The big day (again)- Mama.

The joked a lot about how this was John and Kingkini's third wedding. But even for a third wedding, they really pulled out all the stops.

The night before, a mendhi artist came to our hotel to apply henna to our hands.

Just like frosting a cake, she used a tube full of henna and drew these designs. All free-hand and in about 10 minutes, she had the fronts and backs of both of Christina's hands finished.

Kingkini's took considerably longer, as she was covered all the way up to her elbows.

The hard part was that once the paste was applied, you couldn't touch anything until it dried. And that took a few hours. Here Kingkini's Aunt Luna and cousin Tanaya waited.

We were very excited for it to finally be our turns. 7 of us had our hands done. By the time we were finished, it was almost 11:30. And that was just finished with the application. You wait for the henna to dry and for the dye to penetrate your skin. Then you have to douse your hands in kerosene and wait for it to dry again. Then you scrape it off. When we got everyone out or our room, none of us could even latch the door, because we were all covered in henna. Aunt Jenni stayed up long enough to scrape her paste off, because she was starting to have an allergic reaction (no surprise there). I was way too tired and fell asleep with my hands in a trash bag (those flakes got everywhere!) and woke up at 3am to scrape it off.

The things women do for beauty. In the end, I think it was worth it. Look at how pretty Aunt Jenni's hand turned out. The dye actually continued to deepen in color on our skin for a couple days. You can tell on the thicker skin, like Jenni's palm, that it's actually darker. Even 4 weeks later, I still have a little bit left on my palms.

Next up, learn to fold a sari like a proper Indian lady. I wouldn't say I'm skilled at it yet, but I can get it done.

Luckily, Luna was there to help us out.

As stunning as we may have looked, we had nothing on Kingkini.

(No surprise, June is obsessed with these series of pictures.)

June almost died when she saw all of these pretty bracelets. And now she insists on piling on as many bracelets and hair bows on her arms in the same way.

Not to be outdone, John came in looking pretty dapper himself.

Half of John's hat came off and Kingkini had to put it on.

Even after 3 weddings, it looks like they still love each other.

The ceremony was very small and was performed by a great officiant(?) that performed everything in Sanskrit, Bengali, and English. My understanding of the Hindu wedding is that it generally takes many days. Mostly, because 95% of marriages are still arranged in India. So you need some time to get to know these people.

The first half includes the groom coming to the bride's house. Her family gives gifts and offerings. Next, the bride leaves her home and goes to the groom's home. (Kingkini's mom showed us photos of her wedding and explained it to us.)

We didn't do the whole 5 day thing (there wasn't even a marching band!). But the ceremony still took 4 hours and was full of beautiful moments, like when John and Kingkini laid floral wreath on each other. Or when the ends of their garments were tied together to symbolize their union. Aunt Jenni and I only cried a few times.

We even got to partake in the fun. No Indian wedding is complete without a fire. Aunt Mary got it started.

Then they invited all of us Americans up to throw in offerings of dried flowers.

John and Kingkini are making offerings of food.

It was beautiful and even a little funny at times.

Here's Aunt Jenni and I decked out in our best back at the hotel. One day of wedding fun down, one to go.