As a few snow flakes fell in the morning I thought to myself how odd it was that we would be celebrating our marriage with snowflakes and then later with 70 degree weather. On further thought, I realized that the contrast was quite fitting for our month of contrasting and diverse marriage celebrations. Leah tried to convince me that it is good luck if it snows on your wedding day. I know that she was only making things up to calm me down like the good sister that she is, but I chose to believe it anyway. With all of the plans, travel arrangements, and coordinating that we needed to pull off over the next few weeks, we could use all of the luck that we could get to make sure everything went smoothly.
Being the super planner that I am, I insisted that we head off to the court house first thing in the morning to get our marriage license. We were both nervous, giddy, and full of excitement so we rushed through this process. As soon as we got home, the action started full force. I was on the phone non stop with family coming in to down and Abhijeet and Vikram were headed out to pick up the food for the day. I purposely scheduled a manicure for Leah and I in the morning so that I would have at least 30 minutes of uninterrupted sister time to relax and not be able to move or do anything. Little did I realize then, but this is basically what happens in the mehendi (henna) party the day before an Indian wedding. The bride and other ladies are forced to sit for the henna painting to be done to them and they relax and spend the time together. I guess it is a known fact that brides around the world are stressed out the day or minutes before marriage and must be forced into primping rituals that will restrain them from any other chores, errands, etc for at least a short time.
After the manicure, Leah and I headed back to the apartment and continued wedding preparations. Even though Leah was busy working on my hair and makeup, this did not stop me from ordering everyone around to eat, shower, and get ready. I had my moments of being a bridezilla and I took it seriously! Needless to say, by 1:40pm, we were all ready and the caravan to Old Town Alexandria began for step one of marriage celebration. The whole family in attendance gathered outside a historic building in Alexandria for a photo shoot. Since it was a chilly December day, we only made the whole family endure a few pictures. Then Abhijeet, Becca, Vikram (Abhijeet's brother) and Leah (Becca's sister) continued on for what remained of an hour long photo shoot. Despite the cold, we had a great time and the photographer's quirky sense of humor and constant rattling conversation helped everyone relax. Our ceremony was scheduled for 3:30pm and the rest of the family was waiting there as we came running up at 3:40pm. We were greeted at the door by the officiant and my family standing by the Christmas tree in a law office. Despite what seemed like fool proof planning, we managed to forget the marriage license in the back seat of the car and then found out that my name was printed incorrectly on the license. Lucky for us the court house was still open and we were able to follow through with our plans. When the document was finally ready, we headed in to a small room for an intimate and touching marriage ceremony. After "I do's", rings, and smiles, our love and commitment to each other was now official.
No comments:
Post a Comment