December 16, 2014. Other traditions at the henna party.

Guests were decorated with a red dot and flowers.  Bala (Meredith's mother-in-law) did the honors....

The women wore beautiful saris...

Each guest was given a party favor when she left....a banana in a betel nut leaf and a packet of henna

December 16, 2014. Henna, henna!

Swathi, Meredith's sister-in-law, is an artist and requested a really nice tattoo...

More for Meredith....

After the party, we fanned Swathi's tattoo to dry it as she had to go back to work.

The henna dries for a few hours.  Then you wash it off, and the color deepens to a dark orangish-brown.

December 16, 2014. My tattoos

Even I got hand tattoos.  I asked for something simple...

I think it turned out nice....

For some strange reason, George requested a Darwin fish design.

December 16, 2014. More henna partying

About 30 women got tattoos.  The tattoo chaps are amazing.

Each one is different

This lasted about 3 hours.  The guys didn't seem to get tired.

December 16, 2014. Henna party

After the lunch, the 2 henna tattoo chaps arrived, and all the female guests prepared for their tattoos.  Meredith's tattoo was the most elaborate, taking about 3 hours to apply.

Meredith had selected a design which the chaps followed.

She had wedding tattoos applied to her hands, back and front, arms, legs and feet.

Everyone walked around like a surgeon after washing up

December 16, 2014. More wedding photos

About 50 family and friends arrived for a nice kick-off to the wedding, including family from Dubai and Australia.  We had a traditional, vegetarian Indian lunch buffet

Women were welcomed by placing a red dot on their foreheads, and flowers for their hair.

These are some of the immediate family.

Meredith and Alexis waiting to eat...

December 16, 2014. First day of wedding in Hyderabad

Today is the first of 3 days of celebration.  We decorated our apartment to prepare for the guests. This is Nagu (Meredith's father-in-law) stringing flowers and mango leaves.

Then, Swathi, Gautham's sister, joined the fun.

Meredith and Gautham posed  in their nice Indian frocks

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Meanwhile, Bala (Meredith's mother-in-law) was supervising kitchen preparations for a lovely lunch.