Sometime last year, my husband’s cousin’s wedding was fixed. We were the groom’s side. The groom’s side have nothing much to do at the wedding, as you know. We only need to get ready and show up!

There is a part in the wedding festivities, where the groom’s side ladies can show off  their creative skills. They gift the bride a lot of different things. If you can make instead of buying them, then it really showcases your talent.

My husband’s aunt, the groom’s mom asked me to make something and bring it to the wedding. So I took up the “project” earnestly.

Now, in our South Indian Andhra culture, there is an important wedding ritual called the “Gauri Puja”. Here the bride prays to Mother Gauri for blessings before the actual wedding. It is only after her puja that the kanyadaana (father and mother giving away the girl) takes place.

I used a whole lot of things and prepared a model of the Gauri puja for the wedding. My daughter helped me very actively in this project. Together, we dressed a doll in a traditional silk sari, created her bridal jewellery, made each of her puja articles, made the incense stick stand, her flower basket, the sweets and fruits to offer the Goddess. Each and every article was painstakingly made, coloured, decorated and stuck onto the main board.

We had a challenge of making our bride sit. We overcame this difficulty by making a soapbox backrest. We filled the soapbox with sand to make it heavy and then to be on the safe side, tied it to the waist of our bride! To hide the tying, we made it look like she was wearing a Vadhiyaanam (ornate waistband)! 😀

Once it was completed, it was so beautiful! We were proud of our work.

Anyway, in the wedding, this piece was very much the centre of attraction. Everyone, from both sides wanted to know who made it, whether it was purchased etc.

Of course the main event was the wedding, but I had my six minutes of fame when I got a lot of appreciation for this.

Here are the pics of my bride doing her puja.

10
Goddess Gauri
9
Flowers for puja
8
Agarbatti
7
Bride closeup
6
Bride hairstyle
5
Haldi kumkum
4
Laddoos
3
Fruits
1
Front view
two
Top view

 

 

Written for the July BarAThon 2018.

Today’s prompt is : Six minutes of fame

Read other awesome bloggers here.