One of my favorite things about an Indian wedding is the Mehendi ceremony. It is usually a day or two before the actual wedding ceremony and traditionally is a women's only function. Professional mehendiwalis (women who apply the mehendi) lay out intricate designs using a cone filled with mehendi paste (similar to icing a cake).

The bride gets mehendi applied to her hands and legs. The guests also get mehendi applied, not as intricately as the bride though. Her mehendi takes several hours to apply (mine took about 6 hours) and you have to let it dry overnight. The result of this endeavor is beautifully stained hands and feet that stay that way for a couple of weeks (it lets you skip out of house work - no newly married girl wants to do the dishes in any case!).

The event is fun-filled and festive where the women sing, dance and share stories of married life, preparing the bride for her new life. It is considered bad luck for the bride to meet the groom after the mehendi is applied to her hands. But these days people clump the mehendi ceremony with the Sangeet (song and dance) ceremony which is attended by most of the close friends and family of the groom and bride.

Mehendi, also known as Henna, is made by crushing dried leaves of the plant Lawsonia Inermis. It is native to India, Egypt, Sudan and most other North African countries and is a decorative art that is applied as a part of daily life, festive occasions and weddings. The bridal mehendi designs are typically inspired by Mughal paintings or Ras Leela (Lord Krishna's flirtations with his girlfriend, Radha and her friends) mixed in with motifs of paisley, flowers, elephants and peacocks. Drawings of a bride and groom or the bridal procession are common as well. To add a little playfulness to the first night of wedded bliss the mehendiwali will hide the name of the groom in the design, which he has to find before he can consummate the marriage!

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