Weddingbee

I’m armed with professional photos and finally ready to share the story of our wedding celebration: the mehndi, the wedding, our minimoon, the valima, and our honeymoon! I’m going to start with the story of our mehndi the night before the wedding. All mehndi photos were taken by family and friends.
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Our wedding celebration was to begin the Friday before the wedding with a mehndi at my parents’ house in Los Angeles. The Thursday before, I met my coordinator Angel for lunch and a pre-nuptial pow-wow. We laughed and chatted, but I barely touched my entree, which I chalked up to jitters. On the drive home, however, I started to feel extremely nauseated and I had to pull over. By the time I reached my parents’ home, I’d developed a high fever and spent the rest of the night alternating between my bed and the bathroom floor.

At this point, my parents were in a full-fledged panic. As they frantically wondered if they should somehow cancel or postpone the wedding events, they heard from my father-in-law, who is a physician. He wrote me a prescription for antibiotics, which quickly brought the fever down and appeased the nausea. I woke up the morning of my mehndi completely exhausted and weak, but at least I was keeping crackers and 7-UP down.

At 4 PM, Madeeha Kibriya and her assistant Monica from Couture Bridal Service arrived. Their goal was to make me beautiful for the mehndi and they certainly had their work cut out for them– my complexion had taken on an unattractive green pallor and my hair was matted and tangled. But Madeeha and Monica were consummate professionals who not only made me look healthy, but feel truly pretty. I donned an olive green and yellow salwar kameez with gold beading (green and yellow are traditional mehndi colors) and completed the ensemble with a diamond necklace, a gift from my parents.

By that time, our two mehndi artists arrived, but I was still not feeling well enough for the couple hours of mehndi application that brides usually endure. In fact, I really just wanted to curl up in bed. I opted for a simpler design and within forty-five minutes, my hands and feet were adorned with a beautiful floral mehndi design.

The house began to fill with family and friends. Despite my feelings of exhaustion, it was uplifting to hear the laughs and conversation among reuniting family members from across the world and introductions between people meeting for the first time. The thought that so many people I loved were contained in one home completely overwhelmed me.

Then, it was time for Mr. J’s family’s procession! They arrived to our home carrying candles and our family threw rose petals. Family members played the dhol, which is a drum, and sang traditional mehndi songs. Mr. J and I sat together as family fed us Indian sweets to signify a sweet beginning and circled dollar bills over our head which would go to charity.

Mr. Jasmine’s family members preparing the candles and sweets for the procession

The procession begins!

The women gathered in the living room to sing traditional mehndi songs and play the dhol (drum)

Mr. Jasmine and I: we were overwhelmed but heartened by the sheer amount of people and love in that room. By the way, my hands stayed in that position all night!

After the ceremony was over, the heart of the celebration began: dinner! My parents catered Pakistani food from Al-Watan restaurant and I heard the food was incredible (I was still subsisting on crackers at that point). If you’re in the LA area and want to try some delicious South Asian food, I highly recommend them.
My parents set up tables and chairs in our backyard with orange tablecloths (orange is another traditional mehndi color). Vases of fresh flowers sat on each table.

They also strung lights around the front and back of the house. In India, it’s traditional for the brides’ home to be covered in lights to indicate the impending wedding celebration. I think our neighbors must have thought we were really confused.

The feast! It was so sad to smell that incredible food and not have any.

Mehndi artists set up shop in our living room and female guests lined up to get henna designs on their feet and hands. The rest of the guests laughed and talked as the sound of Hindi music filled the house. My senses were overwhelmed: the fragrant scent of Indian curry and sweets, the sounds of laughter and Bollywood hits, and the brightly colored outfits were a feast for the eyes.

Here I’m laughing at something someone said. I had two garlands of roses tied around my arms– you can see the red ribbon in the photo. The garlands kept sliding down and because of the wet mehndi, I couldn’t use my hands to slide them back up. I was so helpless for most of the night!

My mom’s incredible wish tree! It was a huge success!

We invited all the wedding guests to the mehndi and were initially concerned that there would be too many people and it would be overwhelming. But it was such a lovely time! Members of Mr. J’s extended family and mine had the opportunity to mix and mingle. Our non-South Asian friends had a wonderful introduction into our culture and wedding traditions. It was a great “warm-up” to the wedding day and I think it really put everyone in a festive, celebratory spirit. For those of you who are considering throwing a big welcome party before the wedding, I highly recommend it!

Up next: Miss Jasmine gets married!

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