Mary gets Married!

I have been so busy (and quite a bit lazy) that this blog seems a thing of the past. I thought that sharing my "blogger" friend's wedding weekend would be a perfect way to get back into the swing of things (mind you she got married over a month ago!! I have mentioned her before, just in case you missed it, let me introduce you to Mary of Mary's Kitchen Diaries. We spent almost two years of hearing about each other and being at the same place at the same time, but never talking. Then thanks to our blogs (she much better at it than I am), social network sites and a few mutual friends, we meet and clicked immediately!

The newly-weds, Mr and Mrs Romani

With that being said, I was honored when she invited me to be part of her 3 day wedding weekend! Now, its your turn to experience how Bengali's get married.

Day 1: Henna Party/Mehndi Night

This evening got the festivities started, it was a girls only event with lots of chitchat, food and henna tubes. While the bride got her hands and feet elegantly decorated, her friends passed the henna tubes around and decorated each others hands (and feet in some cases :) ) Mary did an amazing job decorating her home with bright colors and her mom mde some great biryani (a rice and meat dish), kababs and rosogollahs (sweet dish made from Ricotta cheese).

Day 2: Gaye Holud

Holud means turmeric, the yellow-ish spice used in many Indian dishes. You are wondering what this has to do with wedding festivities? The bride and groom get dressed up and all the guests to rub turmeric paste on their faces and feed them sweets. And of course you have an assortment of "misthi" (sweets/dessert items) and the traditional "pitha" (another type of sweet dish, which rice flour as the primary ingredient) and lots of singing and dancing! To top it all off, everyone dresses up in bright colors as the theme colors of the night are usually a combination of yellow, green, red and orange. One of Mary's bridesmaids' posted a picture with the caption "love is colorful". Couldn't have said it better myself.

I've got so caught up in everyone's outfits and all the food, I forgot to take a picture of the really pretty center pieces that the bride made herself (I had to look through everyone’s pictures to find one). They were so creative and pretty, I thought that I was going to bring one home, completely forgot.

Photo Credit: Kum Kum Islam

Day 3: Wedding Ceremony

At last the couple gets to say I do. But not before the groom pays up before entering room. Its an age old tradition called "gate holding" where all the youngsters block the entrance and ask the groom what he thinks his bride is worth. Once they are satisfied they let the groom in, and the ceremony can start.

After the couple said I do, the wonderful emcee's on the evening had quiet a show set up, the theme of the night was twitter. I was about to instagram a picture, when I was told the it would be breaking the code! After dinner and photo session with the lovely couple, there were speeches, dancing and a hilarious video of how Faraz and Mary met, watch it here! Lastly, the bride made the party favors herself. All 600+ of them!

One last picture with my favorite part of any wedding, the cake cutting :)

And that's how Mary got married and I found a great friend to talk to about blogging, cooking, baking, crafting and the most recently discovery, Snowboarding!