Indian Disney wedding

We'd been invited by our driver D. P to a wedding in Delhi the 18th, and due to unforeseen health issues we actually able to go even though we were suppose to be in Varanasi those days. We came to his family home and spent the day there, eating lunch, whatching bollywood movies, looking at photos and preparing for the wedding! He lives in a big three floor house with his parents and his two brothers and their wives and kids. 11 people all in all. They were most warm and welcoming to us and we were so happy that we had the oppurtunity to come visit. In the evening they dressed us in beautiful sarees and painted our faces before we left, our driver, his wife, his nephew and us.

Now, at this time, this year, its wedding season. Here every couple goes to someone who can read the stars and tell them what the best time to get married is, according to the stars. So every year the stars will look better at one point on the year, and last weekend there must have been thousands and thousands of weddings. D.P and his fam was invited to 4 different ones on just a couple of days. Usually there are between 800-1500 poeple attending a normal Indian wedding!! The personal wedding seremoni is just for the closest family, mostly just because it takes about 3-4 hours just the vows and the groom rides on a horse to the wedding reseption and the bride must be escorted by the men in her family and if they arrive at the wedding reseption around 11 pm, they made good time. This is all over 3 days long period. We didnt see much of the rituals though, we pretty much just ate and left. But you pass them on the streets like little mini-parades, holding up the already late traffic. There are huge buffets and people eat standing around the room, which we found rather difficult.

As it happened, just by coincidence, we got invited to another wedding the next evening, we pretty much arrived there in our westeren clothes and this was a very big wedding. It was outside, only with walls around that looked kind of like a castle. The dresses people wear are unbelievable! Someone tol me that they get invited to abour 50 wedding a year! The bride and groom are unbelieveable dressed up! I'm surprised they can move and i dont think there's a part of the brides skin that not decorated with jewely or henna (a red sort of paint, like a temporary tattoo).

Here some of the photos from both weddings, and im also trying to upland a movie which shows the second couple putting flowerbands over eachothers neck and the theres a machine spraying rosepetals on them while the little platform they stand on start turning around! (While this is happening some random india guy puts his arm over my shoulder saying, "just one photo, please, u from london? please" while im holding my camera over my head to see the true highlight of the wedding.. clearly poeple have different prioryties.

This is the point in the Disneymovie, sorry, Indian wedding, where the couple is so happy that they start spinning around while flowers rains aorund them!

The bride was escorted by to women equally pretty dressed and 6-8 men holding a little roof over her head.. While they were playing emotional music, (at least so they said:)

The only guy in India we actually asked ourselves to take a photo with was the groom of the second wedding - facinating!

DANCEFLOOR! See me? The old guy in front of me came over and got me from a nearby chair! The boys rule the dancefloors in India - awesome!

Inside (outside) at the second wedding. It was HUGE!

Entrance at the second wedding.. very facinating and a little bit scary.

Sanna, D.P and Åssi at the wedding.

The couple at the first wedding were very cute together!

Everybody is very dressed up! And I loves this place!

We loved the food! There was so much! And the best, vanilla ice cream an hot chocolate sauce!

The sweetest neighbour girl came to help us get ready

It seemed very complicated to me but the most natural thing in the world to all indian girls.