**NEW**Wedding Reception, Dec. 24

I was most nervous about the big reception on December 24th, but found that the day went quite smoothly and I had many comforting faces around me (old and new family) to make for a wonderful day. After breakfast, we began preparations for the first event of the day, myra (family comes for lunch and to give gifts to the bride). I dressed (or shall I say, I was dressed since I still had not yet learned how to wrap myself properly in a sari or lehenga choli) in a brilliant blue Rajasthani lehenga choli. We then headed over to the marriage garden where we were met by Abhijeet's family who had all gathered for the occasion. I joined the women huddled in one side and Abhijeet joined the men. We were then marked with the red tilak to celebrate the big day. The drummer who had played for us in the village had come to Jodhpur for our wedding reception and played for the afternoon. While he played, several female family members performed traditional Rajasthani dance. After that, guests started to head over to the tables for lunch. We went around greeting guests and encouraging them to enjoy their lunch. As you can see from the pictures, Ankur made sure that everyone finished their meal with some Indian sweets.
Soon after the afternoon event, it was soon time for the ladies to head to the beauty parlor. I was accompanied by my USA guests and my Indian surrogate family member, Garima. The beautifying process began with a cleansing and face massage with aloe vera cream which helped relieve any nervousness that I might have felt about the day. Leah volunteered use of her makeup and the ladies in the beauty parlor started their work. I had been warned by my Indian hairdresser in the US and by another Indian friend about the amount of makeup they try to put on you for Indian weddings, so I was feeling anxious about how I would look at the end of the session. My experience, however, was fabulous. The women stopped after each application to see if I , Leah, and my friends liked it and Garima was by my side to translate if we needed any changes. As I was being made up, the other ladies got help from the beauty parlor women with putting on their saris. When we walked out of their we all looked like a million dollars (I mean a million rupees).
Back at the house, Abhijeet had also been preparing for the evening and looked like a royal maharaja in his sherwani.
We were escorted (by car) over to the marriage garden and walked together on to the stage that was awaiting us for the evening. As soon as we arrived, the greeting process began. Each family in attendance would come greet us on the stage and pose for a picture. The evening actually flew by with a whir of guests coming in a steady stream to the stage. Earlier in the day, Abhijeet's dad had prepped me by explaining that in Indian tradition brides do not shake hands with men but instead greet with hands folded and "Namaste". He warned that guest might try to shake my hand since I am a westerner, but that it would be appropriate for me to follow Indian custom for the wedding. I was happy for the cultural guidance and found it easy to follow these simple instructions when tested by several male guests to shake their hand. Apparently several guests commented to Abhijeet's family about my cultural awareness. I had still not learned enough Hindi to communicate properly, so I was satisfied to at the least communicate this one gesture properly for the wedding. One of the last guests to greet us was Abhijeet's uncle who decided to dance for us. He said to Abhijeet that we would always remember that he danced for us at our wedding and I am sure we will since he is the only one who danced that evening. After all of the greeting and picture taking, we finally settled down to eat after most of the other guests had left.