Tridi and Tulika wedding
The second wedding of June took place last weekend. Tridi and Tulika’s ceremony was a huge, traditional ceremony. Add to that all of the pre-wedding events (with nearly 1 TB worth of HD footage captured by yours truly for those events), and it was huge. The ceremony began with the groom and his family and friends dancing around and making a grand entrance to the gazebo. There was a pit stop where Tridi could eat and cool off, and then everyone was seated. Seriously though, the traditional prayers and blessings were awesome and really cool to see. Once he was up there and people made their way to seats, things were underway.
It was tough to see what was going on in the gazebo because there were so many people. There were also around 4-6 different people with giant professional cameras. Now, I know a few of these were the professional photographers, and that’s fine. But for the other people – just because you have a large, expensive camera, it doesn’t give you the right to act like paparazzi and stand up, blocking everyone else’s view at every critical moment. It was ridiculous at some points. Regardless, I could see most important things, and those that I couldn’t, I was filled in on.
Tulika made a grand entrance, being carried in, and then circling Tridi seven times so that he could approve. From there, things felt as if they were progressing more quickly, mostly because James and I were livetweeting the ceremony under the hash tag #tkwed (because they both have the same initials), and everyone was taking random silly photos.
Later, they put rings on Tulika’s toes, the couple took seven symbolic steps together, and they were pronounced husband and wife. It was strange because guests were all over the place during the ceremony. It was very traditional, meaning very long, and a lot of the guests must’ve been used to it, because they were chatting, on the phone, etc. The majority, including the DIC clan (yes, nearly the entire clan was back together, including MattJack!) paid attention though. We had to make sure our tweets were accurate.
After the ceremony, we had a good two hours to kill. Since we were at a resort with a driving range and golf course, we figured we could hit some golf balls. James doesn’t golf, so he decided to stay behind with the girls. I felt bad for him. How could he possibly know what 3 married girls would chat about? His fault though. Phil, MattJack, Keith, Roman, and I hit balls for a little over an hour. We tried hitting opposite hand since everyone was confused by my lefthanded clubs. It was fun, and a good way to pass the time.
We got back to the girls and James and washed up a bit before cocktail hour and the reception. Everyone, including the hundreds of Indians in attendance, changed into formal suits and dresses, while Roman and Rachel pulled out their special event Indian attire, and James busted out his turban. Everyone was ready for drinks, food, and dancing.
The food was super spicy, but tasted great, so I couldn’t resist a second plate of appetizers. The bar was open for the first hour, so we all made sure to double fist drinks as fast as we could. We finally sat down at our table, 36 (soooo many people), and waited to eat. The bride and groom finally made their way in, and then there was more spicy but irresistible food.
A group, including Tridi’s little brother Trilo, put together a skit detailing the events surrounding Tridi and Tulika’s relationship in interpretive Bollywood dance style. Then the real dancing got started. Dancing to Indian music seems relatively easy. You just keep your hands in the air while you bounce and you seem to fit in. Some people take it to whole other levels though. They make it look cool. People like James, who discovered he was naturally amazing at this style. The rest of us had a good time, but it was exhausting.
We danced like crazy for a while and then everyone slowly made their way back to our table. It was a long ceremony and reception, and we were all ready to call it a night. I had an awesome time, and I’m really happy for Tridi and Tulika. They threw a great party. Congratulations to the both of them. Two summer weddings down, one to go. No pressure…