Wedding weekend, Indian style

As a stay at home, I don't get to experience glamour very often. Usually I get out of my pajamas, and if I'm going to the store I try to pick out matching clothes and put on makeup, but dresses, jewelry, and heels often escape me. There just isn't any need for them.

So when the opportunity for a glamorous weekend presents itself, I look forward to, and get nervous about, for weeks beforehand. What to wear? How to accessorize? Is Jon's suit clean? Do I remember how to iron? Does the kid have clean underwear? (okay, that last one is a given, but I was scrambling to make sure he had clean socks and dress shoes that fit, especially during sandal season).

And in the end, it's not the style or the glamour of the weekend that has me nervous and excited, it's the people. All those adults! All those adults in one place! All those adults in one place with their real world, real people jobs that I don't know how to talk to. Because your average joe doesn't want to discuss the newest fads in homeschooling curriculum. Time to take the old, dusty conversation starters off that shelf way in the back of my brain—it's socializing time!

Last weekend we were included in the very glamorous, very posh, very exciting wedding weekend (aaallll weekend) of Jon's cousin. The wedding was an Indian culture wedding and all that goes with it. The entire weekend was not only entertaining, but  educational as well. We ate delicious Indian foods, we took part in Indian traditions like the Sangeet (the fun dance party the night before the ceremony) and the Baraat (the groom's procession to the ceremony, complete with dancing entourage), and we got to see a traditional Hindy ceremony (performed in ancient Sanskrit nonetheless). I was loaned a saree, and helped, or folded, into it, and Calvin and I both received henna tattoos.

And the people. The people were so welcoming, both Jon's own family and extended family, and also the bride's family, who could not have been more welcoming or gracious the whole weekend through. It reminded me of my brother's island wedding in a way, because most guests stayed in the same hotel, where all meals were provided, and most events took place either there in the hotel or just two blocks away. There were so many guests at the wedding, in fact, that we ran into others everywhere we went, and enjoyed a sort of companionship that way, even with people we'd never met.

And elephants. Did I mention there were lots of elephants?

And now I can put away the dresses and the heels and return to my homeschool wear, which sometimes really is just pajamas, I admit it.

from our hotel room

on our way to the Sangeet

breakfast for the wedding guests before festivities started

gathering in the hotel lobby for the Baraat

getting the party started—the Baraat took us from the hotel to the performing arts center where the ceremony took place

before the cocktail hour and then reception, which was in the lobby, then at the ballroom in the performing arts center