Indian-Syrian Catholic wedding in Philadelphia

All photos by Shruti Mathur

My uber-wedding attender Shruti Mathur has come through again! This time, she takes us to an Indian-Syrian Catholic wedding in Philadelphia, with a ceremony at Acension MarThoma Church in Northeast Philadelphia and the reception at Celebrations in Bensalem, Pa. I love mixed-culture weddings -- the result is often just spectacular and, dare I say, exotic. With Indian weddings, I fully expect rich colors and a few extravagant details and I was not disappointed.

 

Alternating height flower arrangements seems to be a new-ish trend. The tall ones are good, because then guests don't have to strain to see over a tall, table level arrangement; but the short ones are good, because then guest can talk over the flowers. Hey, why not have both! Personally, I would prefer one height -- either all tall or all short. That's just me, possibly my mild case of OCD talking. I joke a lot that I'm like Monk now -- "wipe! wipe!"

 

By the way, if you were not sure, all these images are clickable. The sweetheart table and the cake table were set up at what appears to be the head of the room. I like this arrangement -- first off, its a short distance for the couple to the cake! But it keeps both in the designed "center" of the room.  By the way, the cake is strikingly simple against the rich colors of this wedding -- gold, orange, red. Very pretty.

And, yes! That's a peacock feather in the flower arrangement. Their theme was Peacocks. I love it! Flowers used included red roses, orange day lilies and spider mums. Those green, sucker-looking leaves? I'm not sure what their name is, but my mom used to love using them too.

So, if you have a theme, the trick is to use them in the details -- like with a feathery pen or a bird cage for your gift cards. I love the bird cage idea. Heheh.

Shruti shares this about the couple and their wedding (and Shruti had offered another photo by the wedding photographer of this moment, but I like this one better!):

Sharon is of Malayali Christian descent and Robbie is of Anglo-Indian descent. Their ceremony was traditional Syrian Christian, with chanting and singing in both Malayalam and English and traditions blended from the Syrian Christian tradition and the Malayalee/Kerala traditions, including the crowning ceremony and the tying of a string (Minnu) and placement of a red and gold sari (Manthrakodi). Link  

Here are some excerpts from the program:
"The Order of Service for Marriage according to the Mar Thomas Syrian Rite is a rich blend of symbolism, Biblical traditions and teachings, practices of the Early Church in Palestine and Syria, and the customs of South India. Christ is symbolized as the divine Bridegroom whose Bride is the Church. This is a fitting model of mutual commitment and total faithfulness that is commanded to the couple. The prayers emphasize that marriage is a Sacrament and the family, a divinely blessed institution."

Their theme was Peacocks, carried from the programs and invites to the peacock feather on the table pen and in the boutonnieres and the signature cocktail. The couple also wanted to highlight their Indian-American heritage, and each table was numbered and also named after a famous Indian-Americans. (We had the Mindy Kaling table!)

This was also an afternoon reception, with the wedding starting at 10:30 a.m., the reception from 12 to 4 p.m. We were chased out promptly at 4 since the facility had to turn over fairly quickly. But we still managed to have a lot of fun and dancing.

And by the way, congratulations to Shruti -- finally we're going to see her wedding soon! W00t!