Before We Go: Shopping for wedding clothes, not Christmas gifts

This trip will mark Theo and my first visit to India. While we have always wanted to visit this amazing country, we're not just going to sight see. We were invited to our good friend's wedding in Ahmedabad, which will take up the first portion of our trip. We're incredibly excited not only to be able to travel around India, but to participate in a great cultural experience like a wedding.

As we are attending an Indian wedding, we needed the right clothing. Our friend is having clothing made for us for the wedding itself, but there are three days of events beforehand, so we needed to pick up a few more things. We headed over to "Little India" in Chicago on Friday, and the women at the Al-rahim Sari Center were incredibly helpful in assisting us in picking out clothing. They gave us a great deal, altered my outfit within two hours, and even threw in free jewelry. (My accessories are pictured here below.)

Theo picked out two kurta, a long loose shirt that is worn with pants, one garnet-colored and another blue, along with a matching scarf. I chose a taffeta salwar kameez, which is a loose dress paired with pants. It looks more like this than those pictured in the previous link. I also bought gold heels to match. As graduate students, we don't have many opportunities to dress up, and it's been a long time since I've worn heels. I'm crossing my fingers that I won't appear too clumsy at the wedding! We topped off the afternoon by having dinner at Udupi Palace, one of the many outstanding restaurants in this area of Chicago. If you're in the area, we recommend their eggplant dishes. Amazingly good.

Since Friday, I've done a lot of shopping for much less glamorous things, including an electricity converter, a charger for my ipod, water filter bottles, and lots and lots sunscreen. (Stay tuned for our travel essentials checklist.) It's been crazy dodging Christmas shoppers at Target and the mall when I'm looking for things like insect repellent, but I thankfully finished up the shopping yesterday. Today I'll be attempting to fit all of my clothes into my new travel backpack that arrived just this morning. It's roomy, but I think it will still take more than a few tries.