Turbans and Thriller...Does it get any better?

Ok, so earlier I posted about my best friend's Indian Wedding Reception and mentioned the very cool dance that 10 guys performed for them and how badly I wished I had a video of it. Well guess what just popped up on You Tube!? You really haven't lived until you've seen guys in turbans dancing to an Indian version of Michael Jackson's Thriller. So so super cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ofpO-jtMg

And The Ultrasound Reveals....

It's a foot! Yes, a very cute and adorable foot followed by.....


a spine... as though any child of ours will ever have to prove they have a backbone!

Oh, this is the best part ...

the top of the baby's head with the hand on top. Can you see the little fingers?



Okay, okay ... so the suspense is killing you. It's a.....

smiling tadpole with huge teeth!
No really the big circle in the middle is the the body, the small black hole that looks like the tadpole's eye is the stomach and then if you move up and to the right you can see the Skeletor face with the nose part and and two big eyeballs.

And finally...


a picture of the baby's "girl parts"! At least an 80% chance according to the ultrasound technician. She was very cautious to explain that nothing is 100% but she feels pretty confident that .... It's A Girl!

An Indian Reception

Sameer, Natasha, Me and Martin

Have you ever experienced something that afterwards you thought, "Wow, you really haven't lived until..."? That's how I felt after going to Natasha and Sameer's Indian Reception. There was 500 or so people there. Everyone looked amazing! The dresses on the women were dripping in beads and the most amazing vibrant colors but not at all gaudy, just breathtakingly beautiful. Food like you wouldn't believe, the kind that as you're eating it you know that you are forever ruined for all other Indian food because it will never quite be like this. A drink bar that Martin learned not to tip the bartender first because he had to go back for more soda because the drink was so strong. Dessert...oh the dessert. Tables and tables of dessert. There was a photo booth where you took a picture and then put the picture in a scrapbook with a message to the bride and groom. I seriously want to find engaged Indian people and make friends very quickly.

The Benesch Family

The coolest part of the whole thing was the dance, let me tell ya ... Indian guys can dance! A big group of guys had a whole dance choreographed that they performed for everyone. It started out to Michael Jackson's Thriller and then morphed into this very cool and hip Indian take off of Thriller. The guy in front was moon dancing and everything. I so wished we had gotten this on video!

Dancing to Thriller

In high school Terah, Emily, Natasha and I were tight. It was so cool to see everyone again since we all live pretty far away from each other. We still manage to get together every so often one way or another. It was awesome getting to share the whole experience with them.

Dancing it up together ... just like in high school!

Martin and I enjoying really got some good time together out of all this. Nolan stayed at my parents Azusa house with a babysitter while we got to live it up. There was a woman, Rosalina, who lived with us and helped to take care of us while we were kids. It was the first time we had left Nolan with someone he didn't know. Normally, that would have been out of the question but there is something extremely reassuring about leaving your child with someone that you know how they treated you as a child. Even when my sister and I had pushed Rosalina to the end of her rope the most she ever lost it on us was a deep sigh followed by, "Aye, Chiquitas!" As expected, Nolan fell in love with her instantly and spent the whole night leading her around from toy to toy and even talked her in to watching a movie. When we came home they were snuggled up together .... he didn't want to go to sleep without her.

There was also a kind of cool side effect to all of this. It really got me out of "mommy mode" for awhile. All these days of hair, makeup and beautiful clothes were hard to give up. I think I did my hair, makeup and dressed nice everyday for a whole week when we got home! Well.... that insanity is over now ... well almost.

Love is Patient, Love is Kind

Me, Natasha and Sameer's mom Surinder

On the second day of wedding events, Natasha and Sameer had an Exchange of Vows ceremony in Laguna Beach. Again, everyone looked absolutely beautiful. Sameer had shaved his beard and was looking very handsome and Natasha looked like she stepped out of a bridal magazine.

Like any gaggle of girls getting ready for something as important as a wedding, we were running just a tad bit behind. Natasha gets into her dress and all we have to do is zip her up. So I do my bridesmaid duty and start to zip her up. The zipper only gets about half way up her back and then stops ... and doesn't look like there is anyway in hell it is going to go any farther. Me and another bridesmaid silently look at each other in horror! Natasha has 0% body fat ... there is nothing to suck in and I do not want to be the one to strike fear into a hurried bride as we are already 15 minutes into the ceremony time and still at the hotel room.

Thank god I remembered Natasha telling me how the bridal shop kept insisting that she buy a bigger dress and "just pay the alteration cost". Natasha insisted that is was a waste of money and the rack dress fit ... perfectly. Natasha is not one to be wrong about this sort of thing so I called her sister Jessica over. I tried to word it as calmly as possible so I didn't bring any attention to the problem to Natasha. "Jessica, have you zipped this dress up on Natasha before? Would you mind helping me?" Sure enough, super Jessica to the rescue. Jess told Natasha to suck it in (like only a sister can) and Jess pulled and zipped like a pro. I had never felt such relief in my life.

For a lot of Sameer's family and friends this was their first American wedding so it was very cool to see so many people really taking it all in instead of just wriggling in their seats waiting for some champagne. It seemed to make it all the more special. Natasha's in-laws found a lot of similarities between some of the reading from the Bible and their own. I love how taken every one's faces looked at each word read. Many of them said they were surprised at how short it was but really liked the simplicity of it all. The girls loved the American wedding dress as much as I loved all the beautiful Indian dresses.

Grandma & Nolan

What happens when you take an 18 month old to a wedding. Thankfully, he was actually very very good 99% of the time. He just didn't want to sit still for any photos. True to form, he followed the flower girls around trying to hug on them. (He's been very interested in hugging girls lately .. and putting his arm around them ... and holding their hand ... and kissing them) He was also very interested in the quartet and spent a lot of time with Papa talking about the different instruments and listening to the music.

Martin & I (and baby Fletcher part 2)

Insights on an Indian Wedding

Natasha & Sameer

The weekend before Halloween, my oldest and dearest friend was married in a series of the most beautiful and elaborate ceremonies that I have ever seen. I felt as though my senses were being assaulted and I simply couldn't take all of the beauty in. There were so many events leading up to their wedding that the whole process seemed to last for weeks rather than days. Each one was amazing in their own right but here is just one part...with more to come:

Disclaimer: I'm sure that the majority of the information I am about to share with you is probably slightly confused if not just flat out wrong but hey... it was a lot to take in, really fun and if I know Sameer friends.... I'm sure they had fun messing with the "whities" too.

Anand Karaj - The Indian Wedding Ceremony
It is very cool how much attention the groom gets, his entrance alone was at least 30 minutes long. Sameer looked totally different. I had never seen him in a turban and he had grown a full beard for the wedding ... he looked so regal! First he rides out on a horse and all the guest greet him by dancing all around the horse. In India, the groom normally comes out on an elephant but unfortunately Santa Ana has a city ordinance against elephants. Please note... the problem was the city ordinance ... not the elephant! This will begin to give you some insight to what I mean by "elaborate".



The young boy standing next to Sameer also rode in on the horse with him. Traditionally, the boy is a nephew and I guess way back in the day the boy would have to stand in and marry the bride if the groom decided to bail.

The bride's family and friends had the job to stand outside the temple and greet people. There was a prayer and ceremony outside the temple where each member of Natasha's family greeted and welcomed the corresponding member of Sameer's family into their lives by placing a lei around their neck. For example, Natasha's brother greeted Sameer's brother. I greeted her Sister-In-Law because it was "sister-like" greeting "sister-like". There was an incredible amount of inclusion of the two families during all the rituals. It really felt as though the marriage was much deeper than just the bride and groom and was a marriage of the two families.


The Reception of Barat... I think ... It's during the prayer just before we greeted family.

The ceremony in the temple was beautiful and very moving. Everyone sits on the floor, men on one side and women on the other. When Natasha walked in I was stunned, she looked like royalty. The bride and groom do not speak during the ceremony. They walk in a circle around ... um something ... four? times and it symbolizes the journeys in their lives to come ... um, I think. I was pretty overwhelmed by this point.

Jessica (Natasha's sister), Me, Natasha, and Sweta (old college friend and very generous girl who lent me all my Indian garb).


Natasha was adorned with so much jewlery. The bangles are amazingly difficult to get on. You need tons of lotion to slide them on and it still feels as though your hands are going to break by from trying to squeeze them through. The henna on her hands was on the front, the back and even on her feet. Somewhere on her hands is her groom's name and he is suppose to find it before the night is through.
She also has huge cymbal type things hanging from each wrist that we tied as tight as possible so it would be incredibly difficult for Sameer to take off. "It's a game between Natasha & Sameer" I blurted out as I got some funny looks from the people at the table. An Indian woman kindly, and quietly, explained to me what exactly "the game" was. Apparently, in the days of arranged marriages when the bride and groom did not meet until AFTER the actual wedding ceremony, the bride would tie her jewelry on very tight so when they were undressing for their wedding night the groom would struggle to get her jewelry off and the nervous bride could have more time to get to know her husband.


I could not stop staring at how beautiful she looked. I would have thought she was some kind of Indian Princess Royalty if I had not know her.

I quickly ran out of battery on my camera and missed the extravagant departure. Natasha was carried out in a carriage that looked eerily like something straight out of Cinderella. It was the role of the men in Natasha's family to carry her out on it but they were a little light on young men that were in any shape to carry the whole thing. Martin helped to "carry" (read: roll) her out as family and friends walked behind them throwing at least one hundred crisp dollar bills at the carriage. All the little girls present ran behind the carriage gathering up the money, it was very cute.

The final piece of business that we took care of at the cerimony was the tradition of the groom buying back his shoes. Upon entering the temple, everyone removes their shoes. It is the brides sister/brother/close friends job to steal the grooms shoes and not return them to him until a full out bargaining war between the two families is settled. Jessica did an amazing job! Sameer bought back his shoes for $300 AND each of us girls received a gold ring with a row of 6 saphires or emeralds. CRAZY!

Martin & I posing for pictures with Princess Natasha.



Martin and I outside the temple.