no one was ever blinded by looking at the brighter side of things...

Friday, July 29, 2011

my best friends wedding ~ the PRE wedding festivities...

A friend is defined as "a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard."

Leena and I have been friends since 1989. When we became friends the Internet didn't exist, telephones had cords, we lived in St. Louis, MO, and life was simple - school, play, swim.

Life has gotten a lot more complex. At times we've lived half a world away. When I think of our friendship it brings tears to my eyes. We lived by each other for 3 years from the ages of 6 - 9. I moved to Washington in 1992. Leena moved from STL in 1998 to India. She returned to the states in 2001 for college. It is quite amazing to think that our friendship that started when we were 6 will last a life time.

Okay...on to the wedding story!! There are a TON of pictures - way too many to put on a blog post. SO you can go HERE to see all the albums.

Leena's wedding was a multi-day, multicultural (for me at least) event. I arrived on Wednesday and went straight into bridesmaid mode. Wednesday night we had homemade Indian food - a first time for me!!!

Indian Food

So good and so spicy!!

Thursday was a busy day. Leena had her nails done, we ran some errands, and then it was back home for a ceremony and Mhendi (Henna). It was so amazing to be able to document this. There was praying & partying, henna & a full household, dancing & no dad's feeding daughters!

The Ketkar Family

The bride and groom getting some food


Protecting the carpet from the henna.



The beautiful bride

Praying for the grandparents who are no longer with us

Ceremony for the couple

Mother and Daughter

The Bride and her henna

Dancing!!! Lots of dancing!!!

The whole weekend was amazing to be a part of. Many of Leena's family members I hadn't seen since I was a kid and many of them remembered me as the blonde girl. It was great to get to see her brother and her parents for a few days in a row. It was such an honor to be a part of this wedding!!

Friday involved the bridesmaids getting their nails done and finishing up some last minute details! My husband and my parents arrived on Friday with time for Jason to join us at the rehearsal dinner.

The Eeds' and The Gronli's

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