Wedding of Two Worlds

Last summer, Jim, one of my anatomy labmates, got married. This summer, Ritu, another one of my anatomy labmates, got married.

A couple weeks ago, Megan and I drove down to St. Louis, MO for Ritu's wedding. The drive down was pretty smooth, only narrowed down to 1 lane a few times due to construction (grrr). Her relative lives in St. Charles near St. Louis, so we first stopped by there since we were staying there Friday night.

Friday
Mehendi Ceremony
Friday night, Megan and I attended the Mehendi Ceremony where the women got henna done on their hands. Ritu was present in a really nice purple sari. There was tons of food at this ceremony, and there were still 2 more meals provided the following day! It was all so good, a mix of Americano and Indian.

Ritu's henna.

Saturday
Christian Ceremony
The day started off kind of rough. First the power went out at Megan's relative's place due to a ridiculous storm the night before (that also woke all of us up at like, 5:30am). But we got ready on time and headed out a good 15-20 minutes earlier than needed. Except that the highway I took narrowed down to 1 lane and we were stuck there for 15 minutes or so. Sigh. I took the first exit off the highway to cross a bridge only to find that bridge demolished. So I went back on the highway and after that point, it was quick driving. We arrive at Washington University with 5 minutes to spare. But the parking garage was closed! I frantically drove around and quickly found free parking.

We made it into Graham Chapel just in time. Good thing the wedding didn't start for a few minutes anyhow. Phew! The wedding was pretty nice. It lasted maybe 40-45 minutes. The flower girl, Markus's (the husband's) niece, was adorable! After this wedding, we went to the Marriott Hotel by the airport for the rest of the day's events.

Adorable flower girl poses.

Just married!

Hindi Ceremony
Later that afternoon was the Hindi ceremony. It was held in an outdoor tent - most amazing tent I've seen, it even had AC! Both Markus and Ritu looked stunning. There was a Hindu priest officiating the ceremony who took breaks to translate what was happening (also, a handy little booklet was provided to explain things). This ceremony lasted much longer, a tad over 1.5 hours.

Statue of Ganesh.

Reception
Soon following the Hindi ceremony was the reception. The food, as always, was buffet style with Americano and Indian options and pretty much all of it was amazing and delicious. I only took a little bit of everything and even so I was stuffed! Their cake was also really delicious. After eating a small slice of the vanilla part of it, I couldn't finish the tiny slice of chocolate (I normally don't like chocolate cakes much, but this one was outstanding). I ate so much I could barely move, lol.

Markus, Ritu, Megan, & me

Sunday
Shaw Botanical Garden
Megan and I stayed in the hotel over Saturday night. We packed and hit the road back, but not before seeing a few of the sights in town. The first place we stopped by was the Shaw Botanical Garden. We arrived early in the day so it wasn't too hot and humid out yet. We had a great walking tour of most of the gardens by our tour guide, Norma.

The Hill
After walking around the gardens for about 2 hours, we started getting hungry and headed over to The Hill district for lunch. It's a very Italian area and we failed to realize that most establishments there don't open on Sundays. We did eventually find a pizzeria that was really good and had some yummy gelato afterwards. :-)

Gateway Arch
Finally, just before heading out, we had to stop by the Gateway Arch, perhaps the most iconic symbol of St. Louis. We didn't go to the top but just took pics around it. It's so much bigger than I thought! All in all, it was a great trip packed into a little over 2 days.

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