11 Things You’d NEVER Guess Happened at South Asian Weddings

This reminds of that movie “The Wedding Planner and that scene where Jennifer Lopez has her “fix-it” kit containing anything and everything to fix any unexpected occurrence at a wedding.  Even with her handy kit, I doubt she could’ve imagined these:

  1. The bride called it off…mid-ceremony The bride and her family were caught off guard when the groom’s family asked (er.. demanded) gifts from the bride’s family with each phere or round around the ceremonial fire. Claiming it’s their tradition, the groom’s family asked for a new Mercedes and expensive jewelry. Tensions rose and the bride called off the wedding, on the spot.
  2. Wedding venue lost power – actually the whole city lost power, for several hours in-between the ceremony and the reception. The bride stayed calm and actually laughed the whole way through, including when her makeup artist had to get her ready in a random closet at the wedding and reception venue that had backup lighting available. The power was back in time for the reception.
  3. Wedding Venue double-booked the space – Upon arriving at the wedding venue, on her wedding day, the bride and her family were informed by the management that their ceremony had to end early because the venue had to setup for their next event. The venue wouldn’t budge, and about 75% of the way into the ceremony, the venue staff came in and asked people to vacate the room.
  4. Wedding Venue gave away the room block – A couple had to quickly scramble hotel rooms at a nearby hotel when their wedding venue gave away their room block to a big corporate group that was coming in on the same weekend.
  5. The DJ cancelled 1.5 months before the wedding – the DJ’s cousin got engaged and was getting married the same day, so he had to attend that wedding. He didn’t offer to help the couple find a replacement.
  6. Protests during the baraat – the day of an Indian wedding, there happened to be an animal rights group protesting nearby. Upon seeing an ele baraat happening, they charged over and protested throughout the baraat. That city subsequently banned all ele baraats.
  7. Mehndi artist car crash – on the way to do the bride’s mehndi, the artist got into a car accident. Thank goodness she was fine and not injured, but she couldn’t do the mehndi that day. But later that night, she was feeling better and went to the bride’s house late that night so the bride’s schedule wouldn’t be thrown off the next day.
  8. The husband-wife photographer team got into a HUGE fight – the bride and groom were taken aback and upset when their photographers, who supposedly specialized in South Asian weddings, didn’t show up to their garba, nor  were answering their phones. They showed up half an hour before the garba finished, explaining that they’d gotten into a really big fight.
  9. The ceremony flame got a little out-of-hand – this was an outdoor wedding ceremony and the ceremonial fire got a little too big as the bride and groom were following all the rituals of a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony. Luckily, the groom was a camping enthusiast, sprung into action, and handled it within seconds.
  10. The caterer forgot serving utensils – on the sangeet night, at the bride’s home, the caterers setup dinner and it wasn’t until guests were already in-line for the delicious buffet that the caterers realized their error. The mother-of-the-bride grabbed whatever she had from her kitchen, which ended up being enough – but was pretty embarrassing for the family.
  11. Stopped at U.S. Customs– All of the bride’s clothes were confiscated by U.S. Customs when they returned from wedding shopping in India, because the customs agent thought the value of the items exceeded $10,000.

Do you have any wacky South Asian wedding stories?
Share them in the comments!

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