THE REAL ROYAL WEDDING

Picture Above Credits: https://saidigital.co.uk/ & Instagram: Saidigitaluk

Hello! I’m back! If you were wondering why my tidbits had disappeared for a time period, it was because I was surrounded by British accents, Cadbury chocolates and family in London for two weeks. I had gone for my cousin sister’s wedding and remained behind to spend some quality time with family—because I hadn’t seen them in varying time frames of two years to five years. Before I dive into my trip and how INCREDIBLE it was, I would just like to say a huge thank you to Hart for taking over tidbits for me for the time I was gone. It’s so much easier to go away and enjoy a holiday when you know that you can depend on your co-workers to take care of things back at home.

As you know, the main purpose of my trip was for my cousin’s wedding. Not only was this wedding special because it was my first female cousin getting married, but it was more so special because this cousin has always been very VERY important to me. She is my dad’s older sister’s daughter and I have always seen her as—not a cousin—but as an older sister. I have no older sisters, but I do have three older cousins who are, for all intents and purposes, my older sisters; with her being one of them. I won’t go into the lifetime of memories we have together, but the bottom line is that she means the world to me. So getting to share in her special day was such an honor and a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life.

So—the wedding. Since my cousin, who is Indian, was marrying a non-Indian, she had two ceremonies—a Hindu one and civil one. But, before the actual wedding day, there were two other events; the mehndi (henna) night and the religious ceremonies day. The mehndi night was filled with her family and friends, all enjoying music, delicious food and many of the guests getting henna done on their hands. One of the best parts of that evening was getting to see my cousin’s mehndi, covering up her arms and legs. She looked so gorgeous.

Mehndi night was on Thursday and the following day, Friday, was when all the religious ceremonies (vidhis) took place. Various members of the family, including my cousin’s parents and their siblings, sat down for various rituals; with the intent being to call upon God to bless the wedding and make sure it goes off as perfectly as she wanted. That took up the entire morning and lasted into the afternoon, so the evening was kept relaxed. Myself, and the other guests, mingled, enjoyed the warm weather and closed out the day with a pizza party. And when I say ‘pizza party’ I don’t mean boxes of Dominoes being passed around. No. We had an actual pizza company come out to the house, set up in the driveway and make fresh pizzas right in front of us. They took orders, made the pizzas, heated them in an oven they had brought and made me feel as if we were in a restaurant.

Both of those events were filled with excitement and easily got me hyped up for the wedding. But Saturday, wedding day, that is where all the magic happened. Like I said earlier, my cousin had two wedding ceremonies. The day started off with the Hindu ceremony, which kicked off with some dancing and music before we all filed inside the venue to take our seats. As I sat, I marveled at the beauty of the room and tried to focus on the rituals that were taking place by the groom and the bride’s parents up on the mandap (a covered structure designed for weddings). However, while 85 percent of me was focusing on the events taking place in front of me, the other 15 percent was excitedly waiting to see my cousin make her grand entrance. And when it happened, it was the most moving and emotional part of the entire ceremony. The priest who was performing the ceremony had briefed us as to which ritual would take place right before her entrance and, when I heard the sound signaling her entrance, I felt such a wave of emotion and anticipation wash up inside of me. That was only intensified when I saw her bridesmaids come down the aisle and then…there she was. She looked absolutely stunning, like a princess, in her gorgeous outfit. She walked down the aisle with my dad and uncle (her mother’s brothers as is tradition), the beautiful music played in the background and I cried. Well I cried on the inside because I was afraid of messing up my mascara. She walked up to where the groom was waiting, they saw each other in their wedding attire for the first time and—about 30 minutes later—the first wedding was complete.

We had a two hour break until the second wedding, which allowed us to relax and change into our afternoon outfits. The civil wedding started around 4pm and that just brought about another flood of emotions. While the Hindu wedding was beautiful and emotional with the various ceremonies and music that accompanied it, the civil wedding was moving in its own right. Seeing my cousin up there in that white dress and veil, and my brother-in-law in his suit, saying those words that would join them for life was just the most beautiful moment. When she said “I, Shefali Prakash Desai, take you Chris Chittleborough to be my lawfully wedding husband” and when he said “I, Chris Chittleborough, take you Shefali Prakash Desai to be my lawfully wedding wife”—that was when it really and truly hit me. My cousin was MARRIED. And I had got to witness such a beautiful moment. I also remember thinking how much it made me think of the royal wedding, which had just taken place about two months prior. Of course, this one was more special to me and to our entire family. The day ended with a gorgeous reception filled with speeches—funny and moving—a dance party, and a beautiful first and last dance. I will never again be able to listen to the songs she chose for her wedding without thinking of this day and getting emotional.

It has been two weeks since the wedding and I still can’t stop talking about it/thinking about it. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended. It will be the wedding against which I judge all future weddings. I mean, I can only hope that my own wedding is as stunning as this one was. My cousin and brother-in-law worked so hard the past two years, to make sure this wedding was perfect, and that definitely paid off. Everything about it was beautiful, from the venue to the music chosen to the outfits worn. I told my cousin this multiple times since the wedding day, but she looked SO PRETTY. I can’t say it enough. I mean, she’s already gorgeous but seeing her in all her outfits—particularly the two wedding ones—just added to her beauty. As I said to her in a message “your beauty makes me cry”. And that’s not an exaggeration. I did cry, many times, during the wedding day. But then I stopped crying the next day, when I had a mint chocolate chip ice cream bar from the ice cream truck that visited the house. It’s hard to be emotional about anything when you have an ice cream bar in your hand and are taking a taste of your sister’s vanilla ice cream with a chocolate flake. And yes, you read that right. My uncle hired an ice cream truck to come to the house. As my sister said, “we are the most extra family there is.”

I am so happy that my cousin’s wedding was the wedding of her dreams, because she deserved it so much. She’s such a kind-hearted soul, an incredible sister and wonderful person, and she deserved the BEST day. Which, in my opinion, is what the wedding was. I’m so happy for her, and for my first brother-in-law—who is such a stand-up guy. From the bottom of my heart, I wish the two of them a lifetime of happiness.

And now, I’m going to go listen to her Hindu wedding entrance song for the millionth time and cry—for the millionth time. Stay tuned for next week’s tidbits where I talk about the non-wedding part of the trip.