here is a close up of Kajal's hands.

Kajal's hands and feet.

At the Mehndi Party they had some artists giving all the women tattoos on their hands. They were amazingly fast. Here's MY henna tattoo. It almost lasted a week!

The Friday morning event Jessica and I missed, and I spent some time with my mom and sisters. But here we are Friday night at the Garba Raas. For every event Kajal had the most beautiful saris. Jess and I felt way under dressed. This night was a dinner, lots of Indian dancing, and some speeches from Kajal's and Neeraj's friends.

And finally, the wedding day! Here's Neeraj at the Baraat Procession coming to his wedding on a horse. We all proceeded him dancing the whole way. Traditionally Indians involve elephants in the procession, but those aren't readily available in the USA! :)

After the Baraat Procession everyone gathered in a big mosh pit to dance. Those Indians really know how to party! Kajal's mom did some ceremonial and traditional things here that we only could catch a glimpse of through the crowds and got some brief descriptions from some of the people around us that we kept bugging for explanations.

At last, here's Kajal and Neeraj getting married. A Hindu priest performed the ceremony, which was longer than Christian ceremonies. So during the wedding they passed out little bowls of ice cream for a snack! Yum!

The wedding party sits on stage with the bride and groom for the ceremony.

Here's the happy couple with some other random people they were getting their picture taken with. I just wanted a picture of Kajal's beautiful dress. It was SO ornate. But my camera didn't focus right. I was SO sad!

Jessica, Neeraj, Kajal and me at the dinner reception. Kajal's wearing yet another gorgeous sari. Like I said, it was quite an experience. The food was really spicy and the traditional music was very different to listen to. The Bollywood music was fun! Congratulations Kajal and Neeraj! What a beautiful wedding!