The Chunni,
"An integral part of the wedding week, the chunni ceremony traditionally involves the mother in law to be, placing a red chunni (scarf) on the bride's head. Following this is a ritual in which the bride is fed boiled rice and milk by all the bridegroom's relatives. This ceremony marks the acceptance of the bride into the grooms family."
That afternoon at around 4:30pm we (the bride's side) pilled into coaches and cars and made our way to the SSD Hindu Temple where the first ceremony was already under way on the groom's side. We waited across the street where the bride and her closest were cooling off in the car, great opportunity to get some group photos in while we waited for the signal to enter.
Keeping the sweat off in the car with the entourage outside SSD (Shree Sanatan Dharma) Sabha Religious Center...
Some of the Western crew.
Friends and family.
I couldn't get enough of the dresses, and this is only day 1!! Stunning bride to be, wearing the surprise dress from Rahul's family that no one had seen till that day...
Nice choice Sahi's!!
After waiting a little while we drove into the temple grounds and gathered in a pretty large procession to walk in following the bride. Talk about an entourage, Neha was running a couple hundred deep! Her family carried massive baskets of gifts and sweets which were presented to Rahul's family.
As we entered through the bright orange, pink and yellow fabric wrapped doorways the grooms side ladies where throwing rose petals on us as we walked down the hall. The brightness of the entire situation was captivating and I couldn't help but let my eyes glisten. At the end was a platform stage where the bride and groom sat either side of a shrine. Once the ceremonies began we all sat closely around Neha and sat on the platform while the prayers where said - no shoes of course!
Hi side on the right, her side on the left.
The colour's were breathtaking,
The temple hall at SSD.
This then turned into a giving/ feeding session, where everyone there had to feed both the groom and bride (separately) a sweet doughy treat. They both sat with a scarf in their lap and received gifts, letters, money and of course a mouth full of sugar from each others side. After that, an unusual (even to the brides family) ceremony took place, where all the ladies from the grooms side placed a flower garland onto a female family member from the brides side (and vice versa) after which they would try to pick each other up. They then gave all the unmarried girls from the bride's side 2 red bangles as a symbol for finding marriage in the near future. These are Punjabi (groom) traditions, not Gujarati (bride), so it was a learning experience for most of us on the brides side, indian or not!
EAT NEHA... EAT!
Tejal showing us the bangles, they were really delicate and intricately decorated.
FYI: On this day, I wore a traditional Indian Langa. A long skirt, tunic type top and scarf. All adorned with intricate silver beadwork.
