Indian Wedding: The True Experience

Top 10 Indian Wedding Experiences:

10. The Set up: An outdoor venue the size of a football field decked with thousands of lights, a large water fall, hundreds of waiters, a 100 foot buffet line, woman's only AC room, revolving platform, sofa ceremony set up, and little kids dancing to American hip hop on the dance floor.

9. The Media: It felt like an Oscar Event with red carpet, a flying boom video crowd camera, 25 man media, video, and photography group, plus 4 live wireless crowd cameras, 5 photographers, 3 live broadcast 6' screens and 5 50" plasmas throughout the venue. This does not include the 300 cell phone cameras to keep the crowd up to date. Every time we turned around we saw our face on a video screen or the flash of a camera.

8. The Guests: 2,400 guests scattered across the football field enjoying the buffet and waiting for the garlin ceremony where the bride and groom stood on a platform and exchanged flowers. 2,398 locals and the popular German/American guests who received the red carpet treatment all evening. We were excepted into the families immediately and joined the inner circle getting to meet the bride before everyone else. We were in every picture and shook every relatives hand. We have open invitations to all non married children's upcoming weddings for more people that we don't know. By the end of the night we are convinced we could be professional Indian Wedding Crashers.

7. Jodi's Role: As the sole Caucasian female in the sea of a small South Dakota town my role was to keep my hands in the praying position and say Namaste with a head bow to all relatives. There was no access to the bar for me, but prime access to the woman's AC lounge where I first met the bride who was getting her finishing touches. The family members took turns keeping me entertained and explaining the cultural traditions of the evening. My Saree was an excellent choice and a success on the evening. I played the quiet, no voice, orange juice sipping Indian role as did all other women in the crowd. There was no dancing or drinking for this typical wedding dancing queen.

6. Ben's Role: As the sole Caucasian male in the sea of a small German village my role was to keep up with the eight family members tugging me in different directions all night. I experienced non stop meeting and greeting with all important family and business men at the wedding. I felt like the special VIP guest who got insider access to EVERYTHING. It started with the men's only VIP bar access to 50 year old whiskey, meeting the bride before the groom saw her, and getting the honorary groomsmen title immediately. I was not allowed to stand on my own and take in the moment as I was thrown into every wild men's only dance session. The brother and nephew of the groom were my personal new best friends. I'm proud to say that I made at least 25% of all pictures on the evening and was awarded the "No Choice, Dancing King." Hands down Indian Weddings are man parties.

5. Bride's Role: The bride wore a maroon and gold fully beaded Saree. After 14 hours of a washing ceremony, henna painting on arms and legs, waxing, and 5 kg of gold dripping from her body she prepared to meet her groom. Each eye lash was adorned with a strip of gold and every body piercing was dangling with jewelry including her nose. The bride sat for 3 hours in an AC room while female guests greeted her and prepared her for the ceremony. The impression was that she was not allowed to make eye contact with any male guest, including the groom, or smile on the evening. She kept her head down and went through the motions.

4. Groom's Role: In a long white kurta adorned with lots of beads the groom was also pampered. He sat in a circle with the village elders and received blessings before the ceremony. He wore a fancy hat with a fan and a bindi on his forehead. He was pushed from one photo shoot to the next with no display of emotions, just sweat dripping down his face. The groom was responsible for the majority of the attention during the beginning of the evening as he walked into the venue with his family members by his side.

3. The Food: The minute we walked in the sea of red coated waiters formed a circle around us. They took turns offering us whatever was on their tray from drink to appetizer. It was very overwhelming to be attacked with so many options in the very beginning. Bottled water, juice, soda, coffee, fries with mint sauce, paneer (Indian cheese) in several forms, plates of fresh fruit, and 20 other vegetarian options. All family members warned us what not to eat and to feel free to throw away anything we didn't like. It was a very warm welcome. We made our way through the buffet around 1:30 am for our main course which consisted of lentils and freshly made naan bread.

2. The Cost Analysis: Catered food for 2,400 people, DJ, football field venue, horn band, drumming band, camera and video crew, entertainment for the children, and horse drawn carriage. The groom gave the bride a new Honda car as a gift plus gold and jewelry. We can not even begin to think about the price tag of an Indian wedding.

1. The arrival of the Wedding party:
The way the tradition calls it, is that all guests from the bride's family will come direct to the festival fair grounds, starting to have a good time with tons of appetizers and non-alcoholic drinks. After about 2-3 hours the Groom is arriving with his entire wedding party and all guests from his side. This means around 1000 guests come down the street towards to wedding site, the groom is sitting on a big, fancy, and beautifully decorated wagon with about 4 horses in front, a whole truck full of speakers with live singers, complete marching band with a lot of drummers and helpers who carry a generator for all the mobile light carriers who shine the way. I (Ben) was specially taken out by my personal guides to not only witness the spectacle, but really to be forced into the dancing crowd of men in front of the horses. The complete situation was totally on fire and just an unbelievable atmosphere for a German guy! The mix from lights, drummers, loud speakers and hundreds upon hundreds of people dancing and making there way inside the party site was just something else!!! Wild crazy people trying to throw money notes above the grooms head while dancing and crying as there is no tomorrow! After all the people enter the front of the venue and all of the bride's guests realize that the Groom has arrived, the crowd was getting enormous and electricity was in the air. Some of the respected people (fathers and mothers as well as close family members and old friends) received a flower necklace, so did I as a complete new family member. After the whole process the Groom made his way up on the stage and the wild dancing crowd made their way to the the dance floor! Absolutely breathtaking and very impressive!