The family gathers together to sing and dance in a gathering called the sangeet or Garba (depending on the region of origin) before the wedding.
The wedding event begins with the mehndi ceremony, a large celebration that is often exclusively attended by the bride's close female friends and relatives.
According to Patel, a South Asian bride typically dons a red sari or a contemporary lengha on her wedding day.
Depending on the region, the bridegroom's and his party's arrival at the ceremony location, known as the vara yatra or baraat, is joyfully celebrated.
Either the bride's brothers or uncles will accompany her to the wedding ceremony. The kanyadaan is the moment when the groom gives his daughter away.
The wedding mandap, also known as the wedding altar, is a temporary building created for the marriage ceremony.
A fire is started in the mandap's centre. Hindu marriage is not a contract but a ceremony.
Ganesha, the god of beginnings, fortune, and the removal of obstacles, is prayed to before the event officially starts.
The jai mala is a garland made of flowers strung together that newlyweds exchange.
Her new spouse gives the bride a necklace made of black and gold beads.
A significant rite in North Indian Hindu marriages is the saptapadi.
The pair showers one another with a concoction of rice in a South Indian tradition known as the talambralu, or "ritual of bliss."
After the ceremony is over, a woman has sindoor, a red-orange powder, placed to the section of her hair to represent her new position as a married woman.
The bride's parents bidding their daughter farewell for the final time during the vidaai ritual, which serves as the symbolic conclusion to the wedding celebrations.