n our previous article “Thematic Wedding in an Indian Style” we have discussed thematic nuptial in an Indian style organization and ways of creating necessary entourage. Now we will view over some other important nuances of preparing for it and possible process of this festive event. So future newly-wedded have come to decision about theme and conception, chosen the venue of a holiday, prepared its setting and their costumes. Now it is time to invite guests.

Invitations

As the bridal is thematic, invitations have to differ from conventional ones. The content of an event should be reflected in them. The design of cards is certainly connected to the idea of an event. For example, you can invite guests to the cinema show:

“Bollywood Pictures present an Indian romantic fairy-tale “Dance, dance on a wedding of Alice and Jack!”. Unexpected turns of the plot, breathtaking special effects, catching music and stunning ending are waiting for you! The only show is in September 11. 2015 at address … The beginning of filmshow is at 7 p.m. Don’t miss it!”

This invitation may be designed, for instance, in the style of a film poster or a colorific ticket to a cinema show.

You can also invite differently:

“Would you like to appear in Goa, having taken a dip into the world of fragrant East that is heated with the scalding sun? Do you have a desire to have this all without coming outwards your city? Come to our wedding in an Indian style and feel yourself as a tourist or Hindu, as you wish. India is wonderful, and an Indian nuptial is even more wonderful! We will be endlessly happy to see you at an Indian festival, devoted to our marriage. The event is going to happen (time, date, address)”.

Before preparing bridal invitations you need to decide upon not only theme, but also with key moments of a wedding. If you prefer the look of guests to correspond to the theme of a festival, insert into an envelope with an invitation an additional card (for example, in a shape of an Indian sari, the Indian, an elephant etc.), on the one side of which you will describe your wishes to their look. Generally speaking, it will be enough to state: “The style of clothes is Indian”.

Ransom

You are allowed not to hold a ransom. However you can include it in the program, bringing in some certain traditions and rituals. As previously mentioned, a groom comes on a white horse to the bride’s house. Moreover this horse can be iron, but obligatory decorated with yellow and red garlands. Bridesmaids and bride’s relatives meet a him and his friends with happy exclamations. At this time they scatter over a groom and his accompaniment coins, after that they put on a garland made of pieces of money (Indian rupees) on a groom’s neck.

Then you can organize various tests for a groom and his friends. For instance, give a task to guys to turn into… an elephant that will carry a fiancé to a certain distance. For this purpose one should prepare an embroidered horsecloth that will be thrown upon a back of an elephant.

If a groom and his company are notable for creativity and talent, one can offer them the following test: give them a big piece of red cloth and fabric paints in cans, having given a task to decorate a bride’s sari with a painting. When a picture is ready, a master will say that sari should be shown to a bride first. If she likes it, she will go to the office of civil registration, wearing exactly this one (one should say it really seriously to make a groom to be afraid of letting his fiancée put it on). If a bride rejects sari to a fiancé and his friends, they will have to pay ransom.

Other possible tests for ransom: to eat an Indian halva without using hands, to twine a wreath out of natural flowers, to make a declaration of love with the help of body language (Indian music is switched on, a master reads a line of a poem with a declaration of love, and a bridegroom tries to show it using body language).

If maids decide that a groom passes all the tests, they will offer him to sit on a flat stone near the bride’s house. In some minutes a wife-to-be will be carried outside, sitting on a palanquin (something like a sedan-chair). Men, who will carry her on a palanquin, have to go seven times around a groom, sitting on a stone. After that a sedan-chair is lowered so far as the bride could stand up. Newlyweds stare into eyes of each other, and then put on a flower garland on their necks. In India after this ritual newlyweds are sent to a pavilion-temple, and the couple sits on a white horse (in a white car) and goes to the office of civil registration.

Banquet

At the entrance one can suggest guests some clothes or accessories for impersonation. After all even if a dress-code is noted in an invitation, it is not a fact that all the guests will be able to keep to it. Women can be offered bindi, sari, bracelets, and men – embroidered belts and turbans. Regardless of sex, guests can put on necklaces made of flowers and bracelets.

When all the guests gather, a master will offer newlyweds to come into the temple. This pavilion should be open enough for guests to see everything that happens there.

Newlyweds come into a mini temple and sit on pads. Men of honor and next of kin can also come in. The fire should be lit in the center, but one may prefer some lit candles. A chair or another person, who accomplishes symbolic priest functions, will offer newlyweds to pronounce their oathes.

Indian speech of those who are going to get married is as following: “We swear to be together through foul and fair by the day when death will separate us”. After that newlyweds have to bind laps of their clothes and make seven steps around fire, asking for blessing their marriage.

Then a groom lays a red strip on a part of a bride (red shadows in a compact small box can be used), a master ties newlyweds’ hands together with the flower garland and declares them a husband and a wife, blessing for long and happy life.

Soon after that there is general joy, a groom and a bride return to guests and invite them to the table. Certainly, these are not all the rites. Described ones are adapted a little bit to our conditions and traditions. Still we have mentioned in the beginning of the article that the matter concerns not an Indian wedding in its classical understanding but just its stylization.

Indian Entertainment Show

In the beginning of the event guests can be entertained with some ethnic style mini film about a fiancé and a fiancée. Everything has to be in sort of an Indian cinematography: acquaintance, amorousness, the first kiss, an obstacle and it’s crossing, a great deal of found relatives after twenty years of separation, Indian songs, dances, and certainly, happy end – an offer of marriage.

To make a festival succeed, one can invite artists, specialized on Indian dances, fakirs (a trick with a snake will make an impression), lords of fire (Fire show), and acrobats-yogi. With an adequate effort you may cope on your own. Bridesmaids may perform an Indian dance and bridegroom’s friends can show conjuring tricks, including one with rubber snakes. Guests will be amused.

Games and Contests

“Seeta Aur Geeta”

The first to take part will be a groom, a bride and one more young lady. A master declares: “Sisters Seeta and Geeta were so much alike in an Indian film that even their husbands-to-be confused them. Will our groom be able to recognize his beloved, if she and another woman are so indistinguishable for him as Seeta and Geeta?” Blindfolded with a scarf fiancé has to recognize his new-fangled wife by her fragrance. He can lean forward a little bit to a girl, sitting on a chair and breathe in her fragrance. If a husband recognizes his wife, he will get a kiss as a prize.

Then one can suggest married men, who came to the wedding with their soulmates to take part. You can play a practical joke on one of participants: to blindfold him and to seat on chairs two absolutely unfamiliar women. Will this man feel that fragrances of these two women do not resemble his wife’s fragrance at all?

“Fast Hindu”

Several men are participants. Each of them handles a very long piece of tissue. A task is to bind tissue on a head like a turban as fast as possible. The fastest participants become winners.

“An Indian Elephant”

A master narrates that an elephant in India is a sacred animal, bringing success and welfare. If an elephant is made of 100 dollars denomination, the level of success and welfare will run high. Therefore the best mascot for a young family is one made of money pieces. Who likes to make such a luxurious present for newlyweds?

Choose several participants who come under couples (it is easier and more joyful to make a figure together). Each couple is given a scheme of “An elephant” origami and a big artificial 100 dollars denomination (you can find it in the Internet, enlarge in a graphic editor and print as many as needed). Participants may cut a denomination and change its shape according to the diagram. The couple, whose figure is ready first, wins. Elephants are presented to a newlywed couple.

If schemes are too difficult, one can give them another task – to cut an elephant with the scissors out of a big artificial piece of money. The one, whose elephant is the most similar to on original, becomes a winner.

“A Taster”

As it is well known, different spices are highly appreciated in India. A master suggests to verify how well our housewives are great on spices. Participants are women (and a bride if she wishes). Each spice is poured in a separate nice scent-bottle with a number. A master has a list of spices according to the numbers.

Young ladies come to the table with scent-bottles one by one. A master asks to find any particular spices (supposing, three spices). A participant smells the contents of scent-bottles and names the number of those, in which she thinks the spices mentioned by the master. He do not tell the correct variants at once, but invites another participant, having given her a task to find this time another spices. At this moment a master stores the quantity of right answers. When all the participants take part, he tells the results, naming those who are really good at spices.

“Body Language”

A volunteer is called out. He is given a piece of paper with a popular poem written on it. A quiet Indian music is switched on and a participant begins to “tell” a poem just with the help of gestures and dancing movements. Spectators know that they should guess a poem. If a poem is guessed, a player, who showed it, gets a prize and rank “The Guru of an Indian Dance”. The number of people has to be equal to the number of poems prepared by the master. If the public cannot guess a poem for a long time, a player leaves the “ dance-floor” without a prize. Spectators who guess should be given little prizes as well.

“Mehendi” – a contest for creative ones

You will need red face paints and brushes. Guests, wishing to become painters and artist’s models, are invited. A task is to paint a hand of a model according to a sample. A picture on a piece of paper is quite sophisticated. What is more, all the artists are given the same scheme. The one who makes a painting more quickly and precisely gets a prize. There are no losers here.

“Kamasutra”

As it is well known, Kamasutra is founded in India. It is not only a treatise of love but also a handbook for those who likes to control deeply their bodies. Having played a jocose “Kamasutra”, one can make a conclusion of who has control on their bodies. Couples become participants.

In advance a master prepares sheets of paper, on which different body parts are written, and puts them into a vessel. A chair comes to the first attendants and offers each of them to pick a sheet of paper and read what is written on it. Then one partner should touch with the help of his body part, written on his sheet of paper, to the part of his partner, written on the sheet of paper of the partner. For instance, a man picks a card with a note “a stomach”, and a woman – with a note “a shoulder”. It means that they have to strike a pose so that a shoulder of a woman touches a stomach of her partner.

If a couple copes to pose and keep it for a while, the participants pick another pair of sheets of paper. Keeping the first pose (for example, a shoulder to a stomach), they have to make another touch according to the notes, written on the second pair of notes. For instance, if the second time it turns to be “a hand” and “a leg”, it will be easy to perform it. However if “a neck” and “an elbow”, so they will try to do their best. If a couple happens to make the second contact, without destroying the first one, the next recommendation is picked.

Finally, when a couple is not able to perform the next touch, their Kamasutra finishes, but they do not leave the game, but wait for the results of other couples. A couple gets one point for the next each touch. A couple, that gets the max, becomes a winner. They can be handled a diploma “Professionals of Kamasutra”.

“Roses and lips”, half-erotic game

For this game you will need rose petals those have no shortage at an Indian wedding. Not less than two couples take part in it. Surely, there are not only roses at such nuptials, but also soft mats and pads. Young ladies lie down on pads and mats. Young men are blindfolded. Ladies are scattered with the same quantity of rose petals. The task of young man is to collect petals from the partner’s body with the help of lips. The winner is the one who made it quicker.

Screen-musical quiz

You may and even need to have a screen-musical quiz at such bridal. One should prepare parts of popular Indian movies soundtracks, including new and old ones. Having listened to a short fragment, the guests have to guess the film and recollect the name of it. A chair gives small prizes to everyone who guesses a movie. You may handle a diploma “PHD of Indian cinematography” and a big prize, for instance, an authentic DVD with the best Indian movies.

Do not forget to prepare bonbonnieres for the guests, for example, with tiny elephants, cashew nuts and some chocolate coins in it.

We wish you to have a fantastic Indian wedding!