Ceremony
Most Hindu marriage celebrations are a colourful occasion and start by taking place in the temple and the bride’s home both which are decorated specially for the event. The groom dressed in traditional Indian Kurta (white trousers and a tunic) and wearing a ceremonial turban, arrives with his relatives at the bride’s or most commonly now at the wedding venue.
Once the marriage procession, called the Baarat, reaches its destination, the bride’s mother applies tikka on the groom’s forehead as a blessing to welcome her son-in-law.
The Baarat is ceremoniously welcomed by the bride’s party and the groom is led to the marriage room where the father of the bride offers him gifts. After this welcome, the bride enters the room and sits facing her husband to  be under a decorated canopy, called a mandap. In some ceremonies, both are veiled until they are married. The bride and groom exchange garlands made of fresh flowers, symbolic of the exchange of their hearts, minds and souls. This is called the varmala ceremony and is a significant event in a Hindu marriage.
The marriage ceremony is performed by a Hindu priest starting with the emphasis on the importance of marriage. The priest ties the couples’ right hands together with cord and sprinkles holy water over them. At this point, the bride’s father hands over his daughter to the groom in Kanyadanam.
The most important part of the ceremony is the Seven Steps or Pheras, a ritual in which the couple circle the sacred fire. The bride’s veil is knotted to a part of the groom’s attire and they walk around the nuptial fire in a clockwise direction. The couple, or “Saptapadi” either take seven steps around the fire or walk around it four or seven times. The seven steps denote food, strength, wealth, fortune, children, happy seasons and friendships. The marriage is complete and irrevocable after the taking of the seventh step. In some variations of the ceremony, the groom presents his new wife with a new sari and she changes to symbolise her new status in her new family.
In Hindu Gujarati weddings there are only four pheras (steps around the sacred fire) taken by the couple called the Mangalpheras. The couple recite the Sapta Padi or the seven vows for married life while the groom assists her to touch seven betel nuts with her right toes. Once allthe rituals have been performed, the couple take blessings from the elders by touching their feet.
The newly-weds then feed each other with sweet food, which is first offered to the household God. The ceremony ends with prayers and readings, and the wedding party retires to another room where feasting and celebrations get under way. This can last for several days, with hundreds of relatives and friends visiting the house to offer their gifts and congratulations.
The Vidai ceremony takes place when the bride leaves her parents house and bids farewell to her family, marking the move from her own family to that of her husband.
Wedding
On the day of the wedding ceremony, the bridegroom dressed like a sultan in a turban with a floral veil (sehra) tied on the forehead leads the marriage procession to the bride’s house.
The groom stops at the mosque to offer prayers and seek the blessing of Allah. The groom is attended throughout the wedding by a serbala, the youngest boy in the family, usually a sister’s son. The family gifts money as salami to the groom for good luck. He and the serbala are then fed laddu, a sweet food made from chickpeas, sugar and butter, immediately before departing for the marriage ceremony.
The Ceremony
The nikah or marriage service usually takes place at the bride’s home. The groom and serbala are garlanded on their entry at the bride’s home. The bride’s brother offers the  groom hot sweetened milk, or sherbet, as a gesture of a sweet start to his married life. The Qazi or law officer conducts marriage, by reading from the Koran. Two men are appointed as witnesses on the groom’s behalf to receive orders for the nikah from the bride’s family.
The elders of the two families negotiate the amount of mehar (compulsory amount of money given to the bride’s family by the groom’s family). The bride and groom sit separately during their marriage, possibly on opposite sides of the room. The bride’s father and two witnesses ask the bride if she agrees to the marriage, after which the Qazi asks the groom if he has agreed. After both agree, the Qazi completes the nikahnama, the Muslim marriage certificate.
The Reception
After the civil and religious ceremonies, a reception follows at the bride’s parent’s house. The groom’s family to honour and welcome the new bride throws another reception. This feast is called the Dawat-e-walima.
Sikhs have many customs in common with both the Hindu and Muslim religions, which include the marriage ceremony.
The marriage ceremony usually takes place in the gurudwara, the Sikh place of worship, or at the bride’s home. The Guru Granth Sahib (holy book) must be present regardless of the place where the marriage ceremony is conducted.
The morning of the wedding day is marked by the gharoli ceremony at the groom’s house. The groom’s sister-in-law, accompanied by other female relatives, goes to a nearby well or Gurudwara to fill an earthen pitcher or gharoli with water, which is later used to bathe  the bridegroom. Thereafter, khare charna is performed wherein the groom is made to sit on a stool for his bath, and four girls hold a cloth
over his head. Following his bath, the groom puts on new clothes. The groom drapes a coloured chunni, usually pink, red or orange around his neck and usually carries a sword by his side. Sehrabandi, putting of the floral veil and the kalgi on the groom’s forehead by the his maternal uncle and applying of kajal (black kohl) in the eyes by his sister-in-law is done before the Baraat, the wedding procession leaves for the ceremony.
A similar bathing ritual is performed at the bride’s house following which her maternal uncle takes her for choora ceremony. She wears a set of red and white ivory (since it is now banned, bone or plastic are alternatives) bangles that have been dipped in kachchi lassi or buttermilk. Kaleeren, ornaments with dangling golden metal plates, are tied to the bride’s wrist by her close female relatives.
On reaching the bride’s house, the milni (meeting) ceremony is held with the senior members of both families embracing and exchanging gifts with each other. Shabads (hymns) are sung and aardas (prayer) recited as the wedding procession enters the gurudwara or the place where the wedding is arranged to take place.
The Ceremony
A granthi or the holy man is usually in charge of the marriage ceremony. The ceremony begins with an explanation of the importance of marriage. The couple then show they agree to be married by bowing to the Guru Granth Sahib. Then the bride’s father ties the bride’s chunni to the groom’s scarf to symbolise her departure from the bride’s family to join the groom’s family. A marriage hymn of four verses, the ‘Lavan’, written by the Sikh teacher Guru Ram Das, is then sung. To symbolise their support, the relatives help the bridal couple to walk around the Guru Granth Sahib after each verse of the hymn has been sung. The couple is declared married at the completion of the fourth round. Throughout the ceremony, hymns are sung and prayers are said for the future happiness of the newly-weds. The hidaayat or niyams - their duties and responsibilities towards each other as man and wife, and also towards their elders - are now recited to the couple.
Final prayers are then said and sweets, Karah Parshad, made from flour and sugar, are distributed to the people present to seek God’s blessings for the new couple. Relatives and friends garland the newly- wedded couple and present gifts. A meal follows, either at the Gurdwara if the ceremony has taken place there, or at the bride’s house.
Later the bride changes into new clothes that are presented to her by the groom’s family. As she parts from her house, she throws back grains of rice, thereby wishing prosperity to the family she has left behind.
Mehendi has great significance in all eastern wedding traditions and no wedding is complete without the decoration of the bride's hands and feet - in many cultures on both the front and back of the hands right up to the elbow and the bottom half of the legs.
The mehendi night is something like a hen night, with all the brides female friends and relatives getting together to celebrate. They spend the  evening singing traditional mehendi songs, which tell of the good luck and blessings that mehendi will bring, and of its significance with different in-laws.
In Gujarat, mehendi tattooing is part of the Adivasi womens wedding traditions. Leaves and flowers are used as templates around which complex designs are painted on the brides face and arms.
The mehendi ceremony is considered so sacred in some religions that unless the mother-in-law has applied the first dot of mehendi to the brides hand, the painting cannot go ahead. The mehendi dot is considered to be a symbolic blessing, bestowal of which permits the new daughter-in-law to beautify herself for the groom.
Many brides believe that the deeper the colour of the mehendi, the deeper the love they will receive from their in-laws, in particular the mother-in-law, whose blessing is particularly important to an Asian bride. Hence she does whatever she can to ensure that the mehendi stain is deep. A good deeply-coloured design is a sign of good luck for the marital couple. It is common for the names of the bride and groom to be hidden in the mehendi design; and the wedding night cannot commence until the groom has found the names. A bride is not expected to perform any housework until her wedding mehendi has faded. While much of the symbolism of mehendi designs are being lost some examples remain. The peacock, which is the national bird of India, the lotus flower, and an elephant with a raised trunk, which is a symbol of good luck, are all popular images.
In some customs the bridegrooms hands are also decorated, and communities in Kashmir and Bangladesh have evolved particular mens designs. A current trend in the UK is for traditional patterns in the form of a ring or bracelet.
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