Megan & Pritpal’s Traditional Sikh Indian Wedding in Washington, DC

This. This is the Washington, DC wedding feature that always gets me giddy & restores my faith that DC isn’t just a one-note wedding city. Washington, DC is jam-packed with all different kinds of people [races, beliefs, shapes & sizes] and I always imagined my blog to reflect that. However, for whatever reason, I seem to get a significant amount of Caucasian/Christian wedding submissions [not that there’s anything wrong with that] only.

I want Capitol Romance to be varied with it’s features – I am striving to be creative, different from the norm, eclectic & offbeat; however, it isn’t completely in my control as it frankly comes down to what gets submitted to me…

*Stepping off my soapbox* So that is why I am giddy – giddy to share a beautiful, multi-cultural couple, that had a beautiful multi-cultural wedding. A Christian one and a traditional Sikh Indian wedding too, all right here in Washington, DC. Thanks to Amber Wilkie Photography [submitted via Two Bright Lights] for this amazing, multi-cultural Washington, DC wedding feature.

 Megan & Pritpal’s Multicultural Indian – Christian Wedding in Washington, DC

From wedding photographer, Amber Wilkie:

Megan and Pritpal were married beneath the Netherlands Carillon in Rosslyn in a traditional Sikh Indian wedding ceremony. As per custom, all their friends and family sat on the ground, while musicians played and a cantor read from the holy book. They circled the holy book four times, and then they were married! After we all headed to the Bombay Club for a rockin’ dance party.

And now the rest of the amazing details will come from the stunningly beautiful bride, Megan. Doesn’t Megan look like Rachel McAdams? I think so! 

In August Jack and I moved out to D.C. to be with Pritpal. Before Jack started Kindergarten, Pritpal and I decided to take a trip back to his home country to visit his mother and check out some Indian wedding attire. At this point it was mid-August and we had decided to have a very small ceremony, Indian (Sikh) and/or American (Christian) we were still not sure, and a nice celebratory dinner with the guests afterwards, nothing too elaborate and definitely no dancing.

With Pritpal’s mother’s list of “must-invites” we had grown quite a list and we had no idea who from that list would actually make it all the way to Washington, D.C. At this point we felt that our small wedding affair wasn’t looking very plausible, but we still wanted to try to stick with the ideals we had set out with – an intimate ceremony and dinner at a restaurant.

Click inside to see the rest of Megan & Pritpal’s gorgeous Traditional Sikh Wedding in Washington, DC!

Most people hold Sikh ceremonies in temples, but there also weren’t any of those in the area that met our location and décor needs. So we decided it would be best to have it outside and that was that. The weekend after our wedding it snowed that Saturday, all day long. We felt so lucky that we had narrowly missed that weather.

Pritpal’s mother came in from England about a week before the wedding with a suitcase full of chunnis (head scarves for women), which she had already cut from material and hemmed the edges back in England, and material for making ramals (head coverings for men), which she diligently cut and hemmed for an entire day once she arrived here. By this time we knew we were having around 80 guests, all of whom needed a chunni or ramal. Pritpal’s mother had also brought the achkins which we had ordered while in England, but had not yet seen as they were made in India and shipped back to England after we had left. Pritpal’s fit perfectly, but Jack’s needed much alteration, which Pritpal’s mother and I did by hand.

My best-friend and maid-of-honor, Tana, came in Thursday before the wedding and she helped Pritpal and me write the programs, which was no small task. We were having a Sikh ceremony and wanted to stay in keeping with the Sikh terminology, however Pritpal and I had changed a few things to meet our needs as a couple.

We hired a lady to bring some décor items such as the backdrop, sheets for everyone to sit on the ground, a small stage for the officiates, some rose petals for the isle and for throwing at the appropriate time, and some jeweled trees at the start of the isle. We had DJs working on their own to set up microphones and speakers. We also had the ceremony officiates bringing musical instruments, the Holy Book and décor items such as decorative blankets to place around the Holy Book and a wooden canopy.

Everyone had initially coordinated with Pritpal and me, but we weren’t there to oversee the actual setup and we weren’t scheduled to show up until after the guests had arrived. Everything was not planned down to a T, but that was definitely part of the excitement.

Megan, you are much braver than I – I am WAY too much of a control freak to not have everything planned to a T :)

When I arrived at the ceremony site with my dad, I remember seeing all of the guests sitting on the ground surrounded by all of this color and saying, “Wow, it looks really Indian!” My own wedding was my, and most of my family’s, first experience attending an Indian wedding ceremony. Somehow everything managed to come together and we had a great day.

Our reception was at the Bombay Club in downtown D.C. We had an amazing spread of Indian food, an Indian dancer who was a friend of Pritpal’s mother, a DJ, and dancing too!

Things had really changed in terms of our initial thoughts only months ago. The Bombay Club did such an excellent job in terms of the quality and level of service that everything went very smoothly there. We really had the time of our lives that day!

Want more!? Hop on over to East West Productions website to check out Megan & Pritpal’s Gorgeous Washington, DC wedding video!

Congratulations Megan & Pritpal! Thank you SO much Megan for sharing all the gorgeous details of your love story and of planning a multi-cultural Sikh wedding in Washington, DC! A special thanks to Amber Wilkie Photography & Two Bright Lights for making this submission possible!

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