About Me

I ramble about a number of things - but travel experiences, movies and music feature prominently. See my label cloud for a better idea. All comnments and opinions on this blog are my own, and do not in any way reflect the opinions/position of my employer (past/current/future).

20 December 2005

Wedding Bells

Not mine - but this weekend was Jason (Brickhill) and Melanie's wedding. It is very weird to see your friends getting married - although to be honest, this was a wedding that was foretold a long time ago.


It started off with an interesting bachelors party for Jason - he was dressed up as a boxer (with the words "The Champ" on the back) and we hit Long street after dinner at Newscafe in Greenpoint. While I do have lots of photos of the night, I think for my own safety, I will not publish them online ... it's best not to rile up lawyers too much ;)

The wedding itself was interesting for me, simply because I have never been to a western/Christian wedding before, and there are some big differences to a traditional Hindu wedding. For starters, there is the issue of time - traditional Hindu wedding ceremonies take about a week at least, with at least 2 major ceremonies - one at the bride's house and the other at the groom's house. Then there is the food - Indian weddings are usually all about food. No really, most people I know end up judging how good the wedding was on the quantity and quality of the food. This is in no ways a criticism of the quality of food at Jason and Mel's wedding - the food was excellent - but the differences are interesting none the less.

But in the end, there is a lot of cultural differences in weddings, and not just the issue of arranged marriages. Traditional Indian weddings are major celebrations, carefully planned according to the astrologers, involving numerous "aunties" and a big hole in the bank account. They are effectively the social event of the year for the extended family - and the extended family is a big thing for most Indians.

On that note - a last bit about future wedding possibilities - Megan Butler caught the bride's bouquet (not sure what the proper term is) ...

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