Indian Wedding

I had a great weekend, filled with fun and interesting events. I'll post one for each! This is about John's friend Jiten's wedding. It took place in Canton, MI on Saturday morning at the priest's home. Jiten and his bride Shubda are Hindu, so it was definitely a new experience for me.

The day began with John and I driving to a little town called Manchester to get the cake. Jiten had to order it from that bakery because it was the one one that could make an egg-less cake (Jiten and Shubda are vegetarian). Manchester was in the opposite direction of Canton, so we had to get there super early. It was possibly the most adorable tiny town I have been to. And it was made all the better since it was a crisp Fall morning, and I loved seeing all the townspeople in the bakery, eating breakfast and gossiping. There was also a beautiful stream that ran through the town. Incidentally, Manchester is the home of the famous "chicken broil"! I don't know what it is, but apparently that's what Manchester is known for. :-)

This is the bakery.

And the town.

A cute bar at the edge of town.

This is the cake! It was very pretty and simple and we sprinkled the rose petals on top once we got it to the house. And it tasted good too! It was a vanilla cake with whipped cream icing and a little layer of cherry filling.

The ceremony was about 45 minutes and the priest was really cool - making jokes along the way and explaining all the traditions we were witnessing so we understood what everything meant. This is Jiten's nephew - he is only almost 3 years old! Very tall for his age. He was so cute sitting next to Jiten. He rubbed his foot against Jiten's and then sat on his lap.

This was the altar in the living room.

Jiten and the priest, and his nephew, Aran.

This was a plate with icons of the various gods. Jiten had to put rice and flowers in front of the gods as sacrifices many times.

Before Shubda came in (the ceremony had gone on for about 20 minutes with just Jiten to cleanse him and prepare the space for the wedding), John and another friend had to hold a sheet up in front of Jiten so he could not see Shubda until she sat down.

Shubda entering the room. The man in the foreground was a member of Shubda's family who previously had to come sit next to Jiten and look at him to make sure it was the same Jiten that had agreed to marry her.

Here you can kind of see the henna on Shubda's hands. It was very pretty and elaborate and she said that the letters of Jiten's name were hidden in the design.

Then Jiten and Shubda had to walk around a fire 7 times. The last time around, Shubda led Jiten and the priest said that whoever sat down in their chair first was going to be in charge. I think it was set up for Shubda to win, and she did! Everyone was laughing. :-)

Another shot of Shubda's dress as Jiten feeds her a piece of cake.

And here are John and I.