Epic Wedding

This post is long overdue. A couple weeks ago I drove down to St. Louis, MO with Michelle for a mutual friend's wedding. Michelle has a relative who lives near St. Louis, so we crashed at his place for the first night we were there.

That first night, we went to the Mehendi ceremony where the women got henna done. The bride's henna was really cool all over her hands.

The following morning was the Christian ceremony (groom's side) at Graham Chapel at Washington University. Though we left early so we could get there early, the universe didn't want that to happen. The highway I took narrowed down to one lane at one point and we were stuck in pretty much stand-still traffic for a good 15-20 minutes. I took the first exit I could find only to find the bridge I had to cross was demolished. I just went back on the highway and surprisingly it was fine after that blockade.

The Christian wedding was pretty sweet and short. After that wedding and taking a few pics, we went to the hotel where the rest of the events were held to attend the luncheon. By the way, almost every meal was provided buffet style with Americano and Indian options. Both were delicious and I was stuffed after every meal without fail. Probably gained like 10 lbs from all that food . . .

Anyway, after the luncheon there was a couple hours' lull as they set up for the Hindi ceremony later that afternoon. Unlike the Christian ceremony, which was about 40-45 minutes long, the Hindi ceremony was about 1.5 hours long. It was really cool though as I had never attended an Indian wedding before.

Finally, after the Hindi ceremony came the reception, which was really nice. Throughout the 2 days, the bride wore a total of 3 dresses, 2 of them being saris. She looked so good in all her dresses! I was so stuffed from the food that I couldn't finish a small slice of cake and attempting to dance was painful. Oh well.

The following morning, Michelle and I checked out of the hotel and decided to see some stuff around in St. Louis before heading back. We first went to the Shaw Botanical Garden where a really awesome tour guide gave us a most excellent tour of the gardens. It was such a beautiful place.

After that, we headed for The Hill area for lunch. But being Sunday and in a heavy Italian district, most places were closed. We did find a pizza place that was open (which was delicious) and then topped that off by going to a gelato place afterwards.

Finally before heading out, we had to see the Gateway Arch, probably the most iconic symbol of St. Louis. We didn't go up to the top but we took plenty of pics around it. All in all, it was a great trip with a couple of minor bumps along the way.