Friday, August 16, 2013

A Big Fat Indian Wedding–part 1!

I don’t think the Greeks have anything on this Indian wedding! : )

My brother Jef and his new wife Sejal were married in an amazingly beautiful and elaborate ceremony on Saturday. Jason, Paige and I flew into LAX on Wednesday, 8/7, to be there for the wedding and the festivities leading up to it. Just shy of 3 weeks old, and going on a cross-country flight! Sounds crazy (and it felt crazy too) but since we left the big kids with Paw Paw and Kacki, it actually was a little bit of a vacation for us.

Paige was wonderful on the flight – both ways! We think the loud noise from the plane put her to sleep. She barely woke the whole 5 hours.

(I took my nice camera with me, but in between feeding Paige and getting her to sleep, all the festivities, and time with family, I didn’t actually use it!)

We stayed in a house in Dana Point, CA (Orange county, near Laguna Beach) with my parents, Jon, Meghan and Ella, and my Aunt Jill and cousin Katy. We had lots of quality time with family!

On Thursday morning, we took a walk on the San Clemente pier and beach:

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Paige loves this sling (below)! She falls asleep in it almost immediately. (So yes, the stroller was empty!)

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Thursday evening was the Mehndi ceremony at Sejal’s parents’ (beautiful) house. They had a caterer with Mexican food, drinks, music, and 2 henna artists.

Before the Menhdi – Mom and sons (and son-in-law):

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Sejal’s henna tattoos (mehndi) took several hours to complete and was gorgeous! Jef was supposed to feed her and cater to her needs the whole time since her hands were occupied. He did a good job!

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The henna is supposed to go on your palms, but Meghan and I opted for the backs of our hands so we could hold our babies a little quicker.

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On Friday morning, Jason and I had a brunch date at a local pancake house. We even got to leave Paige behind, and she took her first bottle!

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Cousin time! I love that Paige and Ella are so close, both in age and in proximity!

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The Sangeet was on Friday night. I still don’t know much about these Indian customs, but I do know that the Sangeet is sort of akin to the rehearsal dinner (except that there is no wedding rehearsal). The setting was breathtaking. It was held on a lawn at the Laguna Cliffs Marriot and overlooked the ocean. There was lots of Indian food and Mediterranean food, a DJ, and dancing.

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This is the best picture I have of Jef and Sejal (plus my parents and Sejal’s parents) from the Sangeet:

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My dad and Uncle Al – we don’t get to see him (and my Aunt Nancy) very often since they live in Oregon, so it was nice that they could come for the wedding!

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Oh AND they hired fire dancers! Crazy!

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Okay, I’ve been writing this post for a week (because there is no free time to be had right now!) so I will write another one about the actual wedding later! Stay tuned ; )

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