Post Wedding Preparations

The traditional Indian weddings used to be more than a week long though people cut short the events nowadays. There is an event for almost everything. The Indian wedding ceremony is divided into three parts pre wedding, wedding and post wedding. Rituals like 'Haldi', 'Mehandi' 'Sangeet" and 'Tilak' are pre wedding rituals. There are ceremonies to celebrate the occasion when the families visit each other before the wedding and send costly gifts to each other along with sweets, fruits and dry fruits. They also bring in the dress for the bride or the bridegroom and display them to the other family as a part of their love and honor that they are willing to bestow upon their son or daughter in law. These pre-wedding ceremonies are followed by the main day wedding ceremony, when the nuptial knots of the bride and the bridegroom are tied. There is an elaborate wedding feast for all the family and friends that are invited.

The wedding itself is a long, stretched out process, when all the Hindu deities are called upon and asked to bless the new couple. The bride and the bridegroom take seven steps around the fire, vowing devotion and love to each other and agreeing to take care of each other in all circumstances. There are various events to ensure laughter in the wedding ceremony such as when the younger sister of the bride tries to steal the shoe of her new brother-in-law and asks money as ransom. After the wedding ceremony, there are the post wedding functions alike 'Vidaai' or 'Doli' when the bride leaves for her new home. This is the most emotional moment of any Indian wedding, when the bride take leave of all her family members to start a new life in her husband's home. Than in the bridegroom's home, various other post wedding functions are performed like an elaborate wedding reception is organized in the honor of the bride where the entire family member from both sides are once again invited. So there are various preparations to be made after the wedding ceremony for the post wedding function.