Wedding Part 2

Not sure where to start with this, it was an incredible day, start to finish.

We arrived with the groom, complete with drummers and flares, all dancing and cheering. The first part of the ceremony was where Anisha's Mum welcomed him and performed some rituals. But before that, the bridesmaids stole David's shoes - he had 2 best men, Paul and Shashwat, both friends from the first days at high school - David remarked in his speech that he didn't know 15 years ago how handy it would be to have a Hindu as his best mate! Paul put up one hell of a fight for the shoes - see first extras - but we ended up having to pay £60 to get them back. I believe  that was a bargain and it can run into the hundreds. 

I thought the ceremony would be formal and solemn - how wrong I was. The priest was an entertainer, he was hilarious and really wanted to engage all the people who had never been to an Indian wedding before. He managed to make it appropriately respectful but fun too. Just brilliant. 

After the first rituals, Sarah and the maid of honour held up a sheet in front of David while Anisha entered, then slowly lowered it. That was quite a moment as David saw her for the first time - traditionally it would the first time ever. Then the ceremony continued, with fire, blessings, dancing, rice throwing, games, much participation from the guests too - at one point I found myself dancing down the aisle on my own on instruction from the priest - it's a good job we had no idea beforehand (we thought we did but the priest apparently likes to mix things up) or I would have stressed about that, but in the moment it was great. 

I'll add another extra from mid ceremony, and another of the family in the formal photos.

The main Blip is of the bride and groom with the best men, maid of honour and Anisha's 6 best friends - sums up for me the tone of the day, joy and celebration, laughter, love and seriousness when needed.

At the end they left on a golf buggy (another extra) and we had a few hours to rest  -  in fact spent running around getting supplies for the evening and then rushing to get ready for the reception. I don't have too many photos from the reception - I tried hard all day to not take many photos - but I'll put in a couple. The wedding photographer must have taken thousands over the three days so I am eagerly awaiting them.

It was a magical evening, I even enjoyed giving my speech, although I had only written it that afternoon - David's speech made me cry, we danced our socks off and the last people  (John and Paul) went to bed at 4.30am. 

The wedding was live painted by an artist - Anisha's father passed away 12 years ago and he was added to the picture from a photo - that was just one more wonderful thing among many on the day. 

All in all it was the most incredible three days of our lives. We are home now and emotionally drained - they bride and groom are on the plane to San Francisco and Hawaii. I am happy to be back in Huddersfield for a rest.

This is an anniversary Blip - I don't Blip every day so it has taken me over 9 years to get to my 6th anniversary, and it feels a little fraudulent to be celebrating, so I have combined it with a celebratory photo. Thanks for all the support you give xx

Now I need to sort out the piles of clothes that were so lovingly transported to London, and are now all lying in piles around the house.