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Last year we had the pleasure of meeting Vivi and Eric. I have been anxiously awaiting the photos so I could bring the whole story to you with words but mostly pictures. You know how a picture says a thousand words, it certainly applies here. Let me introduce you that have never experienced an Indian wedding to the color, ritual, and celebration. Eric and Vivi met in Times Square, New York, although the wedding was in California. One of the main reasons the wedding was in Orange County was that most of Vivi’s family is here, and this was to be the first wedding in Vivi’s family in the U.S…..and the first “love marriage”. You see in the Indian tradition, weddings were arranged and even today many still are. Vivi’s parents and grandparents both had arranged marriages. So this was quite something for the family. A marriage where the couple chose who they would marry. 

  Vivi and her sisters were covered in Henna. This is the design you see on her hands. It is a old wife’s tale that the women who it shows up the darkest will be the next to marry. Vivi’s henna artist also intricately inscribed Erik’s name into the design on her hands. In Indian traditional arranged marriages in the past, a bride may not be able to meet her husband until the wedding. This inscribing of the grooms name served as an ice -breaker when the couple first had a chance to meet and talk.

Erik and Vivi had a traditional Hindu wedding performed in Sanskrit. She was carried in on a dholi, a traditional Indian chariot, by her brother and male members of the family. The dholi was designed in India by a family and shipped to the U.S. and arrived just days prior to the wedding. It weighs 300 lbs! Many books show brides in India being carried from her village to the village of her new husband.

 One part of the ceremony, the priest drops a ring into a decorated bowl of water and the bride and groom search for the ring at the same time by sticking their hand in the bucket. The person who finds the ring 2 out of 3 times in destined to be the more dominate in the marriage. Erik won!

Lauren doing her magic…… 

Our friend Lisa Simpson of Lisa Simpson Weddings organized the entire event….wow, and Dina Douglas/Andrena Photography is responsible for all the incredable photographs. The St Regis was the stunning location.

You must stay tuned…..tomorrow will be the second wedding……you do not want to miss it!