hamari kahani so far

F (which stands for fiance) and I got engaged a couple of weeks ago. He's Indian-from-India, and I'm white-from-the-Midwest. This blog is going to contain my wedding and family adventures. I looked for advice and stories about marrying into an Indian family, but I couldn't find much at all, so this blog goes out to all you gori girls who are in the same boat. I know you're out there.

At first when we started dating, F didn't tell his family about me right away. It's just not generally done that way. Then when we were sure it was serious, he told them and they were not pleased (because I'm not Indian). In a couple of months, though, they realized I was not so bad and decided to like me. I'm not saying this is not a big deal for many people, but parents really do love their children and want them to be happy, and it seems like they usually come around eventually. In our case it was like flipping a switch - we went from unhappy parents to "When are you going to get married? How about this summer?"

We got engaged after a trip to my parents' house for a volleyball party. Everyone was calling F's phone to congratulate us, but it was languishing inside the house. They were picking on him for not answering it, but he was busy playing lots of volleyball and had no idea it was ringing. When he finally called everyone back, they all demanded pictures of me. I think they're still waiting.