My First Indian Wedding!

What an amazing weekend, wedding - WOW!

So, a good friend of mine, Suja, was set to be married July 26, 2008 in Seattle, Washington. I got her invitation about 2 months ago and was just so excited for her as it seems she is extremely happy and when my friends are happy, so am I. I immediately started planning - contacted my friend, Katherine, who I knew would also be invited to see if she would be there as well and of course she would! She invited me to stay with her which I immediately accepted and started planning on meeting many wonderful people and having a great time. The only downside to this I was to find out was that Robert's mother and sister were to be in town this particular weekend as a part of their trip/stay out here to Portland and that I would miss that weekend's activities with his family.

So, after trying to catch up on sleep I am remembering things that happened and just how much fun I had. I arrived Friday afternoon, made my way over to the Hotel where Katherine booked a room - The W. A beautiful suite to stay in, a beautiful view and on top of it all beautiful weather! We hung out for a bit and then decided on where to go for dinner - Campagne. My boss was nice enough to give me a gift certificate that was given to him to this French-American restaurant which made our decision a bit easier. We enjoyed a lovely dinner, a couple of drinks with dinner and shared a delicious dessert and made our way back to the Hotel, all within walking distance which made it even better! We hung out at the W's fun and hip bar. Made friends with John the bartender and enjoyed the people watching which there was plenty of.

The next morning we woke up early, trekked up to "The Sweatbox" where we worked off our butter-laden dinner from the night previous - ahh yes, and those four glasses of wine! Let's not forget those! We walked back to our hotel - a 2 mile round trip walk - grabbed some coffee and a pastry at the wonderful little French bakery across the street, Belle Epicurean, and back to the room! A shower and all that good stuff and off we were to Pike Place Market! We checked out the vendors and then grabbed some Mediterranean food for lunch at Sabra and then made our way up the street to check out the Nordstrom flagship store. As we walked up the street I started hearing "Light My Fire" coming from a car down the hill with it's windows down. I mean, it was blaring! As the car made its way up the hill we saw it - a pimped out black with gold accents Trans Am! I had to snap a photo!! As the car went by I looked in and it was a 50+ year old Asian man! LOL - too funny! There was a group in front of us that cheered him on as he peeled away from the stoplight and made HIS way up the hill. Here is the photo I was able to get of him.

On our way we stopped in Lush, got a wonderful hand scrub treatment, bought a couple of items and again, on our way we went! A quick stop in Nordstrom to check out the shoes, etc. and finally, back to our room to get ready for the wedding!

And now, the wedding. I don't know if it was the people, the setting, the religion, the tradition - I simply knew that this was going to be a GREAT wedding and a wonderful time. Maybe it was my attitude, my positivity, my happiness for this couple. The ceremony was to be a traditional Indian ceremony that later we found out was to be only 45 minutes long. It was definitely longer than 45 minutes and the only reason I knew was because I started getting hungry - it was fun though taking photos and being walked through what was going on - the Officiant was really good about that. And when Suja came out - wow. She looked SO beautiful in her super-ornate red Sari.

After the ceremony I recall the groom's father opening up these double doors and announcing that "the bar is open!" Hooray! I could tell that these people knew how to have a good time and was very much looking forward to the food as it was of course going to be a Vegetarian's feast! And it was!!! Katherine and I met a few people, chatted first with the DJ, DJ Aanshul, who approached us probably because we looked like we didn't really know anyone. Then we introduced ourselves to Suja's brother, Arun, and talked to him for a little bit as we grabbed our second drink. Nice guy. Chatty. Handsome. Charming. Then it was food time - we loaded up and while in line we met another nice gentleman, Hari. He was a very nice man and I think was particularly interested in Katherine. :o) He was a cousin of the family but decided to find a seat with us and enjoy his dinner with us which was nice. Then some delicious cake which Katherine and I shared as we were both stuffed and then, the dancing begins!!!!

Wow - I would say it was almost 3 hours STRAIGHT of dancing to current selections but my favorite - Bollywood! It was great and we made some more new friends on the dance floor. A particularly beautiful young lady, who the next day we found out her name - Sapna. She was fun! Such a great outlook and attitude!! Throughout the evening we had several fun dance partners and each other. Katherine and I were just enjoying and although we were both wearing probably 3-4 inch heels it didn't matter! Everyone was on the dance floor - that was the beauty. I really enjoyed dancing with Vikram's (groom) Dad, Dr. Rao, Suja's brother, Arun, and of course, Katherine. There was another guy whose name we didn't know yet that kept dancing with us and he just had the greatest smile - everyone was SO nice. We were introduced the next day and his name is Barack - no, not Obama, he says!

Anyhow, as the evening was ending I figured out what it was that I loved so much and I remember telling Katherine this: These families, these people, were so passionate. You could feel the passion in the air and when I say passion I don't mean, Days of our Lives passion. I'm talking these people LOVE and you can feel it. They love having a good time, they love each other, they love themselves. It permeated - it was intoxicating. I didn't want the evening to end.

A few more dances and about midnight the evening ended there - time to cool off and head "home." I changed out of my almost completely sopping wet dress and into some jeans and a cute top and again, we found ourselves downstairs with John, our faithful bartender with a good memory. We couldn't get over how wonderful the whole evening was and what a great weekend it had turned out to be. Which I knew it would but wow - it was more than I had imagined!

I really didn't want to leave. I was having such a good time but how great would it be to recount my stories when I got back home?! We attended the day after brunch at the bride and groom's home and had time to catch up with our friend, Suja, and to meet and chat with the nice people we had danced with the night previous. I think I'm still catching up on sleep - it was that good of a time.

A time and a weekend I will never forget. Thank you Suja and all of your family and friends for such a memorable and wonderful weekend. Thank you Seattle for again showing me that you are a beautifully unique city. Thank you Katherine for being such a great friend and for always being so positive and fun. Thank you.