Basement Decorated. Check.
Henna done. Check.
Food ready. Check.
Tall blonde girl dressed in Indian clothes to fit in better. Check.
Ready for party number one.
On the first night, all the bride's family comes over. As well as the groom's if I recall - but they are a bit . . . what's the word? Party Poopery. So they only came over for a bit. Also, BB's family is Sikh and groom is Hindu, so slight cultural clash.
Anyways, the whole family comes over.
Besides feeding BB when her henna was being done, my other mission was to help the guys go buy the alcohol. Okay, fine, I sort of made it my mission. Part of me wanted to return to the liquor store of my youth, because now I was legal. The other part was in search of pink champagne.
I learned an interesting thing: Indian men are allowed to drink and it's no problem. Us girls had to be a bit more sly. Too bad sly is not my thing. I kept refilling BB's small glass with the champagne bottle hidden under my tunic.
The woman all sang in a corner. I asked what they were singing. Apparently, they sing songs lamenting the loss of a daughter. Hmmm, uplifting.
They gossiped and chatted. The men upstairs BBQ'd and drank vodka.
Then the food was served. AT ELEVEN! I had already sort of stuffed myself with small appetizers and more Indian sweets but the smell of the curries was just too darn good. That is when the two parties joined as one. Oh the bond of butter chicken is so strong.
And then we danced. Good thing I had been taking my Bollywood dance classes to prepare for this moment. Unfortunately, my retention of dance is very small and I could only remember two moves. However, it was still impressive to all the aunties that the tall white girl was so enthusiastic about dancing. Note in the picture how badly I stand out. I was literally a foot taller than most of the women. So there we all were, the women singing, dancing and clapping - walking around in a circle. The other bridesmaid who was white and me were so amazed at the colour and the tradition that this wedding had so far.
The men came down to join in the fun. BB's cousin right off the boat from India (her words, not mine) was VERY excited to dance. In fact, he kept making grunting noises and then doing push-ups. Well, I love a challenge. So I matched his grunting noises and did as many push-ups as he did. Hmmm, I just realized he hadn't actually challenged me. However, this was received with much laughter and applause. 'Oh you silly blonde girl' is what I suspect was the feeling in the room.
Anyways, we danced late into the night and then party number one was over. The groom was not at this party - I think they had a groom's party somewhere else. It's all very separate. Except with me, I like to bridge gaps. I was the only party go-er who kept bouncing from the ladies basement to the backyard.
Well to be fair, it's where the pink champagne was being kept.
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