Big fat Indian wedding - Part-1

Hello beautiful people,
Weddings are the most fun events to attend and when it's Indian, it's packed with lots of fun, family and food!
So, my first cousin is getting married. here wedding rituals runs for multiple days and it's not just a one day affair.

To be specific since there are multiple cultures in India, I am talking about punjabi Hindu wedding. since I belong to a Punjabi Hindu culture.
Let me take you through entire process.

The engagement Ceremony

That's my cousin getting married to love of her life.
She looks like princess.
This function is purely done for the couple to just exchange rings and do a pooja with certain gifts for relatives and friends.
The weeding is due next month meanwhile we will have 2-3 functions of different rituals.

Before going further, let me share my beautiful black and gold lehenga which I wore

I love bling bling which is why i wore this lehenga, my other cousins also wore lehenga
So basically we clicked pictures, danced all evening and had so much fun.
We were from bride's side. here it's really different from western cultures, we have huge gathering of 300-400 people just on one engagement ceremony, but then we will have two more functions before wedding, the grand wedding will have around 700-800 people.
Yes! it's true.
I have been to many weddings but documenting this one because it's very close. the bride is my first cousin and my mother's sister daughter.
We have played throughout our childhood together.

So, the eve started with us bringing lots of sweets and some ritualistic gold and diamond jewelry for the groom side.
they did the same for us.
we then exchanged gifts on pooja.
Please note that those were not dowry. we just exchanged small meaningful gifts.
post that I along with my other girls went to bride's room as she was having a photoshoot.

That's her dedicated room for prefunction shoots.
then we bought here to the main hall along with all her family and the groom bought her a bouquet just to welcome her.
it was just a lovely experience.

The groom was super excited and happy and the bride was shy.

We were all decked up on her entry and here we have ritual of guest giving cash as gift which is why once they both settled down on stage, all the guests with their respective families went up on stage and gifted the couple card with cash we call it 'lifafa'
we know it's super heavy on pockets of both the families to arrange such event so guests always make sure to gift cash to couple.
After all rituals got over everyone went on dance floor and food stalls. we had best of foods, unfortunately I was unable to click picture of food stalls as I was a bit shy LOL!
but I will make sure to get it for my next part so you guys can see how many varieties of food and drinks are served.
for the last part, let me share some dancing moments.

we got professional photographer and his image is purchased by us. so we owe the copyright.
I didnot got many pictures yet from photographer so only a few from my phone,

All so fun!
Loved the vibe, the fun, the foooood.
I so wish that I had pictures of food.
Definitely in next part!
Till then, take care.

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All the images are mine.