Wedding of the year

June 6th - it came and it went. The day that the whole family has been waiting for, for the past 6 months has finally ended. All the preparations, excitement, anxiety and fatigue. Everything has now ended but the deep breath that everyone has been holding cannot be released just yet. Though the traditional ceremony has ended, there is still the wedding reception to come; in about 5 days' time. That alone is another spectacle!!

But I digress. For now...let me talk about the wedding that had everyone on their toes. It all started 6 months ago when we were told that my cousin has finally found THE ONE and that they have decided to commit to each other. Fast forward to March and they were legally married in the eyes of the law but not religiously. Once the excitement of the registration wore off, the excitement of the impending wedding took over.

Reservations were made; invitations were printed and sent out; shopping for sarees, shoes, jewellery etc were on 'high speed'; appointments with tailors for our fittings were made; running around buying door gifts, and the necessities for the ceremony was a normal routine. This went on for 3 months and as the date of the wedding approached, the intensity and force of everything above went one notch higher!!!

I arrived in KL one day before the wedding and even then, the family had two ceremonies to perform before the actual wedding. Plus had balance things to purchase. It seemed like that purchasing never stopped. The two ceremonies were compulsory as it was supposed to get rid of any bad luck or aura around the bride before she got married. She was bathed in saffron water with flowers; in addition to that, she had saffron paste rubbed all over her body (supposedly to "prepare" her for her hubby!!). This ceremony was done by her paternal aunts. I'm not sure what the second ceremony was for but it was held in accordance to the Ceylonese tradition (my cousin-in-law's mum is Ceylonese).

On the day of the wedding (after having a good night's sleep), my aunt took my sis and I to the salon to get our hair washed and blowed. Since our aim that day was to look the best we could especially in a saree, we had to have the works!!! Once our hair was done, we returned home to just laze around. At around 3.30pm, we were dropped off at another aunt's house to start the "transformation" process: from regular 'cincai' girls to saree-clad Indian girls!!

The result? TA-DA:

It was my sister's first time wearing a saree and despite her being worried about how she'll look, I think she looked amazing!! The colour of the saree suited her so well; she looked fair and the make-up did not make her look old!!

As for me, it was my 3rd time wearing a saree. Although I was apprehensive about how I'll look (I suppose it's because I'm so conscious of my thin-ness) I think I looked okay. But I couldn't help complaining that my saree looked the plainest next to all the shiny, elaborate ones that my aunts and cousins wore.

This wedding, the first one in the family since my youngest uncle got married some 16-17 years ago, was the first wedding that I was fully involved in. I had "duties" from serving 'sweets' to the guests to escorting the bride as she entered the hall. It was fun!! And...it was the first time that I didn't sit down through the whole wedding!!! Of course, my legs were dying as I was wearing heels but what the heck?? It's not everyday that we have a wedding in our family.

The ceremony went on smoothly without any glitches and it was actually on time!! Haha. I guess this was one time where even the time could not ruin the perfect day. Dinner after the ceremony was vegetarian. There was a variety of 15 vegetarian dishes and I suppose it must have been really tasty because by the time my sis and I went to eat, everything had finished!!

After "eating", we had the "mandatory" photo-taking session. Since there are so many of us cousins, having a group shot is like asking the presidents of the world is take a photo together. You can never get everyone at one place at the same time. Even on this day, 5 cousins were missing: the bride and her brother, the eldest cousin and my two cousins who are in Denmark. Nevertheless, we managed to get everyone to stand in place and *click*:

Basically, that is what happened thsi past weekend. Now that the wedding ceremony is over, the next thing to look forward to is the reception this Saturday. It's supposed to be a modern reception, where we're not required to wear traditional outfits. This is good news. Everyone seems to have an idea of what they are going to wear except ME!! I have absolutely no clue as to what I should wear!!!

sighs....well..I've got 4 more days. I suppose I'll come up with something eventually. That's a whole new entry here!!