Chapter 1- The Wedding Planning

It has been 2 months since Shivanesh Kumar Shankar proposed to Amrita Raman and she said yes. After about nearly 3 years of courtship and 2 years of dating, Shivanesh is glad that they are finally going to get married and starting another chapter in their relationship. Being born in an Indian family means wedding ceremonies are usually done big and grand.

First and foremost was the engagement ceremony which means Shivanesh’s family would have to go to Shivanesh’s family would have to go to Amrita’s parents to properly ask for her hand in marriage. Even though both Amrita and Shivanesh are already engaged for the last 2 months, they decided to do it the traditional way as well to please their parents and other family members.

Amrita’s parents were slowly preparing their house for the wedding planning, especially to have Shivanesh’s family over during the engagement ceremony as it would be held in their house. Amrita’s father hired some contractors to repaint their house. Shivanesh’s family are set to visit next weekend. During this ceremony is when they would decide when the wedding will be held and other decisions relating the wedding will be taken during this time.

Amrita was excited yet also nervous for the planning as she does not know what to expect for the function. Shivanesh was also getting worried for the planning and he keeps reminding his mother about how they wished to have the ceremony as simple as possible but his mother was stubborn as it was her firstborn’s wedding.

As time passed, the day Shivanesh and his family to visit has arrived. Amrita was up early in the morning to get ready for the day and to help her parents prepare everything for the afternoon event. She was exceptionally nervous today as Shivanesh’s relatives would also de attending the ceremony that she was not sure if they would like her or not. Her parents has also invited some of their close relatives for the event. They are expecting a crowd of 50 people in total over at their house and the event was expected to start late in the morning and stretch till lunchtime. All amrita prayed and hoped was for both side of the family would be able to establish a good relationship among them and become one big happy family.

Shivanesh was also nervous since morning. He woke up in the morning and helped his mother and his aunts prepare all the gift trays that they would bring to the Ramans’ house as offering in exchange for their firstborn’s hand in marriage. It is the traditional Indian way of proposing to a girl and Shivanesh has been out for the past 2 weeks preparing all the gifts for Amrita that would be placed in the gift tray. For Shivanesh, he wanted to be the one who buys all the gift for Amrita. Even when his mother was very against it as his family members were supposed to buy it, he was adamant that he would do it. So, his mother had no choice but to give in to her stubborn son as he inherited the stubbornness from her.

As it is an engagement ceremony, Shivanesh and Amrita had to also prepare rings for them to exchange later. Amrita has chisen a simple yellow gold ring with her name and his engraved along the inside of the ring and coincidentally, Shivanesh also got the same yellow gold with the same engrave. However, they both do not know that they have got the same ring design for each other as they got the rings separately.

About 10 in the morning, all of Shivanesh’s relatives who were invited to the function arrived at their house and was getting ready to travel in a group to Amrita’s family house. He texted Amrita that they were leaving home and should be arriving soon.

Shivanesh:

We are leaving now. See you in a while.  

Amrita:

Okay. Can’t wait to see you.  

After getting the text from Shivanesh, Amrita informed her parents that Shivanesh’s family were already on their way. Her father who was also nervous about his girl’s engagement went around the house for the last check to make sure everything was in order. Amrita’s mother helped her to get dressed for the event.

“I can’t believe you are getting engaged today,” her mother said. Tears brimmed in her eyes while she smiled at her beautiful daughter.

“Oh no. Amma. Please don’t cry. If you cry, I am going to cry as well. We don’t a happy day to turn into melodrama right?” Amrita said.

“I know. I am happy for you, but I know I am going to miss you once you get married. But I am happy you found the love of your life and taking a big step in your life. Nothing makes me happier than seeing you happy,” her mother said.

“I love you, Amma. Bu I really need you help right now,” Amrita said with a chuckle.

Her mother giggled and started helping her to get dressed for the ceremony. Amrita decided to wear a pink and purple double tone saree with gold embroideries on the border. She had some gold-platted Indian themed jewelries around her neck and her waist with a medium-sized two-level jhumki earrings and some gold bangles on both hands. Her long black hair has braided in a long French braid decorated with jasmine garlands and a gold tikka on her head falling slightly down her forehead. She did a natural makeup for her face and finished it with a dark red lip and a gold bindi between her eyebrows. She looked at the mirror and was satisfied of how she looks. Now all she has to do is wait in the room until she is called to make and entrance and greet everyone. All she can hope now was for the event to end soon and perfectly.

After for about 15 minutes of waiting, Amrita could hear people coming in with her parents greeting everyone. Her sister came up and showed a picture of Shivanesh she has snapped in the midst of all that was happening downstairs. Amrita smiled looking at the picture. Shivanesh was dressed in a purple jippa with a cream pants. He looked like a very handsome Indian prince and she felt like she was in love with him again. She could hear her parents being introduced to all of Shivanesh’s relative that were present and her parents introducing her side of the relatives.

After what seem like a long introduction, Amrita was greeted by Sumithra at her room door.

“Hi Akka. Or maybe I should call you, Anni,” Sumithra said.

“Hi Sumi. So, you are asked to escort me out?”’ Amrita asked.

“Yes. So, are you ready?” Sumi asked and held out her hand.

“Let’s get this over with,” Amrita said while accepting it.

Amrita walked down with Sumithra by her side. She got really nervous when she saw the amount of people downstairs. But there was no turning back, so she went on.

After a quick introduction and some discussion, Shivanesh’s mother gave Amrita a tray that consist of a saree and jewelries. In Indian culture, when Amrita accepts the tray, it means she accepts the proposal. Amrita turned to look at Shivanesh and realized that he was looking at her the whole time with a charming smile on his face that made her heart flutter.

Amrita went back to her room to change into the saree she just received. Sumithra and Amarika helped her to change her sarees and jewelries. while Amrita was changing, there were a lot of communications gong on between the family members. Shivanesh was flooded with questions from Amrita’s relatives on his career and his achievements. All he was hoping was Amrita to come down soon as he was starting to get tired of answering the same question over and over again.

After about 15 minutes, Amrita came back down, escorted by Sumithra by her side and Amarika behind her. They then proceeded to the next part of the event which include the family deciding on the wedding date. After some formal proceedings and discussions between their family, it was decided that they were going to have the wedding after 6 months and the families has chosen to have a simple morning temple wedding with a lunch reception thereafter.

After all the discussion, the future bride and groom were asked to come forward to exchange rings as a symbolization of the engagement. Shivanesh’s mother and Amrita’s mother brought out the ring prepared by the couple for each other. Firstly, Amrita was asked to put on the ring for Shivanesh. Shivanesh saw the ring that Amrita’s mother passed to her and was surprised when he saw the design of the ring. He could not help but smile at the coincident and looked at Amrita as she put on the ring on his right ring finger. He then took the ring her has prepared from his mother and turned to look at Amrita’s surprised but happy look before putting on the ring on her right ring finger. Being overwhelmed with happiness, he brought Amrita’s right hand up to his lips and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles earning a big cheer among their family members and a shy smile from Amrita.

They were then asked to get blessing from all the older couples who attended the ceremony. All the couples blessed them with everlasting happiness for their married life. At the end of the event, everyone was invited to enjoy the wonderful lunch Amrita’s parents had prepared and get to know each other more as they were soon to be a big family. The future bride and groom were taking some couple shots after the event. Shivanesh could not stop himself from kissing Amrita in a few of the shots. She just looked as beautiful as a goddess to him and he was just so overwhelmed with love that he just kept smiling whenever he looked at her. As time went on, he could not stop himself from asking about the ring.

“So, Amrita. What made you choose this particular design?” Shivanesh asked showing the ring on his finger.

“Not sure. I know you like things to be simple with hidden surprise and I just felt it would look good on you. And may I know what made you choose the same design?” Amrita said.

“For the same reasons. I guess now we are also starting to think very much alike, similar to a married couple already,” Shivanesh said.

“Yes. Coming to think of it, we are. So, Shiva. The wedding planning start from now right?” Amrita asked.

“I guess it does. I wish it was shorter though. 6 months is too long to wait. I want to be married to you soon. If possible, tomorrow,” Shivanesh complained.

“Oh, don’t worry you cry baby. We will be too busy with the planning that we probably would not even realize the time going by. Six months will just pass and before we know it, it is already our wedding day,” Amrita said.

“True. I cant wait till the day I can finally call you my wife,” Shivanesh said hugging her before leaving the house with his family members.