Wedding in Shantikunj Ashram, Haridwar - what to expect?

Hello!

I hope this is an appropriate forum to post this.

I am looking for anyone who got married in the Shantikunj Ashram in Haridwar. My fiance and I will be getting married there in December 2015. I have never been to this place and have some questions for anyone who has been married there (within the ashram).

How are the facilities? I understand that as as an ashram it will be a simple wedding and that's how we wanted it.
Do we have the option of having our own hall to have the wedding, instead of grouped together with a lot of others who are getting married.
I have seen the video on youtube on a Shantikunj wedding (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQolBo7PqA0), is this what I should expect?

Also,
Can anyone suggest any hair salon nearby the area?

Thank you!

 

Hi all! Bit of a lengthy post so please bear with me.

I has been 8 months since I got married in Shantikunj. I thought I would inform any future brides who are considering getting married at the Shantikunj ashram in the future and don't know what to expect.
So my story is that I left the wedding planning upto my in laws and went into this wedding ceremony completely not knowing what to expect. I had seen one wedding online (as mentioned in my original post) and thought that this was the way it was going to be arranged. Actually it was quite different.

Before you read ahead please note: This was not meant to be a complaining post. I went into my wedding day with expectations, maybe too many expectations and it didn't turn out the way I wanted. So naturally I will feel disappointed because a wedding is something you want to look back and smile at the thoughts and know that it went perfectly as per how you planned. Anyway, although my wedding didn't go perfectly the way I wanted, I married a wonderful man

Remember, a wedding is only one day but a marriage lasts forever!

Some points to consider:
1) Because it was a very "good" date to get married in December, ours was not the only marriage to take place then. I knew a day before our wedding ceremony that this was actually a mass marriage and there were over 15 other couples who were getting married on the same day. Needless to say, I and my husband were quite surprised.

2) All in Hindi, so if you don't know Hindi (like me) you have no clue as to what is taking place and you go with the flow. I am the type who likes to read up on rituals and slokas and understand what is happening. I found an english pdf online their website that explained the rituals that were going to take place so it helped me a little. If you cannot find it, mail me and I will send you the attachment.

3) There is a part of the ceremony where you read vows to one another, once again all in Hindi. I looked around thinking they may have an english version available for me to read to my husband but they didn't. My husband quickly pulled out his cell phone (during the ceremony) and got a hold of the pdf and I was able to read it to him from my cell phone Haha made for a very funny wedding pictures

4) SIMPLICITY: No music, no decorations, etc. Our families sat around the fire and recite the slokams/mantrams for wedding, that was beautiful. There is one main priest at the front of the hall with a mic and recites the slokas and explains everything in Hindi. Each wedding group has someone from this Gayatri pariwar to help guide us on what to do next. The wedding was 4-5 hours in duration.

5) Because it is very crowded it will be difficult for your photographer and videographer to move around and click the best pics, please advise them early of this. I did not know about how the would day would be, so they were as surprised with what to do. They worked to the best they could. You will have many many photos with other couples getting married in the background, expect that! Also your videography audio will not have the best audio.

6) For South Indians tying of the mangalsutra/thaali is very very important and should happen at an auspicious time. In this ceremony the tying of the mangalsutra happens at the very end (many couples did not even do this and left the hall). So there will be no manthram being said while the mangalsutra is being tied. This was actually most upsetting for me because this was the moment I was most looking forward to. Our families did shower flowers on us while it happened but it just didn't have that "sweet" feeling like I expected in our South Indian weddings.

Would I have changed details of my wedding? Honestly, yes. It was short, simple and sweet but there is still an ache in me if I could go back and redo the wedding Iyer-style. At least I wore my traditional madisar! I was a very unique bride compared to others!

Am I happy in my marriage? Yes, yes a thousand times yes!