February 12, 2019

Pre-wedding / holud ceremony

So, it has been about two years since I posted my wedding blog. We did have two other events but I never came back to write about the remaining. I do have a bunch of reasons for not posting about it but to cut a long story short, that year was a very overwhelming year for me. I had thought about writing it after I launched my website properly. But things got really busy with my PhD and a new job. The other reasons are rather dramatic and long so I will spare you the details.

As we were in January, I had social media and family reminding me of the events that happened two years ago. I couldn’t help but reminisce the past. I started wondering whether I should post the blog or if it is too late. I pretty much spent the last few weeks thinking about it and told myself that I’m just going to do it. So here it goes!

We had our pre-wedding function a week before our wedding. This event is a chance to put haldi / holud (turmeric paste) on the bride and groom. Applying turmeric paste to the bride and groom is seen as an act of blessing. Traditionally, haldi (Hindi) or holud (Bengali) holds a special place of honour as the colour is thought be auspicious and provides a natural glow.

Prior to the event

There was a lot of gift wrapping that needed to be done as this event also included a gift exchange from both parties. My family spent the whole day preparing the foods and presents, as per tradition. I wanted to help out but I was told to rest and enjoy being a bride.

I could have used that time to start getting ready earlier. But I was a hell of an enthusiastic bride who also wanted to wear a photographer hat. Here are some shots I took:

At the event

The theme for our event was yellow, green and red. The guests were asked to wear these colours. The venue was at Wright’s Road Function Centre in Castle Hill.

We had several dance performances by our family and friends. But we also had a local Bengali band come in to perform live music. The stage and table setting were done by QES-Qanitaz Event Solutions.

The entrance song I chose for myself was Teri Ore (an all-time fav). The groom’s entrance was performed by a Punjabi dholok player who just came in to cover the entrance.

Some of the other décor included a high chai stall, mehendi/ henna stall, DIY photobooth and Bangle stall. We did not want our guests to be sitting down the whole time (and get bored) so we set up a few stalls. The idea was to get them to move around and have fun on their own. The mehendi stall was managed by Supriya from Glam You.

The Instagram frame for the DIY photobooth was ordered on Etsy. Other items ordered from Etsy included a customised guest book and a cake topper for reception. Speaking of which, I will include some other details as I’m not going to be posting a reception blog. We hired a professional photobooth for the reception. The customised photobooth was done by Create a Booth which included unlimited prints and the option to send the photos to their email.

Wedding favours were saved for the final event. We had initially planned to order on Etsy but we realised the products we liked had long shipping periods or did not have enough in supply (we needed ~200). In the end, we decided to keep it local by purchasing candles from Ikea and ordering customised labels on Vistaprint.

That’s pretty much it. Here are some shots captured by BV photography: