Intro and Progress Post: Hi from a Bride with a Hindu wedding
Name and/or LJ userID: eleryth and mriswith
Wedding Date: 8/21/10
Bride/Groom/Other (please specify): Bride
Age: Late 20s
City/State/Country you live in: Currently in Chicago for school, and he lives in Toronto.
City/State/Country you're getting married in (if different): Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Your song/First Dance song: We haven't decided that yet.
Wedding Colors: We're thinking red, off-white/cream, gold, and black accents.
Formality: No jeans or shorts, but tuxes not required.
Theme (if you have one): Eclectic mix. Hindu ceremony, Western reception with some "Japanese" wedding reception style entertainment.
Number of guests: 150 (too small by his parent's standards, but bigger than our original goal of 100-120)
How'd you meet your fiance?: We met in our first year of undergrad at the same school club. We didn't get together until between 3rd and 4th year, which I had to initiate and don't let him forget. ;)
How long have you been together?: 7 3/4 years. Got engaged 1 year ago, but now that the day is drawing closer, we're actually getting stuff done.
Do you have a personal wedding website?: Still working on it. It's with mywedding.com
Have you read the community rules before posting this survey? Yes.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?: If anyone has any advice about having a Hindu wedding, I'm all ears! (I'm not Hindu, and he's not devout.) Also, any tips for handling inter-cultural issues and expectations, I'm happy to take those, too.
I'm a white Canadian and fiance is of Indo-Canadian background. We're having an Indian/Hindu ceremony (a shortened version of 'traditional' - it's still over an hour long) and I'll be wearing a sari and he a sherwani. We both spent a significant time in Japan, so our theme is Hindu-Japanese-Western. A real mish-mash.
Our biggest issue is managing his parent's cultural expectations with our own desires. It's so hard to try and make them happy along with sticking to our own wants and it's causing a lot of stress. Communicating it is hard, and they don't seem to want to listen or try to understand that it's a cultural compromise, not a full-out "everything done the way it's done in India" wedding. :/
We have...
had our engagement photos, which are not super-duper huggy-lovey but more fun. You can find them at my flickr, here.
booked our reception hall.
booked the temple for the ceremony.
ordered the matching band to my engagement ring.
found his ring, but are waiting for a sale. [Protip if in Canada: Mappins is cheaper than Peoples despite them being affiliated.]
confirmed the bonbonnieres with his dad. It's homemade salsa. His dad's salsa is incredible and always gets rave reviews when we serve it.
found the little jars for the salsa (4oz) and determined how many we need. Total cost including salsa making materials will be probably around $1.50/person.
went looking at sari and sherwani with his parents to determine style and color. He will wear off-white with red embroidery. I'll have two sari: one matching his for the ceremony, and a red with gold embroidery for the reception. His dad is shopping in India in February for them, along with jewelry and stuff.
narrowed down our invitation styles and gave references to his dad. Again, getting it in India.
compiled a list of friends who are wanting sari for the wedding as well.
started a wedding website, but it isn't available for public viewing yet.
received a document from his dad outlining the various parts in the ceremony and who is involved. This helped me understand a Hindu ceremony a lot better, but still not well enough.
decided not to see one another the night/morning before the ceremony, so my best friend is going to stay in a hotel room with me.
determined that our tables will be "numbered" with the kanji (Japanese character) and English [words like: love, happiness, luck, etc].
evaluated transportation plans and determined that we don't need to hire a shuttle. Yet.
looked at some cake vendors, and discussed what we wanted with each other and saved some inspiration pics.
figured out the last-name thing.
purchased gold sandals for me. I'm wearing them in my engagement photos.
nearly finalized the guest list, and have gotten his parents to understand the concept of an A list and a B list, which is very different from their usual cultural tradition, to invite just about everyone they know. Wedding is 150 people.
Knowing it's this year is kind of exciting. It's far more real, now.
And for kicks, an engagement photo!
We still have a lot to do, so I won't go into that here. The list is still quite long! Though not quite as long as before, thankfully.
Glad to meet everyone and hope to get some pro-tips and de-stress with fellow brides!
Wedding Date: 8/21/10
Bride/Groom/Other (please specify): Bride
Age: Late 20s
City/State/Country you live in: Currently in Chicago for school, and he lives in Toronto.
City/State/Country you're getting married in (if different): Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Your song/First Dance song: We haven't decided that yet.
Wedding Colors: We're thinking red, off-white/cream, gold, and black accents.
Formality: No jeans or shorts, but tuxes not required.
Theme (if you have one): Eclectic mix. Hindu ceremony, Western reception with some "Japanese" wedding reception style entertainment.
Number of guests: 150 (too small by his parent's standards, but bigger than our original goal of 100-120)
How'd you meet your fiance?: We met in our first year of undergrad at the same school club. We didn't get together until between 3rd and 4th year, which I had to initiate and don't let him forget. ;)
How long have you been together?: 7 3/4 years. Got engaged 1 year ago, but now that the day is drawing closer, we're actually getting stuff done.
Do you have a personal wedding website?: Still working on it. It's with mywedding.com
Have you read the community rules before posting this survey? Yes.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?: If anyone has any advice about having a Hindu wedding, I'm all ears! (I'm not Hindu, and he's not devout.) Also, any tips for handling inter-cultural issues and expectations, I'm happy to take those, too.
I'm a white Canadian and fiance is of Indo-Canadian background. We're having an Indian/Hindu ceremony (a shortened version of 'traditional' - it's still over an hour long) and I'll be wearing a sari and he a sherwani. We both spent a significant time in Japan, so our theme is Hindu-Japanese-Western. A real mish-mash.
Our biggest issue is managing his parent's cultural expectations with our own desires. It's so hard to try and make them happy along with sticking to our own wants and it's causing a lot of stress. Communicating it is hard, and they don't seem to want to listen or try to understand that it's a cultural compromise, not a full-out "everything done the way it's done in India" wedding. :/
We have...
Knowing it's this year is kind of exciting. It's far more real, now.
And for kicks, an engagement photo!
We still have a lot to do, so I won't go into that here. The list is still quite long! Though not quite as long as before, thankfully.
Glad to meet everyone and hope to get some pro-tips and de-stress with fellow brides!