Neela and Ste's Wedding

Neela and Ste's wedding was held in Calcutta, India - and so we headed out for a week to take part in it (a very wise decision as this was a wonderful experience). The following is my interpretation of what happened - not necessarily fact but as Neela's Dad said "We're Bengalis - there is no plan".

The day before the wedding the girls headed over to the venue to have mehendi done. Neela's was very impressive - covering both front and back of her hands and forearms. The rest of us had much simpler work to done and seemed to have one traditionally bengali design, and one more modern design. All of them were unique, and none of them were based on designs in a book, so none of us knew quite what we were going to get.

The day of the wedding, we headed off to the venue for the start of the celebrations. Whilst we ate breakfast, the priest and Neela's uncle (the head of the family) asked the forefathers for their blessings. We then moved outside where Neela was stood between two chairs with string around them "penning" her in. Their were 4 pots on the outside of this "pen" and she had to crush them by lifting her leg over the string and then crushing them with her heel. This seemed to be something to do with leaving behind her single status. The next bit was when it all got messy - the turmeric bit. Turmeric is used to purify and cleanse, and the married ladies get to put it on Neela's face. I got to participate at this point, and started off being very kind and just putting a small amount on Neela. I was then told off by one of her relatives and instructed I was supposed to cover her face in it - so I did. It then turned into a bit of a turmeric fight as the ladies covered each other in it, then me, and then decided that the rest of our group couldn't be left out and so we left the venue with differing quantities of turmeric on our faces.

In the evening, as I wasn't wearing a sari and could dress myself, we went to Ste's "surrogate parents" place to accompany Ste to the ceremony. He was dotted with sandalwood, and put on his "silly hat". We all left him there to follow in his specially adorned car (which I missed).

At the venue Neela sat on one of the thrones for a good hour or so as people came to her to pay their respects, bring gifts and so on. Ste started off doing a similar thing in a throne downstairs. Then he moved upstairs and sat with the priest and Neela's uncle for a while before rising to greet Neela who was walking along with her face covered with leaves and looking at the floor (she's not allowed to look at her husband yet). The ceremony progresses with lots of sanskrit, flowers, blessings and them having their clothes tied together until the end of the evening before a fire was lit and they had to walk around it 3 times. Ste then applied the Sindoor to Neela's head and they were officially married. They then moved together to sit together on the thrones and greet their guests whilst we got to go and eat some wonderful bengali food.

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Mehendi I	Mehendi II	Mehendi III	Mehendi IV
Mehendi V	Mehendi VI	Morning I	Morning II
Morning III	Morning IV	Morning V	Morning VI
Morning VII	Morning VIII	Morning IX	Morning X
Morning XI	Morning XII	Morning XIII	Morning XIV
Morning XV	Morning XVI	Morning XVII	Morning XVIII
Morning XIX	Morning XX	Morning XXI	Morning XXII
Morning XXIII	Morning XXIV	Hands	Ready to go I
Ready to go II	With Ste I	With Ste II	With Ste III
With Ste IV	With Ste V	With Ste VI	With Ste VII
With Ste VIII	Wedding I	Wedding II	Wedding III
Wedding IV	Wedding V	Wedding VI	Wedding VII
Wedding VIII	Wedding IX	Wedding X	Wedding XI
Wedding XII	Wedding XIII	Wedding XIV	Wedding XV
Wedding XVI	Wedding XVII	Wedding XVIII	Wedding XIX
Wedding XX	Wedding XXI	Wedding XXII	Wedding XXIII
Wedding XXIV	Wedding XXV	Wedding XXVI	Wedding XXVII
Wedding XXVIII	Wedding XXIX	Wedding XXX	Wedding XXXI
Wedding XXXII	Wedding XXXIII	Wedding XXXIV	Wedding XXXV
Wedding XXXVI

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