Tamil Nadu has seen some severe flooding in recent years during monsoon season. The floods in October-November 2015 were particularly devastating. Some of the factors that contributed to floods in prior years have been mitigated, but severe rains can still grind Chennai to a halt.
Before even deciding WHERE we wanted to have our wedding, we had already decided on WHEN. Some of that was in line with the importance in Indian traditions with choosing an “auspicious day” to get wedded. So you may be asking, “what makes a day ‘auspicious’”? Well… after consulting with a Hindu priest, calculations are made based on a couples’ birth dates & times, astrological signs, and alignment of the stars, a list of dates & times are offered that are considered lucky & promising success to the couple. Hey, with the lowest divorce rate in the world, maybe there’s something to it. For us, we were hoping the date we wanted most (11/11/22) would make the lucky list, and fortunately it did. Also lucky was that they calculated a reasonable morning ceremony time and not some lunatic 2am wedding as is sometimes the case.
With the green light from our priest in Chennai, we started planning our Monsoon Wedding. Fortunately for everyone, the monsoon part didn’t turn out to be eventful and everything worked out pretty close to our best plans. I even bought a stock image to get a good depiction for this post of rains in Chennai (featured above, taken in a prior year). We only had a light sprinkle early in the day and then a decent downpour immediately AFTER everyone came back in the marriage hall from dancing and horse-drawn carriages, etc.
Stage at the Mandapam
Arriving at Mandapam morning prior
Oonjal ceremony… the bride represents Radha and the groom Krishna. While slowly swinging there’s singing, a bunch of blessings I won’t pretend to understand, and sweets are thrown backwards, ideally hitting guests behind you for comedic effect.
These items are used in the Kashi Yatra ritual… essentially the groom grabs this stuff and makes a show of leaving to go become a monk. You grab your cane & umbrella and start slow-walking out of the place. The bride’s family has to lure you back to the marriage hall. I suppose if they really didn’t want the marriage to proceed they could just not chase you down. In my case though, that probably wouldn’t work as I have no idea how to get to Kashi & I doubt I’d get far shirtless with just a cane & umbrella.
Many hours of chanting, passing items back & forth, and dropping other stuff into a fire.
I had wondered about these little string bracelets when I’d seen people with them over the years. There’s a lot of work blessing that string… I wore it for a couple months until it fell apart. I’m not looking to get cursed after all that.
Eventually all of this culminates to tying a necklace around the bride… the “Thali”. Loosely equivalent to the significance placed on the wedding band in western traditions, the Thali is a bit more holistically symbolic of different aspects of married life.
I’ve got things a bit out of order here (on purpose)…. In a western wedding, the “reception” is typically after the ceremony. In Hindu traditions, similar events are usually before the ceremony. Here we have “Baraat” or the grand entrance of the groom. The tradition represents a time when the groom may have travelled for multiple days to arrive. Baraat involves dancing and music…. Basically it’s a street dance party with drummers with horses & carriages leading a procession. This part was a really fun highlight for me.
They gave Gregory a spear in case anyone tried to interrupt the dance party.
Heading in, I knew: “There will be dancing.” Thankfully I had some help and we all practiced some short choreographed routines to get things started.
Our friends had a whole routine choreographed as well. I was honestly apprehensive of the dancing part ahead of time but it turned out to be a lot of fun for everyone.
Some Facetime greetings for folks that couldn’t make it to Chennai
Everything went better than we could have hoped for… India may not top most lists for “destination weddings” but for us it was perfect.
2 thoughts on “We Were Warned Against a Wedding in Monsoon Season”
Fantastic pictures Looks wonderfully done Glad Ellen could be there . You make a gorgeous couple 💘
Love the pics! So sorry I couldn’t be there to celebrate with you. What a beautiful wedding and bride and groom!❤️❤️