Nowadays, the Gayer Holud (Haldi) is the piece de resistance of a Bengali wedding. Traditionally, the gayer holud was a day where the bride dressed simply in a traditional sari in either red, yellow, or green. and wore flower jewelry (the real bling was saved for the wedding and reception). But the modern-day holud is a whole different event, altogether. Today’s Bengali bride goes beyond the traditional holud colors to incorporate a color palette full of drama!

Check out these rainbow-colored gayer holud bridal ensembles for inspiration!

Read more

I know we gush tremendeously about inter-ethnic couples, but we can’t help it. We love it when two people find each other despite race, ethnicity, and religion! Today’s inter-ethnic couple, Saira and Kevin, combined both their backgrounds to plan an amazing wedding that contained both Bangladeshi wedding rituals as well as American rituals that they both grow up with.

Our first stop on their wedding train is the oh-so-Bengali tradition of the Gayer Holud. Saira and Kevin chose a red, yellow, and orange theme to create a very traditional Gayer Holud ceremony at the Euclid Community Center in Euclid, Ohio. With red roses in her hair, Saira looks like a true Bengali bride!

Read more

Gaye holud written in Bangla

Gaye holud or haldi also known as a  turmeric ceremony, is a traditional preparatory celebration, which takes place before the wedding. It is the tradition of applying holud or haldi (turmeric paste) on the bride and groom’s skin in order to beautify them for their wedding. Holud is an antiseptic which not only kills germs and bacteria, but also has a yellow hue which gives skin a unique color and glow.

A pre-wedding ritual involving the application of turmeric to the bride and groom is a wide-spread tradition throughout South Asia and in West Indian culture,  it is a very important custom particular to Bengali weddings and sparks a huge celebration by Bengali Muslims, Hindus and Christians. This is also known as the henna/mehndi night in Northern parts of India and in Pakistan. To West Indians, it is known as dig dutty, matti khor, or simply dye rubbing. However, henna/mehndi night itself is also a preparatory celebration in South Asian weddings, where henna/mehndi is used to decorate the bride’s hands and feet as well as the rest of the female guests. This usually occurs only for the bride and usually attended, only by women. However, some do choose to combine the gaye holud and mehndi night together into one ceremony. Read more

Name: Tangina Chowdhury (28), Kowser Parvez (32)
Engagement: Bride’s Home in Pennsylvania, May 2008
Holud: – August 8, 2009 at Brides home
Wedding: August 9, 2009 at ‘The Eastonian’ in Easton, PA
Wedding Makeup Artist: Salma of Salmasbridal.com
Wedding Outfit: Pashmina of Jackson Heights, New York
Wedding Jewelry: Sonoor.com
Stage Decor: Mandap USA

Tangina: “Kowser and I met late last October of last year through mutual friends. Because we lived so far away from each other, we were hesitant at first to pursue anything but gave it a shot anyway, thinking it probably wouldn’t go anywhere – little did we know that after our first conversation (and Kowser’s persistence!) he had me hooked. We both knew that we had found what we were looking for. We became serious pretty quickly and he surprised me with a proposal in April of 2009 which I of course accepted. We had a formal engagement in May which allowed our families to meet as well and also hammer out the wedding details.”

Etsy.com

We love the green, orange and brown color scheme of this save-the-date card! The design is simple, yet elegant enough for a modern South Asian wedding. This Etsy.com seller mentions that the ink and envelope colors are customizable, so if you have a different theme in mind, it’s entirely doable.  A cute option for a mehndi, gayer holud or bridal shower. Click here to see the listing.

Price: $33 for a set of 25