Moment:
Saturday, October 18th at 12:56 PM
Pastor: “Don’t get shy and look at the mic when you say your vows or you’re going to get married to a microphone”
We all woke up at 6:30 am and grabbed our bags to head to the function hall to get ready for the big day. I had the honor of doing the thodupellikuthuru’s hair, which took 5x longer than it should have because she kept saying “ow” every time I would even remotely touch her hair, then burst into a fit of laughter when I would immediately stop, dramatically gasp, and ask if she’s okay.
Everyone else was working on getting the bride, Jarusha Akka, ready, so there was a circle of aunties and cousins surrounding her armed with bobby pins, safety pins, and flowers. We all paused to watch the beautiful moment when they draped the veil over her hair, after which two sisters from her church prayed over her. Then it came time for the ceremony to begin, and she walked out with us as her entourage behind her. The concept of bridesmaids or a maid-of-honor is more of a Western tradition, but her sister walked right behind her to hold her veil and the rest of us cousins and friends followed after.
The ceremony started out with a greeting from the pastor/officiant and a short message about marriage. It was evident early on that he had quite a sense of humor, and that made for a fun and lively ceremony. When it came time to exchange vows, the pastor instructed the groom, Srikanth Anna, to unveil the bride, at which point he asked - “Is this Jarusha?” Everyone in the room laughed a bit, and the groom said, “No doubt, of course she is,” at which point the pastor said that he always asks the groom to confirm the identity of the bride, because in the Bible, Jacob worked for 7 years to win the hand of Rachel, but on the actual wedding day, he unintentionally married Leah instead!
After exchanging the vows, Srikanth Anna tied the mangalasutra around Jarusha Akka’s neck. Mangalasutra means “holy thread” in Sanskrit, and is a symbol of marriage worn by women, similar to a wedding ring in Western culture. In Telugu weddings specifically, there are traditionally two coin-sized discs, one from each of the families that are being joined together though the marriage. After this ceremony was the flower garland exchange, during which the pastor counted down from three and they had a contest to see who could put the garland on the other the fastest (Srikanth Anna won hands down!).
They were then pronounced husband and wife, and we all watched them sign their marriage license before heading to lunch, which was a traditional Indian meal with servers going around with steel buckets carrying curries and biryani. I gave my phone to my younger cousin Chinnu, who went around basically making an indie documentary about the wedding and its attendees. In his 37 minutes of footage, he managed to catch almost all 600 guests (especially me!) making awkward faces while eating, so that definitely made for some quality content to look back on.
The wedding was a memorable time of reuniting with family members and meeting new people, and the whole trip was one for the books. I had never even met Jarusha Akka, the bride, before this weekend, and it was a really special experience to get to be a part of this monumental occasion. Time to create a new WhatsApp group!
