What to expect from a wedding in India

Yes, I was a bridesmaid for a girl I had never met before but it is not as crazy as it sounds... As a friend of the groom I was honoured to be invited to attend the wedding in India and when I was asked to be a bridesmaid I knew it was going to be an experience I would not forget.

This wedding was in Goa, but we weren’t going to travel all the way to India and only visit one place! So we decided to combine our trip to Goa with a visit to Mumbai before the wedding. (Let’s just say we were incredibly unprepared for the trip ahead of us…)

Days 1-3: Mumbai

We have travelled to big busy cities before, we had been to Bangkok two years before and naively we thought that experience would have prepared us for Mumbai (turns out it's not quite the same experience...)

Mumbai is India’s financial capital, and it has a population of 12.5 million people.

Once we arrived at our hotel, we went out to explore the local area. Mumbai can be very overwhelming if you are not used to the busyness. It is very hot, people are approaching you, you don’t know where you are going, car horns are sounding everywhere… for someone from the UK, it is a big culture shock when you first arrive. We also didn’t really have any sort of ‘plan’ for this first day as we thought we would just wander and explore the area. My biggest tip if you are travelling to Mumbai would be to get a guide or book onto an experience.

We had a guide for day 2 of our trip, and it completely changed our experience in Mumbai. It felt so much calmer having a local know where to take you. I would really recommend doing your research before your trip and consider using a local guide to help navigate the city.

Days 4-8: The wedding

Goa was so quiet compared to Mumbai. As soon as we landed, we were greeted by our friends, and we instantly felt at home again after a chaotic couple of days in Mumbai.

This was my first time attending a big wedding (and of course my first wedding in India) and I didn’t really know what to expect. We had days of celebrations before the wedding, including food, dancing and having eggs and coconut milk poured over our heads (not something I was expecting to happen but one of my favourite stories to tell for sure).

The eggs and coconut milk are poured over the wedding party at the 'Roce', and this is seen as a cleansing before the wedding. Neighbours, friends and family gather to come and take part in the ceremony.

Another thing we weren’t expecting was a dance. This might be naive of us, but I always thought there was a first dance just for the bride and groom, but when we were told the day before the wedding we would be dancing as well, we quickly had to get on YouTube and learn some basic waltz steps!

On the day of the wedding we were surrounded by new friends, and we really did feel at home by the end of this trip.

The day after the wedding we gathered at the bride’s house for more dancing and food, and our taxi picked us up and took us straight to the airport to head home after a week in India. This was one of those trips that you could not have planned for, and every surprise just made it even better. I sat in the taxi on the way to the airport having my usual end of trip cry (iykyk), feeling so grateful to have met some of the kindest and most welcoming people I’d ever met in my life.