Our big fat Indian Wedding: Part 1 - Ring Ceremony

Indian weddings are known for their glamor, wild dances and exceptionally beautiful dresses.

We are now on the guest list, in Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. The cousin of a work colleague is getting married, it's a Jain wedding.

Jain is a religion in its own right, perhaps the original form of Hinduism. In any case, Jains are subject to strict rules, above all they try not to harm any living creatures.

For this reason, they eat strictly vegetarian food, not in the dark - they would not see small insects and might eat them - and nothing that grows underground (for example potatoes or onions). They don't drink alcohol either. That's quite interesting to know for this wedding :). We have also described a little more about Jain here: Jaisalmer - City of Meeting.

We travel to Indore on the first flight on Saturday morning. We are picked up from the airport at 8:30 a.m., drive an hour to the hotel where the ceremony is taking place and check in. Together with our colleague, we have a quick breakfast of the local specialty poha. Poha is flattened rice that is briefly soaked in water and then fried with spices. It's really delicious with a few raisins and nuts.

Well filled, we get dressed for the first so-called "function", the ring ceremony. I'm wearing Lehenga, a skirt with a loose-fitting blouse and a thin scarf. Martin is wearing a kurta, a black shirt that comes almost to his knees, and a white vest with lots of glitter.

The ring ceremony symbolizes that the bride and groom are now engaged and want to start their life together. The bride and groom are solemnly led into the hall by drummers and the family dances to the rhythm of the drums. Not only are engagement rings exchanged on stage, but also gifts between the bride and groom's family. These include saris, jewelry and money.

The couple takes center stage. Afterwards, the guests - around 300 family members - come on stage and place money, nuts and dried fruit in bags on the couple's knees and feed the bride and groom an almond. While the bride and groom sit on the stage for a long time until all the guests have completed the ritual, we set off for lunch.

We sit down cross-legged in a long row on a small platform, with a low silver table in front of us. Now waiters walk along the row and hand out food: one dal, the next bread, one thick dumplings soaked in butter and so on. It all tastes excellent and we don't even notice that neither potatoes nor onions have been used in the preparation.

While the bride and groom finally eat a snack and get ready for the next function, we go for a little digestive walk. Indore is praised as the cleanest city in India and the air is also fresh and clean. We enjoy stretching our legs and taking in the view of the greenery.

Back in the room, we can lie down briefly before getting changed for the next function - haldi. Haldi is all about bringing joy into the marriage. The most important ingredient is turmeric and the color yellow.

The first part of the wedding was really exciting and lively. The afternoon continues with Haldi - this is where it really gets going.