rupesh's wedding: a thousand man affair

I spent last weekend back east for my friend Rupesh's wedding. Rupe and I have been friends since sophomore year of college - for those of you who don't know, that translates to roughly about 11 years that we've known each other. It was also a fantastic opportunity to see a lot of my college friends that I've been horrid at keeping in touch with.

The Flight
Travel was, as always, a mini nightmare. I remember the days when I could zip back and forth between coasts for a weekend, without batting an eye. Now that I've been grounded for so long, I find flying to the East Coast more and more tedious. Especially when I have to get up at 5am California time to catch a 7am flight, and then end up not getting in to Harrisburg until 11:30pm due to a canceled connection. Hmmm... I guess I've always wanted to visit Minneapolis - or not.

My first priority once I landed was to find a dress. I managed to spill stuff on the dress that I brought, which didn't break my heart because I'd worn it for Ariel's wedding anyway :-( Thankfully, the hotel (free!) has wireless internet. Not so thankfully, Harrisburg's idea of a department store is JC Penny.

But seeing my friends - even if it was at 1am - for the first time in years did a lot to calm me down. I don't think I miss the East Coast that much, but I do miss my buds dearly. I don't know why I've been so awful about keeping in touch with them, except maybe because missing them kept me from finally settling down in San Francisco.

The Dress Hunt
The next day, Saturday, I woke up bright and not so early and headed for Starbucks. Lo and behold, there was a Ross right next door! Ok, Ross isn't exactly the height of fashion, but I can buy a dress to wear once without feeling guilty. Coffee in hand, I marched in, grabbed 5 dresses, 3 pairs of shoes and even a strapless bra, and headed back to the hotel.

As it turned out, I found a fantastic dress that fit me beautifully - for the bargain price of $16! On top of which, it matched my favorite black-and-white patent strappy heels perfectly, and the dress was so nice that I didn't even need to wear jewelry! Happy me!

The Wedding
After the flurry of morning activities, I was finally ready for the wedding. Its a traditional Indian wedding, the likes of which I'd never seen before! We started off heading over to the hotel at around 1:30. When we arrived, everyone in the groom's party was gathered around outside. They brought out a speaker blaring Indian techno-pop and a drummer, and we began our dance-march around the parking lot. There was even a white horse for Rupesh to ride! Unfortunately, as soon as he got on, the horse decided to bolt. The groom's party had to chase after him to get the horse back.

Nik and the horse

Rupesh, getting off after being taken for a ride

Dancing around the hotel parking lot

There were rumors amongst the college crew that there'd be 700 people in attendance. I didn't believe it - until I the throngs of people gathered around. It was amazingly impressive, and completely overwhelming. The sun blaring down on us for the 2 hour ceremony didn't help either - although it was nice when they brought out ice cream

Throngs - yes, throngs!

Bringing gifts to the bride

Indian ceremony (that's Rupe)

The groom's party, arriving at the wedding

Ice cream!

Exchanging vows

Delfina, Randy, Min, Josh, me and Terrence

A couple of hours later, we headed over to the reception in quite possibly the largest tent you've ever seen. Awed, Min whispered, "I think you could fit a three-ring circus in here!" She wasn't far off - the tent had French doors and exit signs, and was furnished with two large-screen TVs so that we could all see the ceremonies from our chair.