A different style of wedding

I was invited to my first Hindu wedding a couple of weeks ago. My workmate was having a traditional do and invited close to 1000 people to the ceremony at one of the biggest halls in Colombo. I had no idea what to expect and it was a little different to my bros wedding last year. As you can see it's a lot more visual than a Christian wedding and there was loud Tamil music playing for the entire 2 hours. The bride's brother acts as a sort of best man and chills with the groom during the build up. The build up lasted about an hour and a half as everyone waited for the auspicious time. Everything was very symbolic although I lost the plot fairly easily even with a wedding program giving me the order of events.
The highlight of the ceremony is the groom tying a necklace around the brides neck which I think is followed by them walking around the ceremonial fire.
Basically it is very colourful and even though it takes place on stage with a whole host of family everyone seems fairly relaxed about the whole affair except perhaps the happy couple, what with being the centre of attention and all.
The home coming happened the week after, which is like the reception, and after a couple of whiskies I was persuaded to hit the dance-floor. I tried to join in and pick up the moves, which weren't much different from those at a rave. The music is heavily percussive and the beat incredibly fast and in tempo isn't far off Drum and Base. The Sri Lankan's love to dance and the music is enjoyed by young and old alike. Definitely a good night out.