boleh-boleh

We had a blast this weekend when we attended the wedding reception of the son of our friend Kamala. Because of the logistics of getting to KL and figuring out what to do with our kids, we weren't able to attend the actual wedding ceremony at the Hindu temple on Friday (which is too bad because we really wanted to see what that was like!) but we did make it to the reception held the next day. The bride's family was from northern India so the wedding ceremony was done according to northern traditions. But Kamala's family is from southern India so the reception followed southern traditions. I wish our pictures could do it justice, but the lighting wasn't really condusive to picture-taking so you can't quite get the feel of the rich colors. But to give you a small taste, I got some pictures of our friends and their ensembles. Several of the women had punjabi outfits made so they could attend (except Jacy, who is actually Indian and already had a sari.) First, here's Mark & Tracy with both sporting lovely traditional Indian attire...Tracy wearing a punjabi suit and for the love of Pete I cannot remember what Mark's suit is called. But don't it look snazzy? Here's Tracy in her punjabi again, and Jacy wearing her beautiful sari. I felt so drab sitting around all of these people dressed so colorfully! This is Michelle & Curtis...Michelle, again, in the punjabi, and Curtis is actually in a Malaysian batik dress shirt. Michael & I are standing in front of the "greeting tent" where the bride & groom retired after dinner to sit in a golden swing and receive guests & their gifts (mostly cash...not a bad way to end a party, i gotta say). And here are the lovely bride & groom. She had the most beautiful red & gold dress with amazing detail. And all of the guys were impressed at the groom's white suit with gold trim...it actually looked awesome and now I'm wondering where I can get one for Michael. One of the best parts of the evening was the dancing. Obviously, I always prefer to be able to dance at a wedding reception, but this option was a very acceptable substitute: watching a troupe perform Bollywood-style dancing. No description would do it justice, you just have to watch.
I would love to post more video (we took several...of the dancers, of the waiters presenting our food - including carrying flaming skewers of some kind - and of the bride & groom entering the hall) but with my upload speed it would take me until Christmas. Oh, but I did manage to find my picture of the happy couple in the swing I was talking about. This picture should give a better idea of their awesome clothes. Check out the detail on BOTH of them. I think for our 20th wedding anniversary we will celebrate Indian style and then I can get a cool sari like this and Michael can wear the pimped-out suit. You are all invited. Please bring cash.