Mithun and Nikki's Wedding - Part 2

Snathakam Ceremony - Mithun is on his way to Kasi and Nikki's brother intercepts him and asks him to marry his sister and go to Kasi later.

Sthali Paakam Ceremony.

Us with my 2nd cousin Sagar. His father is my mother's cousin.

Shilpa (Mithun's sister/my maternal cousin) and Ravi (my paternal cousin)

Me and my pinni (my mother's sister) . Wonder if I'll ever stop slouching...

Kids were on cloud nine when they discovered they were serving cotton candy at the wedding.

Highlights of the wedding:

• Pelli koduku ceremony in the morning at an ungodly hour. I'm sure it went well, although we wouldn't know, we were sound asleep.
• Snathakam at around 10AM. Poor Mithun had to endure a homam first thing in the morning. We all snacked on delicious pessaratulu (andhra style dosa made with moong dal) for breakfast.
• For lunch, we had a scrumptious pelli bhojanam (wedding feast) served sitting down. I highlight this because the meals served on the banana leaf during weddings are the most enjoyable as you can have a leisurely sit-down meal. During the reception, the meal is served buffet style and usually there are never enough seats, you can only enjoy the meal to a certain extent if you have to stand up.
• After lunch, we stopped in to see my cousin, I changed into a new sari, got my hair done at a salon, Sindhu got her nails done and the stylist helped me redo my sari, I was wearing a chiffon style sari which is hard to put on and keep on. I highly recommend the Lakme salon in Himatnagar, I went there based on Shilpa's recommendation and it's the best Lakme salon I've been to.
• Mithun looked like a model in the suit for the edurkolu. Nikki looked stunning in the madhu parkham (white sari with red border). They both seemed to enjoy the festivites and were beaming. I think it was only at the end of the ceremony during the homam that they looked exhausted and tired which I remember from my wedding as the most painful part of the ceremony.
• Indira Attaya (Mithun's mother) is related to Jaya Sudha, a Telugu movie star from the 70s and 80s and she attended the wedding. I was briefly introduced to her and after the introduction, I didn't know what else to say to her. Apparently others took pictures with her but my camera was downstairs somewhere so I didn't bother. I was later introduced to her mother who was very sweet and we spoke for a few minutes.
• There were some relatives I recognized, some I met for the first time. I especially enjoyed chatting with my Suvarnam bamma (my paternal grandmother's sister), she reminds me of my grandmother and her zest for life. There are so many relatives in Hyderabad whom we cannot possibly meet during our short 2-3 day trips, so weddings are a great way to reconnect with them.
• Next morning, we popped in to see Kishore and Prasad's uncle for breakfast. Next we headed to the last wedding festivity, Satyanaraya Vratham followed by another fantastic meal. Lastly, we stopped in to see Prasad's mammaya for a couple of hours and took the flight back. As always, our trips to Hyderabad are too short.