Real wedding: Amy and Jay's Indian/American wedding, part one

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As I mentioned in the sneak peek post last Friday, I am excited to feature my best friend Amy's wedding.  Her wedding took place last October in Washington DC.  It was a multicultural affair, a whirlwind of a weekend filled with tons of delicious Indian food, bright, gorgeous colors, cocktails and more cocktails and lots of dancing.  Oh, and an elephant ice luge.  But you'll have to come back tomorow to see that.

I am posting Amy and Jay's wedding in a two-parter, there is way too much to fit into just one post.  Today is the traditional American ceremony and luncheon and then the Sangeet. 

Did I mention I performed an Indian dance? Nothing like a few drinks to calm some nerves.

Photo credits to Love Life Images.

Amy and Jay's wedding began on a Friday at noon at beautiful All Souls Unitarian church.  She was stunning in her La Sposa wedding gown from Brides of France, contrasted with our black bridesmaid dresses and hot pink bouquets (Amy told us to wear any short, black cocktail dress we already owned, loved that).


Gorgeous Kristin walking down the aisle.


How happy does she look?!
The bridemaids consisted of five of her closest friends and her younger sister. That's me to the left of the bride.
The reception was a luncheon in the church, which was actually a bright, open ballroom.  Amy's vision for her luncheon was pink and green details with some touches from home (including the birch tree table numbers, made by her father) and homemade pies her grandmother and aunt baked.




Amy's wedding planner, Trish Cannor of Working Brides was awesome and the weekend couldn't have happened without her.  She went to the farmers' market the morning of the wedding and arranged all the centerpieces.

After the luncheon we headed back to the hotel for some down time, then the bridesmaid met to rehearse our dance that we performed later that night at the Sangeet.  The Sangeet was basically another reception, with about 150 people, Indian food and dancers.  Many of Jay's family members and friends performed a dance for Amy and Jay.  The event was so festive, fun, filled with happiness and excitement for the Hindu ceremony and reception following the next day.
The Sangeet had gorgeous fabrics and decor.
Professional Indian dancers performed throughout the evening.  The bridesmaids and I made sure to perform before the professionals!
We pulled this dance off and Amy loved it.  Melanie (left) learned the dance off of YouTube and taught it to the rest of us the weeks preceeding the wedding.








I'm in the pink on the right...like I said, I had a few cocktails prior to this dance! All those gorgeous Indian outfits that we were wearing are Amy's. Melanie (in green) was a dance major in college so she was the most graceful of all of us, though I thought everyone did an awesome job.

All the dancing took place before dinner was served!  We didn't eat until 11ish and I think most people had plenty to drink prior to that!  It was an incredible day!