Chapter 2- The Wedding Planning continues

A month after the engagement ceremony, Amrita’s parents and Shivanesh’s mother decided to meet to make progress on the wedding planning. Each of them already had a few things in hand that they were going to need to make decisions about as the wedding in only 5 months away.

They decided to all meet at Amrita’s parent’s house for dinner and discussion. Amrita helped her mother prepare dinner for the guest they are having over tonight. Shivanesh was going to drive his mother over and the both of them will join the discussion tonight.

 At about 7.45 pm, once Amrita’s mother and her were done with the preparations, Shivanesh and his mother came knocking on the door.

“Hi, Shivanesh. Hi, Mrs. Shankar. Come on in,” Amrita heard her father greeting them as he answered the door.

“Oh, please. Just call me Veni. Don’t have to be too formal now right?” Shivanesh’s mother said as she walked in.

“Hi, Uncle,” Shivanesh greeted Amrita’s father with a handshake.

Amrita’s mother came out to greet Shivanesh’s mother as well. Amrita followed her mother after she placed the last dish on the table to greet her in-law and her future groom.

Shivanesh could not help but to smile when he saw Amrita in a red and white apron on her. He never knew an apron could make someone look so charming and beautiful. It is not that he wants Amrita to cook for him everyday once they are married, but it warms his heart to think that he would probably sometimes come home to a warm home-cooked meal prepared with love by his wife. Imagining all this is making it harder for him to wait for the next 5 months.

“Come, please come join us for dinner. I hope it taste good,” Amrita’s mother said as she guided Shivanesh’s mother to the dining table.

“Oh my, Anu, you didn’t have to prepare so much. I really hope it was not much of trouble,” Shivanesh’s mother said seeing the amount of food on the table.

“No trouble at all. I had some help,” Amrita’s mother said signaling to her daughter who was at the kitchen at the moment preparing beverages for the dinner.

Shivanesh walked in the kitchen, being careful about making any noise. He stood at the entrance of the kitchen, enjoying his view of Amrita working around the kitchen. He really wanted to just wrap his arms around her waist and place a kiss on her shoulder, but he knew he should control himself as their parents were around. So, he decided he would try to be helpful to her instead.

“Need any help with that?” Shivanesh asked.

“No, I am almost done. But it would be nice if you could carefully carry this tray of glasses to the dining table. I will bring the tray with the jugs with me,” Amrita said.

Shivanesh carried the tray of glasses to the dining are and placed it on the table before going on to take a seat beside his mother. Amrita then came with the jugs of drinks and started serving it to everyone before taking a seat between her mother and brother.

“It is just simple food. I hope you would like it,” Amrita’s mother said.

“Thank you so much. I am sure we would like it,” Shivanesh’s mother said.

They enjoyed the diner that was served while sharing small talks around the table. Shivanesh’s mother took some time to get to know both Amaran and Amarika. She found them intelligent and cheerful just like Amrita. After the dinner, Shivanesh helped Amrita and her siblings clear the dining table which they would be using for their discussion and do the dishes while their parents went on with their discussions. After they were done with all the cleaning, Amrita’s siblings went up to their room after greeting Shivanesh’s mother. Amrita stayed at the kitchen with Shivanesh to prepare some peppermint tea and fruits for their parents and them to have while having the wedding discussions. As she finished preparing, Shivanesh helped her to bring the tray of cut fruits to the dining table while she brings the tray of teacups and a teapot to the front. She went on to serve the tea to everyone before taking a seat next to her mother facing Shivanesh who was sitting next to his mother.

“So, I guess we need to finalize on our plans for the wedding. Only 5 months left for the wedding,” Amrita’s father said.

“Yeah, I have some quotations for the catering, decorations and such,” Shivanesh’s mother said taking out some papers from her bag.

“I have some too. Let’s crosscheck and compare them,” Amrita’s mother said.

They started looking through al the quotations they have collected in the past month and decided of the vendors for the wedding. They confirmed on the decorations they would be having for the wedding and the menu to be served. They decided on the venue of the wedding and each of them had a task to complete for the wedding. Amrita’s father was in-charge of making bookings for the venue and work on the invitation cards while her mother was in charge of the making bookings for the food to be served in the wedding. Shivanesh’s mother oversaw the decorations and the setting the itinerary of the wedding. They each also had their own task for the pre-rituals in their ow houses. Shivanesh was given the responsibility to look for a good photographer for the event while Amrita had to look for the bridal makeup crew for the event. They decided to divide the task among themselves to make thing go faster and smoother.

As a result of the discussion, they have decided to travel to India to do the shopping for all the attire that they would wear during the wedding as the price paid for attire in Malaysia can be very expensive and it seem more relevant to travel to India on their own and get the shopping done there. They also decided to leave in two moths and did their flight bookings that night.

As decisions were made, Siavnesh and Amrita was excited and nervous as it was starting to hit them that they are really getting married very soon.

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Amrita and Shivanesh arrived at Chennai International Airport with their parents on the next few months as planned. While there were there to do their shopping, their parents wanted them to also visit some temples to pray for a peaceful procession of the wedding and a happy marriage.

Amrita mostly stuck to her mother and Shivanesh’s mother during the whole shopping process as it was easier to make decisions and pay good price for the items needed when she has two ladies good in bargaining to be with her. Shivanesh has already given his mother the money he has kept aside for Amrita’s sarees and jewelries for her to spend during the shopping trip. After very much research and discussion with the two elder ladies, Amrita has decided that she would get Kancheepuram silk sarees for her wedding because they have very traditional designs that looks luxurious and last for a very long time. She opted to not have much sequence work on her saree as she feels that it would take away the beauty of the saree. Her mother and mother in-law also decided to use the same silk sarees for the wedding as it does look luxurious with a reasonable price. Therefore, they all decided to travel down to Kancheepuram the next day to look for the wedding sarees and all the other sarees for the ladies on the family to wear during the wedding as they were sticking to traditional luxurious theme for the wedding. They also planned out to get the grooms attire and the other attire for all the male family member in Chennai. Jewelries for the bride and her team would also be bought in Chennai.

The next morning, everyone woke up early to travel for about 2 hours to Kancheepuram. Once they were there, they decided to pay a visit to the famous Kanchee Kamakshi Amman temple. The temple was big and beautiful yet peaceful. Amrita’s father made some arrangement for prayers to be done by the future newlyweds. Amrita and Shivanesh did the prayer procession, with a deep wish in their hearts. He prayed and promised to love her with all he has for as long as he lives, and she prayed for his health and endless love. After they were done with the prayers, they went to saree emporium suggested by some relatives, Vara Mahalakshmi Silks.

Once they entered the building, Amrita’s father told a salesman that they were there to look for sarees for a wedding. Language was not really a barrier for them as they all spoke fluent Tamil. They were then brought to a room that had racks around on all the walls with thousands of sarees stacked in them. The salesman then spread a huge cotton cloth that was thicker than a blanket on the floor and invited all of them to sit on the cloth. The salesman then asked them the budget they have for the sarees, colors and designs they were looking for. He then walked around taking out random sarees from the racks around the room and brought it to them. Both the mother then started opening up the sarees to see the designs on the saree and the details of the embroidery on them. The salesman also spread a few sarees in front of Amrita for her to have a look and make a selection. Amrita saw all the sarees but did not seem to find one she really liked.

Seeing how Amrita has not made any selection, Amrita’s mother asked the salesman to bring more sarees in. he walked out of the room and brought in another stack of sarees in. Among those in the stack, Amrita found two sarees she seems to like. She took both the sarees and had a more detailed look to it. She always envisioned her wedding saree to be a bright red plain saree with minimal embroidery on it. She saw the red saree in her hand that had very minimal gold embellishments on the body and a 3-inch gold border at the end. She could not help herself from falling in love with that saree. She showed the saree to Shivanesh who was sitting next to her to ask for his opinion on it. When she saw him show a thumbs up with a smile, she knew that that saree was her wedding saree. She signaled her mother who was sitting on her right about the saree and left it to the expert to deal with the price.

Amrita’s mother continued bargaining for the price until they got a very good cut of the price for the saree. Amrita and Shivanesh were very surprised to see how she managed to get a good cut on the price.

Shivanesh somehow felt proud to see how his future bride was not trying to do what other brides do during their wedding. Instead of being like the brides who likes to overdress with expensive saree, she has selected a classy and elegant saree for her wedding which accentuate her individuality even more.

After 4 hours and 15 sarees, they finally decided to leave. Amrita’s mother bought sarees for Amrita’s pre-wedding rituals, Amarika and herself for the wedding. She also bought some sarees to be given to Amrita’s aunt as it is the first wedding in their family. Shivanesh’s mother also bought numerous sarees for Sumithra and her as well as for their relatives. They then traveled back to Chennai for some rest and preparation for the next day.

The next morning, the family travelled to Tiruchi to visit the well-known Uchi Pillayar Temple. In Hinduism, it is believed that Lord Pillayar symbolizes protection and power. He is known as the Lord of Beginnings and The Remover of Obstacles. So, Shivanesh’s and Amrita’s parents believed that the future bride and groom should offer prayers and seek blessing for the beginning of their life’s new chapter to be filled with positive energy and good hopes.

After completing the prayers procession in the temple, they traveled for 5 hours to come back to Chennai. Once they were in Chennai, they continued their shopping as they were scheduled to leave in two days and there is still a lot in the list to shop for. They decided to focus on a more important item which is the groom’s and all the men attire for the wedding. In a traditional Tamil wedding, all men would use white dhoti with gold border. The only way to differentiate with the groom is the width of the gold border. The groom usually has thicker border on the dhoti. They decided to visit Ramraj Cotton outlet to get the dhoti for the men.

Amrita’s father was in-charge of looking for dhoti for Amaran and himself while Shivanesh’s mother looked for the groom’s dhoti. Amrita and her mother looked for dhoti for their relatives. Shivanesh’s mother has passed her list to them to work on. After about 2 hours of shopping, they all managed to find everything they needed. They then went to another textile outlet to look for materials to make white kurta for the groom, Amrita’s father and Amaran. By the time they were done with the shopping, most shops had already closed so, they decided to continue shopping the next day. They went back to their hotel and retired from the hectic day.

The next day, Amrita and the two mothers decided to go on shopping while the men continue sleeping. They wanted to complete the last item on the list which is jewelry shopping. After looking around in many shops, they decided to select and shop for jewelries in Narayana Pearls.

Amrita was shocked when she walked in the shop. She has never seen that many jewelries in one place. There were so many different designs of traditional jewelries around the shop. She was so afraid that she would no be able to make a choice on what she wants. Deep inside, she was glad that the two elder ladies were there to help her make the choice. As she was seated, she was shown to many designs of jewelries. The more jewelries were shown to her, the closer she comes to the jewelries she would want to choose. After for about 2 hours and trying on 20 different jewelry sets, she settled with a set of statement necklace and long necklace with the same design on it and a pair of temple design jhumki earrings. The mothers also did their fair shopping for themselves and their daughters.

When they got back to their hotel room, they saw the two men preparing their luggage to be packed as they are leaving back home in the next morning flight. With the expertise of the two mothers, they managed to divide their things and pack it well to maintain their luggage weight. The magic of packing definitely is in every mother somehow.  

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Things has gotten more hectic since they came back frm India. With just two months to the wedding, things just kept pilling up for them. Every weekend was filled with something to do. The parents spent their weekends travelling to relatives’ and friends’ homes to distribute the invitation cards while the couples spent their weekend preparing their apartment. They decided to do all the handy work and painting on their own while the furnitures were all ordered months before. They spent all their available time working on the apartment because they wanted the apartment to be ready before the wedding so they could move in right after. Days seem shorter and weekends were more tiring. And before they know it, it was already time for the wedding.