The Wedding Ceremony of India

The typical Indian wedding ceremony is about three hours long and is held at a wedding hall or the bride-to-be’s house. The groom will arrive to the wedding venue traditionally on a decorated horse or elephant, but nowadays most grooms choose to arrive in a nice car. The groom will also arrive with music, fireworks, dancing and singing while surrounded by friends and family. The bride will wait for her groom with a garland of flowers that they will exchange when they meet.

The giving away of the bride is called kanyadaan, which is a very important part of the main wedding as this is where the father hands over his daughter to the groom asking him to treat her well. In Indian weddings they are not married by the priest as they themselves will marry each other while the priest will just recite holy hymns.

When the groom ties a thread three times representing the god’s maheshwara, brahma and vishnu, he promises to take good care of his bride as long as he lives. Once this is done they are considered married. The wedding happens around a firer, which represents the fire god agni who serves as the main witness to the wedding. Then they circle the fire seven times which represents the seven goals for their marriage which are: prosperity, sensual enjoyment, liberation, salvation and both moral and religious duties.

Afterwards, they will perform the sapthapadhi, which mean taking seven steps with one another. When they take the seven steps it represents that they will be friends for life treating each other equally. At some weddings they will have games for the couple to play such as having them untie a knot using only one hand each.

Maui Wedding Photographer- Nicole Sanchez