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Day 3 -- Saturday, May 28th

This was my wedding and reception day.

A. Dodhi Mangal (5 am, day of the wedding)
This ceremony is performed at the crack of dawn on the day of the wedding in the house of the bride and of the groom. About ten married women accompany the bride/groom to a nearby pond. They invite the Goddess Ganga to the wedding and bring back a pitcher of water from the pond to individually bathe the bride and the groom. Then they offer food to the bride/groom. The meal consists of puffed rice, raw yogurt, and sweets. The bride and groom cannot eat again until they are married. The relatives of the groom bless the bride and groom by placing yogurt on their foreheads (third eye) and saying prayers.

B. Wedding Ceremony (from 2-4 pm)
Observance I: Bride's grandpa and Priest will sit and will recite hymns and sprinkle water (and sometimes purified butter) here and there. Purpose of those hymns is to pray for holiness, completeness, and success of the ceremony. We will have fire burning in front of us, we will invoke the Holy Spirit and request the fire to deliver our prayer to Him.

Those hymns can be translated as follows:
I salute you, fire, the all mighty, the high priest, the eternal messenger to God. I invite you so that you awaken our consciousness, fulfill our
dreams, bring us happiness, give us wisdom to protect us from evil, and
bring victory in our life. Pleas invite the Eternal Spirit and carry my
offerings to Him. Fire! A worship overseen by you never fails. Complete this
worship for us. Be benevolent to us like a father to his child, like a true friend to a friend. Forgive our mistakes and unite the bride and groom. Please accept our offerings of (name a few items that he will offer).

Observance II: {During Shubahdrishhti (First glance) and Malyavinimaya (Exchange of garlands)} As the bride walks around the groom, the father/grandfather listens to priest reciting some Sanskrit hymns.

A figurative summary follows:
You the guests please bless our commendable bride and groom so that: they can have a long happy conjugal life; those who oppose, be destroyed; the disrupters flee; and all inconveniences of their life vanish. Let their benevolence create a haven in their home for themselves, their children, other relatives, guests, and pets.

{At that time you are done exchanging garlands and both of you recite
after me some Sanskrit hymns that can be translated as follows:
Let the Supreme Being help this sacred union of our mind and soul and form the ultimate synthesis. Your heart be mine my heart be yours. You give me your full support, your attention and respect}

Observance III: {During Sampradana (Giving away the bride)}:
The essence can be captured in a few lines where your grandpa welcomes the bride and the groom. During this welcoming process and following that he will listen to what I recite and after (almost) every hymn hands the groom different items. Again I will put the individual items in his hand and tell him to pass those on to the groom.

This portion ends when the hymn asks the groom to promise that he will obey the rules of conduct. Translated that hymn goes as follows:
I present my graceful granddaughter who is about to be married. You who will be her husband please promise that for the sake of your belief, for the sake of wealth, and/or for the sake of your lust you will not disobey your own loyal codes. The groom says I do.

C. Bashi Biye (about 4 pm)
The groom adorns the forehead of his bride with vermilion. This vermillion is the sign that she is married. He uses his wedding ring to anoint her forehead with the vermillion. The newly-weds visit the mandap, and worship the Sun God in the presence of the purohit.

D. Reception (approximately 5 pm - 10 pm)
I changed for the reception, and then we welcomed guests, ate, drank, danced, and even cut the wedding cake. This was more "traditional" type affair, although even it had a wedding flair.