Chatterji-Khan Wedding

The day finally came. The day when the consumate student, the consumate nomad, finally settled down. Our boy Neil Chatterji is all grown up.

What a fabulous weekend Kim and I had in NY/NJ celebrating the wedding of Neil Chatterji and Shaista Khan. This was no ordinary wedding. At least by American standards. This was an event. An event that spanned 3 days. Well, 3 days that we were able to take part in. More if you include some of the events that took place in the days weeks leading up to the Labor Day weekend festivities.

An event like this really made us grateful to have such a diverse set of friends that give us the opportunity to participate in such rich cultural traditions. The 3 day event was quite a spectacle and one that was perfectly set with New York City as its backdrop. Everything was so vibrantly decorated and ornate. Every THING and every ONE was just beautiful.

The festivities began on the Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend. Kim and I arrived one day earlier. We left the boys in the good hands of Grandma and Papa for "Grandma Camp". Friday night, Neil and Shaista had rented out a small club in New York City. It was a perfect start to the weekend as Shaista's brother and brother-in-law DJ'd the night.

Saturday, Neil's crew got together during the day to do what Neil's crew would be expected to do on Saturday's in the Fall. That is, of course, watch Ohio State Football. Good planning on Neil's part to schedule the wedding activities opposite the game. Well played.

Later that night, we boarded two tour buses that were headed for Allentown, PA for the evening. (I'm writing this some time after the event happened, so I can't remember the formal Indian names of these events.) Shaista's family is from the Allentown area. When we arrived, the party hall was already filled with several hundred people.

A night like this one, again filled with food and dancing, would have been more than enough for any traditional American wedding. But, oh no, this was just one part of the Chatterji-Khan extravanganza! Women could also the option to get a henna tattoo. After a long day and a long trip back to the hotel, we were all pretty beat and ready to recharge for the next day's activities.

Sunday came and included a more "traditional" ceremony followed by a reception at the hotel. The ceremony was held outdoors on the hotel concourse with New York City beautifully set in the background. The ceremony went so fast that if you blinked, you might have missed it. Many guests commented on how they appreciated the brevity of the ceremony. Left more time for us to eat and dance!

Dance? How about dancing next to the groom while he's escorted to the reception on a horse? Not something I've experienced before. I remember a few months back asking Neil how the wedding planning was going. He responded, "Pretty good. Just went to go order a horse for the ceremony." Wha?! This was one of the more enjoyable parts of the weekend for me. Letting loose, dancing in the street with the rest of the wedding party, escorting the groom to the reception. There's a video of this floating around somewhere.

One of the really cool things Neil and Shaista did was to have a film crew video many of Saturday and Sunday's events. They took some of the footage, edited it together, and had it ready before dinner was served at the ceremony. Really cool to see how much had happened in such a relatively small amount of time.

It was a memorable weekend spent with great friends. Congratulations to Neil and Shaista. We're so proud to know them and happy that they found each other. We're grateful for their friendship and wish them many years of love and happiness. Here are a few more photos from the weekend.