In general, weddings are fun for the guests, onerous for the hosts and exhausting for the bride and groom. They are expensive and elaborate with many ceremonies, multiple days of celebration, and the actual wedding that sometimes takes hours and lasts into the wee hours of the night. There are some things about the Indian wedding that we will all identify with. Indian weddings are incomplete without… take it away Twitter.
More weddings are fixed at weddings than at any other social gathering. Not only are there eagle eyed matchmaker biddies around, girls and boys legitimately get to meet and spend time together in a society that still largely segregates the genders.
The gate crashers and some of the guests are there mainly for the food and sometimes only for the food. The décor, and ceremony, matter very little.
Sometimes I think the camera person has been told by the hosts to take unflattering pictures of guests and to try and keep track of who was there and how much they ate. What other reason is there to take pictures of people eating – photos will always, without exception, be unflattering and just plain awful.
No wedding is complete without a photographer/videographer who believes himself no less than a film director. He/she directs the poses, expressions, everything at the various events, the pre-wedding, wedding and post-wedding shoots and perhaps a music video or two
The aunties may or may not be trying to get people married off but they are in attendance. Uncles, cousins and other assorted relatives are there too, and they expect to be remembered.
Then there will always be that aunt or uncle who will find fault in everything, expect special treatment and become a general nuisance.
The accommodation may be tight, but at least some of the guests manage to have a lot of fun.
Running errands, fetching and dropping guests, dealing with the decorators and caterers – all this can be fun too.
The various customs associated with weddings are fun too.
While some guests are happy to be happy, others are happy only when they are finding fault.
Small kids don’t enjoy weddings – pulled hither and tither by strangers, their routine upset, their parents distracted – they cry and they cry with good reason.
…Or worse say things like this in earnest.
Dry wedding? What’s that! One group will definitely smuggle in some booze to enliven the party.
There are some songs that have to be played at weddings – it is the law!
Weddings are incomplete without… a bit of drama and some tears, and some smiling through those tears.
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