Indian wedding

Indian weddings are very bright events, filled with ritual and celebration, that continue for several days. They are generally not small affairs, with anywhere between 100 to 10,000 people attending. Oftentimes it is possible that many of the attendees are unknown to the bride and groom themselves. Though most Indian marriages are arranged, some couples in urban areas have what are known as "love marriages", where the partners decide to marry each other without family involvement or assistance. The traditional Indian wedding is more about two families being brought together socially, with much less emphasis on the individuals involved.In general ,the ceremonies taking place in most of the traditional wedding are more or less common .The proposal for a boy in marriage by the girl's relations or vice versa is called bardekhi, The match-maker, who conducts the preliminary negotiations, is called agua.When a suitable boy has been found if, during the negotiations, a member of the bride's house visits the bride groom's, or vice versa.The betrothal consists in paying the tilak on the occasion of the formal proposal and acceptance of the proposal of marriage. The period of marriage ceremonies dates from the presenting tilak, and is called lagan .The marriage procession,barat is the first formal visit of the bridegroom to the bride's house.


Many of the wedding customs are common among Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and even Muslims. They are a combination of local, religious and family traditions.

Shaadi is a Sanskrit word for wedding. Asian weddings are a mainstay in the social calendar of the whole community. Many wedding traditions which have originated in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have carried over to second and third generation immigrant populations in western countries such as the UK and United States. Increasingly younger Asian couples are starting to incorporate Western features into their weddings such as speeches the first dance as well as the traditional wedding cake.

Asian weddings tend to be very lavish affairs and have been estimated at costing on average £30,000 in the UK[citation needed ] compared to an average of 17000.

source : - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_wedding