My friends and I are throwing a dholki at my house for a close friend who is getting married next month. The guest list includes desi aunties, close family friends, and some of the bride’s non-desi friends as well. I need help planning what to DO at the actual event itself!
So, the obvious option is to sing dholki songs. I’ve got dholki song packets ready, but I have a feeling that the singing isn’t going to last very long.
We haven’t choreographed any dances, and I think with Ramadan, Eid, and everyone’s hectic work schedules, we’re just not going to have time to practice anything. We are probably going to have a collection of desi songs playing in the background, when we’re not singing.
At dholkis for me, the aunties used to go around and give advice for a happy marriage. It was a cute little tradition, but there are three aunties who are divorced, and I worry that will be awkward.
I’d like the dholki to keep a desi feel, but was thinking of fun ways of incorporating some typical bridal shower games, or anything else you ladies think of.
So what do you think? I would really appreciate your help!
I don't think I'll go too formal with the color scheme -- I have a lot of decor for typical desi colors in oranges, pinks, and greens, and I'll just balance those.
i went to a mendhi last month...it was an all girls event and as the girl is religious she didnt have dancing just a bit of singing.
to make up for it she organised loads of games for the young and old:
blind mans bluff
pass the parcel with truths and dares
food eating competitions with things like really thin sher khurma/jelly (the aunties really loved this)
races for the kids
her friends organised a really funny quiz show type of play where all of them were dressed up as different characters.
she also had poems and speeches from her friends and a documentary style slide show.
also, if you want dancing you could always get classic wedding songs and just free style to them...get 'mendhi taa sajdi je nachay munde di maa...' and get the aunties to dance to that.
Okay, how about a desi twist on the toilet paper wedding dress? Some ideas:
Get construction paper and random scraps of fabric and such and put people in teams to design a dress for the bride using tape as well.
Get groups to design the bride's jewelry using office supplies or some such random items.
Give groups a giant posterboard hand and tell them they need to design the bride's mehndi blindfolded.
Another idea for mehndi, if I have time! Put people in teams of 2-3. Make a sugar cookie in the shape of a hand for each team. Give each team toothpicks, melted chocolate and a plastic bag, and tell them to use the chocolate to create the bride's mehndi design.
Tell each guest that the object of the game is to draw a picture of the bride doing anything in her bridal dress like making rotis, dancing, eating corn. The bride picks her favorite drawing to win a prize.
Ask each guest to list an activity that they would like the bride object of the game to do in her bridal dress. The catch is that the aunty has to get up and do the same while wearing a special red dupatta. Give a prize to the most daring aunt.
Take a few items and encourage the guests to make something for the bride to wear on her wedding day. It can be a gana, anklet or even something to wear in her hair just as a reminder of her great bachelor days.
Dress up a barbie doll (or any kind of a doll) in scraps of material resembling the gharara or a lehnga. Everyone takes a group photo with the winning doll and it goes in the momento-scrapbook of the event.
Okay, here's how I'm incorporating the mehndi concept, I think:
Cut out a bunch of hands out of card stock paper (in pretty bright colors). Create a scrap book or something that would allow these to be visible from both sides. Share the concept of mehndi being a sort of blessing for a happy occasion, and ask each guest to give the bride a mehndi design idea on one side and a personalized note with advice and good wishes on the other. She can keep the book to remember the occasion and the people present.
That book sounds like SUCH a cute idea Sahar!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love, love, love it!
On my mehndi, my sisters put together a similar book and tied it together using thin pieces of gota...they were colorful and people went crazy over them because they also had mehndi songs in them. I was barely able to hold onto one.
I would do some dholak and songs for a bit, have the ladies feed the bride some mithai, do your games but dont do too many of them, put on some dance music and let the ladies/girls just dance! As a bride, thats all I wanted to do, LOL.
Quick update for tomorrow's activities:
- I'll cut out a bunch of hands out of card stock paper (in pretty bright colors). Share the concept of mehndi being a sort of blessing for a happy occasion, and ask each guest to give the bride a mehndi design idea on one side and a personalized note with advice and good wishes on the other. I'll put it all in a book with photos from the evening to remember the occasion and the people present.
- Slideshow of old photos
-Music playing on laptop
-singing songs (no luck finding a dhol; i'll get tambourines
-quiz about the groom for the bride
-wedding charades -- aunties vs. girls -- We can brainstorm a list of terms.
but still you’ll get a few ideas.