This is how this wedding day unfolded:
Baarat (The Groom's Processional):
Prasad, the groom arrives at the venue in a car with a lot of dancing and cheering from the guests and family members.
Ponkvu:
Bride's mother receives the groom and performs a traditional puja to offer her blessing. She will place a clay pot on the ground during the Baraat for the groom to step on and break, This will assess his strength before he takes the brides hand in marriage, this is an important symbolic part.
Jaimala, the Pre-Wedding Garland Ceremony: Bride and groom exchanges garlands as he arrives. The Families lift up the bride and the groom on their shoulders. The groom is lifted higher than the bride to show that the bride cannot take the groom from his friends and family.
Madhuparka: The groom Prasad walks then with Rachna's mother to where the ceremony is to be held (the Mandap). His feet are then washed and the bride's brothers and sisters then tries to steal his shoes, if they succeed, the groom must then offer money to get them back. This was a wild part of the day, they really tried to steal his shoes, it's no joke!
The groom went to sit on the stage until the brides arrived.
Kanya Agamana: The bride Rachna is then walked down the aisle with her uncle, with one flower girl and no bridesmaids. She then sits across from the groom with a sheet (the Antarpaat) in between so they can't see each other. Once the sheet is lowered, family members started trowing flowers at them in celebration. The couple them exchanged garlands for a second time, this time at equal level.
Madhupak:
The bride’s father now offered the groom yogurt and honey as the expression of welcome and respect.
Kanyadaan: The Brides father now performed the Kanyadaan by tying the hands of the couple together in a marital knot (the Hast Melap) he ties a marital knot between the bride and the groom. With this gesture, the father of the bride is giving away his daughter to the groom.
Mangalphera:
The couple then walks around the fire four times in a clockwise direction representing four goals in life: Dharma, religious and moral duties; Artha, prosperity; Kama, earthly pleasures; Moksha, spiritual salvation and liberation. The bride leads first, signifying her determination to stand first beside her husband in all happiness and sorrow.
Then the Groom tied the Mangal Sutra (beaded necklace) around the bride's neck, after that the Bride with the groom's help touched 7 betel nuts with her feet.
The groom then applied a small dot of vermilion, a red powder (Sindhoor), to the bride’s forehead and welcomed her as his partner for life. They are now a married couple!
Then the married couple went to the front of the stage to bow to family and friends to get their blessings.
The rest of the day was more like a traditional American wedding day, they had the family photos taken, that took some time since it was a large family.
After that they couple went to clean and change clothes while the guest and family had a casual cocktail hour with games for the guests to play, by the famous Southfork Ranch Mansion (from the TV soup opera Dallas).
After the cocktail hour the wedding reception started with speeches, entertainment, cake cutting and a lot of dancing and singing.
This was certainly a wedding to remember! Contact us today if you are getting married and need stunning wedding photography coverage!