Their Beginning
Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 10:03PM 
I rolled up to the unfamiliar apartment complex with a Tahoe full of boxes to meet my friend Pabitra, organizer for the Bhutanese refugee community in Atlanta. I was running late and she had a wedding reception to attend in an apartment complex across town, so we decided to just meet there. I jumped out of the car and we quickly started transfering boxes to her vehicle. I didn't want to interupt the reception and I didn't intend to stay, but... "Come in," she coaxed.
"Like this?" I asked looking down at my jeans.
"It's okay, it's okay," she fluttered. So I followed her up the steps and through the door flanked with faux flowers in clear vases and into the small space to find a beautiful young bride surrounded by her family and friends. Instantly swept up in their joy, I watched the bride and her groom (a young man she met for the first time that day as their marriage had been arranged) seated in plastic chairs receive blessings in the form of tika painted on their foreheads and rose petals placed on top of their heads. The image below shows the father and mother of the bride saying goodbye to their daughter, as she will leave them to live with her new husband and his family (a Bhutanese custom). Just minutes after this image was made, the bride and groom hopped up on the backs of two attendees and left through the front door to begin their new life together.
