Lake & Flake

The summer of my sixth birthday, I met my twin sister Lekha. (I even introduced her to my out-of-town guests at my wedding as 'my twin sister Lekha.') We had just moved to Ohio and Lekha lived 1 house away from me and was my perfect opposite. Lekha, with her dark hair, dark eyes and beautifully tan skin, was from another country but had been born and raised in America. I was a pale-faced, albino white-haired, blue-eyed American girl who had - until then - only lived in foreign countries. Lekha was confident and funny, I was shy and somewhat confused about my new home in the US. We liked each other immediately but didn't really become best friends until a few years later when Lekha left her private school to attend my same public school. We truly became like sisters when tragically, Lekha lost her mother in 5th grade. After that we were practically inseparable until high school graduation, the whole time enjoying almost an exclusive bond of sisterhood. In high school we earned the nicknames "Lake" and "Flake" (yes, yours truly was known as flake. surprising? ha. actually it was short for snowflake - my fav icon but whatever. you can still laugh.) We played on the same lacrosse team and even had a sweet scoring play we called the "Lake & Flake!" We became much more alike during our teenage years, but we were and still are different. But that's what makes our friendship so fun :-) Lekha is still extremely personable and the life of the party, everyone who meets her can't help but love her. She is thoughtful and caring, and honest and genuine. She's incredibly brilliant but perceptive and intuitive also. She is so amazing that it was only right that she married Summit - her boyfriend since I can practically remember who complements her perfectly. We were so blessed to have the opportunity to be there for their INCREDIBLE wedding in September (def a highlight of my life). I have dozens of amazing photos, but here are a few of my favs...

This is Lekha getting her pre-wedding Mehndi applied...
Mehndi is traditional at other celebrations but particularly at weddings for the bride and different members of the bridal party. Mehndi is Henna tattoos which is a paste ground from a henna plant mixed with other natural dyes. The bride has her fiancee's name written on her hand...can you find Summit's name in there?Check out this book of mehndi options! It was enormous and everything was so intricate...This is what the henna looks like while it is still drying... And the bride wears this for 24 hours and is supposed to lie around letting it dry and do nothing else. Literally!Me, Jada, Chechi and Lekha. Jada got a butterfly on her hand but it only lasted about 5 mins...
Here's the finished product! Two days later at the wedding...The bride is not supposed to be allowed to do any dishes or housework after her wedding until all of her mehndi has faded away, which is usually two weeks but can last for up to four!
This is our other beautiful friend Nisha eating pizza... hehe ;-)
Lekha's ceremonial wedding hair - a long braid extension covered in jewels and real jasmine...
Getting the bride ready the morning of the wedding takes an incredible amount of time and tons of people!
The groom arrived at the wedding venue (after having driven around downtown in his stretch limo partying it up, eating pizza and watching the OSU game with his buddies...the life of a guy) and his parents greet Lekha's parents and the bridesmaids greet him and he follows us to the ceremony... After we led Summit to the mandap, we went back to Lekha while the guests took their seats. Here we are waiting in a separate room to enter the wedding ceremony. We are all carrying traditional plates with flower petals and candles, good luck maybe? I can't remember.
Me, Lake, Nisha. Minutes before the ceremony. I love this photo. My Indian friends are sooooo gorgeous!
Me and another bridesmaid Sheetal walking down the aisle covered in real rose petals...
Lekha and Summit exchanging rings but more importantly they exchanged mangalsutra, those beautiful fresh floral necklaces...
The ceremony was long and people were talking and walking around the whole time! I was shocked! I of course couldn't understand what was being said but I know that this was important...
See the priest's prayer cards on the left side? He had a lot to say and Lekha and Summit were following him the whole time like they had practiced this a dozen times!
I love this photo! They look soooo happy :-)
Isn't Summit's outfit great??
Here's my little Indian...
Here we are during the ceremony...
Jada loved it! All of the colors and music and beautiful people!!
Jada took the 'throw flower petals and the new couple' thing a little too seriously!!

Then Lekha changed into her second fabulous wedding outfit of the day...
Show stopper...
Aren't they adorable??
We are all married! How crazy! But sooo fun :-)

I can't even think about my super spunky, loud-laughing, little brown neighbor with the pink plastic Mickey Mouse glasses and round cheeks without cracking a smile. I always knew she was going to be a beautiful bride...but I grossly underestimated her!Happy Birthday Lekha my twin!