Tossing flowers/blessings?

sistergh

So our pandit sent us a program and the last part of the puja is receiving blessings from the guests. We're thinking of pushing this to the end of both ceremonies because it seems sort of festive and like a good way of wrapping things up, but since I've never seen a Hindu wedding I've got some questions. First of all, what exactly does this look like? Is it going to be like a huge receiving line or will the guests just throw flower petals at us as we walk out like in some Western weddings? The program also mentioned tossing flowers/flower petals/rice at us. I'm not inclined to use rice because of the damage it does to birds' stomachs (we're outside), but I'm not sure how many flower petals to order. Did your guests do this? How many flower petals did you order for how many people? I need to let my florist know exactly what to order asap.

jessiegirl_98

We did. It is totally priest dependant. We did two things, first we had the groomsmen/BM throw flowers on us. Then, married women came up, threw rice on us and whispered advice in my ear. Then, at the end, we had to go and bow to guests and get more blessings (this time in the form of money). I just told mine to get a bunch of cheap, colorful pedals.

[Deleted User]

We are placing small satchels of silk rose petals on each guest's seat for them to throw at the end as we're walking up the aisle.

katie978

we're doing the same thing monica is doing.  I've also seen baskets of petals passed in the audience toward the end of the ceremony, which are then thrown on you as you leave semi a la western weddings.but I like the idea of blessings in the form of cash way better! 

wdc*bride

At my friend's fusion wedding, they did one ceremony that was basically the Hindu ceremony followed immediately by some Christian stuff, all in one.  They did the blessings (they were indoors and used rice) in the form a receiving line in front of the mandap after the Christian stuff.  Rather than recessing, they stood at the front of the room, guests filed past to give hugs and talk and toss a little rice at them.  This worked primarily because everyone was not stuck in the pews waiting for their turn as in a traditional American receiving line -- instead, people mingled about drinking and eating appetizers and then came back to get in the receiving line.