A punjabi wedding : Part 3

And finally we got ready for the wedding.

We were asked be ready by around 5 p.m . Off went the three off us dressed sharply in our suits to the Karnal community hall. The groom and his party arrived there around 6, they were greeted with a quite delightful array of sweets and hot snacks inside. Groom's side all dressed in traditional dhoti-turban attire, except for groom who looked sharp in a shiny black suit.

I must say the three of us felt a bit over-dressed for the occasion. It looked exactly as if an Oriya, a tamilian and a malayali had gone for a Punjabi wedding :-)))

Then there was some function involving the groom, bride's family and groom's family. Did not quite understand what the purpose of the function was, it was called "Sagaayi", looked more like a mutual hand-over of gifts to me !!

While the groom's side were having snacks, we decided to rest for a while and sat on some chairs. Immediately we were surrounded by videographers with all sorts of equipment and bright lights. I guess we were looking pretty impressive in our suits. Then the realization dawned that we weren't really supposed to sit there, those seats were meant for the groom side folks :)

We did a quick protocol check with bride's family before we ate anything, did not want to spark of riots just because we ate when weren't supposed to !! Customs and nature of people are quite different from South to north. [I am not implying one is better over the other]

In case you are wondering where the bride is, she is not present for this function. She was packed for the beauty parlor to get ready a while earlier. And knowing her, I was a touch surprised she had not gone there to get ready the previous night itself . It takes that long usually .... :-))

From there we proceeded to the ESS-ESS farm house [ yes, it is spelt that way, don't ask me why !! ]   where the actual reception and wedding was going to take place. A walk through into the farmhouse can be seen below as can be the Stage and some lighting arrangements. The entire place looked awesome!!

ESS ESS Farms- Walk in

And here is a shot of the stage

Stage view

According to the standard misinformation we were fed, wedding was supposed start around 8-8.30. Again the three idiots reached there at 8.15 only to be welcomed by waiters and photographers. Not a guest or family member in sight, let alone the bride and groom !!

We walked around for a while and sampled some of the food. Food was just amongst the best I've ever had, hats off to North-Indians for that :-).

It was getting pretty cold outside. Rather disastrously, we had not anticipated that the function would be held outdoors. Though we were dressed in suits, we had no head or throat protection. This would really come back to bite us later on in the night.

Finally around 9.30 some of the bride and groom's family started to turn up. People had already started to stream in and there was quite a big crowd by then.

But where are the two most important people ? 10 pm and still no sign of them !!!

And it is 11.55 pm while I am writing all this and I am sleepy. So you can meet the bride and groom tomorrow :-)