Indian Wedding (Simi & Rino)

Marriage is big business in India! There are billboards and stores everywhere for wedding-related items and matchmaking. Marriages in India are still, for the most part, arranged by the parents and, perhaps, a hired matchmaking service.

Babu Paul honored us by inviting us to the wedding of his wife’s niece, Simi (I think???) I was super thankful that the water quit after we’d showered! I would have hated to have to go to a wedding without a shower…

The engagement was at 10am followed by the wedding at 11am. Yes, you heard correctly. The groom, Rino, from Dallas, TX, flew in on Saturday and met with the bride for 30 minutes, as is the custom. Yes, they knew each other for 30 minutes before getting married! Yet, unlike in America, the divorce rate in India is very low. They contribute it to the strong family support system.

The wedding was held at a giant convention center in Mavelikara. I knew it was a big to-do when there were four chartered buses parked out front that brought guests. There were also two very nice cars (both the bride and groom’s families’) parked out front covered in flowers. When I went to take a picture of them, I discovered we had left our battery in the charger in our room… :o(   Thankfully, Rick had brought his camera! :o)

As soon as we walked in the door, we were greeted by stations with cups of delicious punch (lime, grape and pistachio) and AIR CONDITIONING!!!

We found our seats and after the engagement, the caterers came and gave everyone bottled water and refreshments while Simi and Rino changed from their engagement clothes to their wedding clothes. While perusing the bulletin, we noticed that there were 10 pastors involved in the ceremony! Not to mention the 8 songs…

The stage was brightly lit and absolutely COVERED in flowers and pastors, of course. LOL

When the bride finally made her appearance, it was like Justin Bieber had arrived… photographers came out of everywhere! There were at least 10 and 2 videographers. Not to mention the guests… I am sure that everyone there had a better phone than I do. ;o)

Three hours is a very long ceremony to sit through when you don’t speak the language. I was thankful for the praise song that Rino’s cousin from Dallas sang. Surprisingly, the ceremony went by quickly, all things considered. Air conditioning really helps!

Praying over the bride and groom

After the ceremony, the guests began to resemble a crowd at a South American soccer match to get to the lunch downstairs. We got a secret-service’esque escort to a table before they were all taken and the food devoured.

We got a table near the front of the room and started to dish up our food when our hosts realized there wasn’t any silverware. After asking our servers several times for a fork or spoon and getting nothing but a perplexed look, they relented and let us just enjoy our lunch “Indian style”. Eating rice and curries with your hands isn’t as bad as it seems.

We hadn’t even finished our meal, when we looked up and saw that the dining hall was nearly empty. Everyone had eaten and run before the bride and groom had even made an appearance. This seemed rather rude and strange to us Americans, but didn’t seem out of the ordinary at all to everyone else. After all, they had to get back to work…

Then the Simi and Rino showed up in their after-wedding clothes and posed for more pictures with their wedding cake and traditional coconut with two straws…

As we were leaving, we realized that people assumed we were friends of Rino’s from Dallas. I felt funny telling people we didn’t know either the bride or the groom. :o)

After the wedding, the couple honeymooned in the Maldives before returning to spend a week with her family followed by a week with his family before returning to Dallas to live.

To close I want to share what they wrote on the back of their program (yes, this was in English!). I just loved what they said…

We would like to thank our parents, brothers, and sister’s for all their love, support and guidance throughout the years, with out your prayers and encouragement, we would not be where we are today. To all our friends family thanks you for being a part of our special day! Each one of you has been a part of our Story and we are grateful to have you in our lives. Most of all we thanks of our Heavenly father for bringing us together and we pray he will use us for his glory in the years to come