For the Love: It's Fancy Time!

A few weeks ago a bunch of us volunteers were invited to attend a wedding in Walajabad, India. Sharmilla, a nurse at the school, was getting married and was nice enough to invite us all to her wedding festivities! This was exciting for us not only because we love Sharmilla, but it was a chance for us to get all dolled up in traditional Indian clothing! The weekend before the wedding, I went shopping and bought my first Sari (also spelled "Saree"). I wasn't sure if the sari I bought was too fancy, or not fancy enough for a wedding, but when I arrived at the wedding one of the Indian ladies I work with here said I looked dressed up almost like a bride would be. Um, that's kind of embarrassing. Way to over do it Julie! But what the heck, I LOVE my sari, and it was a blast. I had no idea how to wrap myself in a Sari, so I asked one of the housemother's named Poongodi, to help me get dressed. She and Abarna (another housemother), wrapped me up, did my hair, lent me jewelry, and henna'd my hand all within 30 minutes.

Getting Sari'd!

Amy getting dressed in a Sari by Poongodi and Abarna too!

Poongodi is awesome!

Poongodi and Abarna did my hair like a traditional Indian woman does her hair. I love the way it looks in pictures, but I am not a fan of my hair being pulled back all the way. But I decided to go all Indian!

Berlyn and I lookin fierce!

Sharmilla, so beautiful at her wedding! I loved her yellow sari!

We threw jasmine at the bride and groom after the ceremony. It smelled so amazing!

I've noticed that most Indians don't smile in pictures, even if it's their wedding day. Any time the camera was not on them, they were smiling :)

We ate Biryani for dinner... which consists of, wait for it... RICE! The kids love Biryani. It's pretty good... has chicken in it and a lot of flavor. There was also some stuff that tasted like thick, sweet cream of wheat with raisins in it. It was tasty so I ate all of it. Here's Sarah and Miranda enjoying their meal!

Berlyn tries to creep her way into every photo. Just a classic example :)

There were tons of cute kids at the wedding too. This kid was not liking the photos though, or all of us pointing at him as you can see by all of the hands in this picture.