Grace and I attended a Bengali wedding earlier this month. At least part of one. Apparently they last several days and more distant acquaintances are only invited to the last little bit.

The part we attended was a little less crazy than one might think for a South Asian wedding, but sort of bizarre. The basic agenda (from my viewpoint) was:

Guests arrive, sit around unsure of what to do, get bored.
Wedding procession occurs accompanied by lots of fanfare and drumming.
Bride and groom sit on elaborate raised dais, are fawned over by relations.
Groom and father of groom make speeches that fall a bit closer to public service announcements than toasts.
Everyone eats quickly and without much ceremony, leaving pretty much as soon as they finish their food.

It was a fairly interesting experience, perhaps made more so by the fact that we gave Grace's boss a ride. This meant (obviously) that we arrived with Grace's boss, imbuing us with enough cachet that we got VIP seating throughout. I'm glad we went but have no real interest in attending more weddings unless I have more of a personal relationship with those involved.

Some pictures (and video!) below.

Fancy dais.

Fancy lights.

Fancy bride and groom (and their family).

Not-so-fancy us.