Wedding Part 2

{You can read part one here}

They say no matter what goes wrong on your wedding day, the important thing is that at the end of the day you're married.

But it was looking like we weren't going to get married on that day after all.

We were searching for solutions. But we were grasping at straws.

The reality is that this guy was the only guy with the power to marry us... and he didn't care a whit about our timeline or our feelings.

We have a lawyer and Ryan's parents were arguing with her, telling her how we had a honeymoon booked and a reception that night. They were told, I'm unsure if it was by the lawyer or the office of the official, that "no one celebrates these court things," meaning we were the unreasonable ones.

I am not ashamed to say that I cried.

I am a little ashamed to say I cried several times.

Ryan with his aunt, two grand uncles, and grandmother

Ryan's extended family had shown up, including his two grand uncles [in India a great uncle is a grand uncle and a great great uncle is a great grand uncle!] that I'd not met before, so I made my introductions (once I was calm.)

My sari had already gotten re-draped by Ryan's aunt, so it'd be draped twice (really more than that because both times had taken a few tries.) Before we'd left the house I'd called my parents back so they could see the new look and to let them know what was going on... I felt bad about taking down their joy as well (though of course would have felt worse not including them in the truth.)

us at the shopping center

Ryan's family and friends, who are now mine, were very comforting. It was decided we'd go ahead with the reception, but Ryan's dad would cancel the hotel room for the night. He'd gotten us a hotel room for that night in our city, then the next day we were going to catch a bus and head off to the mountains, but now we'd be spending our wedding night on a bus...

If we got married the next day. But if an official could decide not to come to work one day, why expect him the next day?

Ryan's family had to pick up the cake from the bakery, so it was suggested since we weren't going to the court why not have all of us go and we'd go to a photo studio and get a professional picture taken since we were all dressed up? So we did.

us with Shushant and Aveek 

Our friends met us there. And there was much exclaiming about how lovely we looked, and we took photos until the security guards told us to stop (apparently in India people don't like you take photos outside of shops... not really sure why. I kind of get inside of shops, since maybe you're 'casing the joint' but outside in the shopping complex? That's just silly...)

Then we went back to the house where we just hung out and had lunch and were social. We had fun taking a ton of photos. We were also still working on the music for the reception, a job Ryan and I were supposed to have completed the weekend before but Ryan kept saying, "It's okay, we have time." Plus, a lot of drama went down on the weekend. (Amazingly, not involving family!) It had been cleared up only that morning.

Yashvika, Ryan and I

At one point I went aside and cried to the point we had to redo my make-up... and you know what? The make-up looked better. And Ryan's friends and Ryan himself all gathered around me and comforted me. I just wanted to be married to Ryan so bad.

But I did feel beautiful. My sari looked lovely. And when we'd been out in the shopping center we were turning so many heads, it was fun. So when the evening came and we loaded into our cars I felt like a pretty bride, despite the lack of a marriage.

Our neighbors were staring at us. One lady passing on a bicycle winked and held up an okay hand signal (you know, you hold the pointer and thumb in a circle and the other fingers waggle up?) It was fun.

I felt gorgeous as I arrived at the venue. Now this was the minor wedding celebration. We're still hoping to a do a church ceremony and larger reception later, but we had about 30 guests coming to an hors d'ouerves reception. I walked into greet the ten to fifteen guests who arrived before us with confidence.

I was greeted warmly... then several women said my sari was lovely... but could they please re-drape it?

I was flustered, but allowed it. So that was my third re-draping and a totally different style. This style showed off the palu better (the decorative part of the sari).  It did look nice, though looking at the photos of the morning and the evening I think I like the way the morning showed off my figure better. But the ladies' re-draping was pinned much better and I think held up much better throughout the course of the evening...

So re-draped and refreshed in my mindset, I made my grand entrance to the reception...

To be continued tomorrow... (Thankful Thursday will be appearing here in a few hours, if you were wondering)