Tour de les Cultures Destination 3: Indian Gold

There is little one has to say to convince about the beauty of this Indian engagement celebration; the colors speak for themselves! At engagement parties like this, the groom-to-be, with his family and close friends, meet for a celebration at his house while the bride is with her family and friends having their own celebration at the same time in her parent's home. 


When I first arrived at the brides house, she was still getting ready in her bedroom and surrounded by seven of her closest girlfriends. Bangle bracelets, other shimmering jewelry pieces and a palette of eye shadow and lip color spread across her light oak dresser as she looked into the mirror straightening her hair. Other guests came into the house, removed their shoes and  waited for her appearance in the basement where the floor was covered with an array of soft, velvet pillows to sit on.  "I'm ready now," she said and that was my cue to set up at the end of the stairs and photograph her escorted 'decent' to begin a three hour festival just for her. 


She came out of the room with a yellow veil draped on her head and all seven friends with small female cousins to hold a sheer orange banner of fabric high as a long canopy over them. Family members came back to the entry way snapping pictures and followed her into the basement. A loud cheer began upon her entrance to join her family sitting in the front of the room and there was so much excitement! 


I quickly hopped through open spaces on the floor to get to the front. A prayer was said and each individual came with a kiss, a gift, and to feed the bride a piece of fruit and rub her chin before giving her a hug. This was a Muslim engagement party and people rotated through the long line or waited eating chicken, rice and other delicacies for the next two hours. 


This was one of my most difficult events to photograph because the continuous flow of people and every greeting with the bride happened simultaneously to others greeting their family. "Do not miss a moment," the bride's mother said to me and made sure that she saw my flash light the room with every single piece of fruit offered. It was important to keep fresh batteries in my flash so that it could cycle quickly enough. I recruited a young family member to assist me by running through the crowd to my equipment so that I never had to leave my post. After the long line procession, there was a family portrait and the men went upstairs while the women started singing and dancing and my services were no longer needed. The excitement was very fun to be apart of and it was great to see "a village" rally around this young couple.