Wedding #1

My neighbors have 6 children.  The three older boys are married, and two have children.  The younger three are daughters: 19 year old twins, and an 11 year old.

We spend a lot of time over there drinking tea, practicing language, laughing, eating, and watching TV (Bollywood soap operas dubbed over in the local language).

To our surprise, while we were away in August, one of the twins accepted a marriage proposal.  It seems that she has had quite a few, but she has turned them all down because she wanted to go to college first.  But apparently she met the right guy who changed her mind. 

I was under the impression that she was introduced to him, but after further investigation, it seems they met at an English class.  There are so many families who do not allow their daughters to marry outside of the family, so this was unique.

We got the scoop (the best we could) on all the "weddings" that were going to take place. 

The first one was at their family's house in the village on September 7.  And we were told to wear traditional dresses.

Her aunt and sister-in-law (below) were getting ready, along with a lot of girls.  It was a busy night at our house, so only Kylie went went me, and she joined in with all the ladies, watching them all get ready.

This is the bride-to-be. 

 

 This is her twin sister.

This is taken across the room from me in the room where many kept coming and were waiting.  The door on the far right is where the girls are getting ready.

More people kept coming. 

Look at all the shoes outside.

Eventually, the floor had no more sitting room left.

All of a sudden, a lady points and shows me the bride walking into the adjacent room with her aunt. 

They close the door behind them.  

The mother is left in the room with us (that's her on the upper far left).

 That was it. 

When she came out, she went to sit down, wearing the gold she had just been given as a dowry.

Apparently, the local mullah was in the room with the groom and some men from his family.  I don't think any men from her side came.

From what I understand, the mullah asked her three times if she wanted to marry him, and she said 'yes' three times, and that was it (besides getting the dowry).



After she sat down, immediately, a group of ladies from the kitchen that I had never seen before started serving everyone sodas and baklava.

It was a mad house with everyone reaching and grabbing.

I was told that these ladies were females from the groom's side of the family.  It was funny watching the ladies on her side check out the ladies on his side.

No one smiled.



 After refreshments, the bride was taken back in the adjacent room, held hands with the groom for the first time, and everybody and their mama tried to cram in there to get pictures of them.

You can even see her aunt in this picture taking a selfie, standing beside the groom.

Someone took my camera for me in there, and caught a rare picture of them where no one was crowded around them.

After some time, when I told the mother of the bride (my neighbor) that we were leaving, she insisted we get a picture first.  So Kylie, me and some other neighbors who are Americans, all crammed in the room for a picture.

The bride came home with her mom that night, and he went back to his house, where he lives with his sisters.  I didn't know (and still don't know) if this night made their marriage "official" or not, because there were still two events to go.

I'm told that after the third event, she will go live in his house with him and his sisters.  His parents live in Europe.