Attending a Gujarati Wedding Original Writing

Attending a Gujarati Wedding-Original Writing

In October 2004 we attended the wedding of my Canadian uncle and his

English -born wife at, of all unlikely places, West Ham United

football ground. This was not a marriage of two footballers: West Ham

United offered a suitable venue for a large wedding – which Gujarati

weddings tend to be. A Gujarati wedding is the daddy of all weddings.

Even before the nuptials there are two days of pre-wedding to be got

through, as if to say “This is not a matter to undertaken lightly.”

For the sake of brevity, however, I shall here concentrate on the

wedding celebrations themselves.

The whole business begins with the hiring of the reception rooms.

Hundreds of guests are to be expected. Hence hiring the facilities at

West Ham United Football Club. As my dad drove from the top of the

road (Green Street, Upton Park) we could see the colourful and

glittering shiny costumes. I looked at my sister and saw her nose

pressed against the window with a look of excitement. When we arrived

all we could hear were noisy Indian families gossiping and laughing. I

could see the women staring at their neighbours dress with a look of

envy. The dresses were different in colour and glistened and twinkled

as the bright spotlights shone on the gold threads woven into the silk

saris. There was a large division between the bride’s family and the

grooms family and were standing opposite to each other. When the groom

and his ‘close’ family arrived in the flashy, shiny new Mercedes Benz,

the four cameramen accelerated to the entrance of the hall and started

walking backwards slowly. The door of the car swung open and the groom

got out. The Indian women started whistling and chased him inside

however this was quite difficult for them because the old ladies

including my grandma were blocking the entrance door. It must have

taken us an hour to get back inside because it was so congested. I

could feel the sharp icy wind down my neck and wearing a sleeveless