Hi ladies,
I've tried asking this question on the Ceremony Ideas board, where a few people responded with honest opinions but most also said they couldn't really picture it or relate. I tried again on the Interfaith boards but no one's responded for two weeks there. This seems to be a more active board and I'd be really interested in hearing what other Indian brides think of this idea. I'll just paste my original post and welcome any and all feedback (hopefully delivered respectfully, of course). Thanks in advance!
We are still very early in the planning stages and have not yet settled for certain on how we want to fuse my Indian wedding customs with my fiance's Christian ceremony.
We've both grown up in America our whole lives and have dreamt of me walking towards him in the white dress and saying "I do" to each other. At the same time though, being Indian is a part of who I am also and there are some traditions from the Hindu ceremony that include parents in them and are meaningful to me. We have gone through so many different ideas but for now, we're thinking that we'd both come out in Indian dress (me in a wedding sari) with our parents and my aunt would oversee us in some of the family related customs that are part of Indian weddings. It wouldn't take more than fifteen or twenty minutes. Then our caterer has suggested that while we go inside and change into white dress and tux, they'll walk around with snacks and drinks while our guests are free to move around outside and look around the garden. They'll then seat them again and we'll come out for the more American Christian ceremony, also no more than fifteen minutes.
Will this still be the meaningful modern-fusion ceremony I'm hoping for or could it end up feeling choppy? Just wanted to get some outside opinions as I've been in it for too long to look at it objectively anymore
Then this was the response I wrote to the few people who wrote me back:
I really appreciate all of the honest and thoughtful feedback. I definitely have worried that the getting up and sitting down part would be the cause of a choppy feeling..
The other idea we've talked about is having the Indian part in this very intimate, cozy space inside, which would be one of the RSVP options on the invite, and then a small space of time where people go outside, have snacks and drinks, and then are seated outside for the full Christian ceremony which would have its own separate RSVP option on the invitation. That would put us outdoors a bit later on a summer evening which would help with the temperature; the Indian part that's very family oriented would be small and intimate with people only coming if they choose to, and then the part we really wanted outside (the Christian ceremony with the walking down the aisle) would be separate enough from the first part that it might feel less choppy than the stand up and sit back down in the same seat idea.
Who knows, we'll see, but I do agree with all of you that we all each only have one wedding day and we should try to do the things that are important to us. But as I am trying to be mindful of my guests' experience as well, I thought I'd get some outside ideas. Thanks again, ladies!