(applause) - You may now kiss the bride. (inspirational music) - [Voiceover] Today, more
than two million couples will marry for love. But half of these marriages
will end in divorce. What happens if you don't choose the one you marry? - My last time home
as a single man! - You start your life now. - [Voiceover] Can an
old tradition that's alive and well in
America be the answer? - Our marriage was arranged. My father was arranged, my
grandfather was arranged. - And they're all to
death do they part. - [Voiceover] Three
American couples. - My mom arranged us, but she says that
God arranged us. - [Voiceover] From three
different cultures. - I don't think a woman
should be President. Pregnant, yes! - [Voiceover] All arranged
by their families. - Love you. - [Voiceover] For
better or for worse. - I don't think I
love you,and I-- - What? - [Voiceover] Through
marriage, can they find love? - And I guess it's
starting to settle in that I'm spending
the rest of my life with someone I
really don't know. (upbeat music) (calm, relaxed hip hop music) - I think arranged
marriages work is because you're listening to
your father and mother. - Your father and mother
will never steer you wrong. - [Jimmy] I wanna play too. - You're not gonna, I told
you you're not playing! My name is Christian Miller. Good pass! I am Rom, but non-Rom
call us gypsies. - Are we gonna have to move
the video games upstairs? Or are we just gonna
keep 'em downstairs when Maria comes? - No, the video games
can stay downstairs. Getting married young
is a part of tradition. And right after the wedding, Maria's gonna move
in to our house, and my brothers are gonna
have to deal with it. - Well what is she gonna
do when she comes here? Is she just gonna come in
here and then that mean that you're not gonna get to
play with us anymore or? - No, Maria's not gonna control
me from playing video games. I can play with you
guys, I just can't play as much as I used to. I never hung out with Maria. The only time that I've seen her is in church. But I was never alone with her. - Chris!
- [Chris] What? - [Nina] Come on and eat! - [Chris] We're coming! - Your father and
mother's coming right? - [Michael] Yeah, they
should be on their way. - When Maria comes
after they get married, she's gonna learn my way. Because she's still young. I think maybe that's why
we get married young. We mold 'em to our own ways. - Next time you fix the table,
Maria will be helping you. - It's nice to have some help. In the Gypsy culture,
you've gotta be a housewife. You're supposed to clean,
you're supposed to cook, you're supposed to
take care of the kids. If not, then why
are you a woman? - I'm there, my mom's
here, my dad's here. And then--
- [Nina] And Christian, Peter, and Jimmy.
- [Michael] My three boys. At the heart of the
Gypsy culture is family. - Hey guys, how how are you? - If you talk to any Gypsy man, he'll tell you his
family's his life. - [Chris] Hello.
- [George] Hey guys! Congratulations. I hope you're not
getting cold feet. When I was your
age, I was arranged with Grandma. The minute the child is born, we keep our eyes open,
who would be a good match? - And then the
engagement comes in, and everything just
goes perfectly. (laughter) I have to tell you the truth. I wasn't in love with
your grandmother. We didn't know one
another, we didn't talk. But according to our tradition, I had to obey my
father and mother. And you know what, Christian? We look at the results.
- [Michael] It works. - It works. My grandfather was married to
my grandmother for 56 years. My father was
married for 49 years. Next year, me and Mami
will be married 40 years. And being married to
one woman, it is a job. But the secret of
a marriage, my son, is never ever try
to change Maria. And let Maria never
ever try to change you. - That is so right. - You're leaving your childhood, you're entering to
become a young man. And now, we're looking forward to joyful things in the future. - I'll be excited when
you have a grandbaby. - That'll be great. Look at him, he's blushing! - Papo started talking about
me and Maria having a family. Papo, you're freaking me out! - Let's eat, come on! Let's eat.
- [Chris] I think I'm done! (laughter) (country music) - When it comes to our children, us mothers are on
the lookout for the right guy for our daughters. And I had my eye on Josh, and I knew he was the
right one for her, I really did. - I totally agree with that.
- [Maria] You agree? (laughs) - Totally agree! (chickens clucking) - I'm Josh, I grew up on a farm here in Anderson,
South Carolina. It's where my mom and
grandmother actually grew up. It's where my great-grandmother
raised her children, and it's just where
we've always called home. Hey!
- [Meghan] Hey, how are you? - Good to see you. - You look cute!
- [Josh] You look beautiful. - We kinda match! My name is Meghan Huggins,
I am 24 years old. I would say I'm a
typical Southern belle. You know, in high school
I was a cheerleader, and I also did every beauty
pageant you can imagine. Most Southern girls do that. - We're gonna take this little
route back through here. - Hopefully we'll
get to see where we might build
our house one day. - Yeah! - My mom arranged us,
but if you ask her, she says that God arranged
us, and he worked through her. My dream house, I
want it to be stone, and I want to have a huge foyer, staircase.
- Yeah. Yeah we're gonna have
to talk about that. (Meghan laughs) My parents have done
really well for themselves, but it wasn't always
like this for them. They started out, you know,
living in a single-wide, and it took 'em 15, 20 years. And I worry that Meghan
doesn't really understand that. I'm a bit of a utilitarian
when it comes to space, especially space
that costs money. - When I think of roles in
Southern traditional families, I see it as back
in the 1950s where the wife stays at home and
she cooks and she cleans, with lots of kids and
my huge stone house. It's every Southern
girl's dream. - Right around
this tree is where my grandmother's house was. - Well maybe we could
build ours right here. We'll need a couple
years to build my house, 'cause it's gonna take
a while to build it. - How are we gonna make
room for all of your purses? - In my dream house, there's
gonna be lots of closet space. - Okay, we'll have to see
how much that'll cost. - He's very cheap,
Josh is very cheap. - That's a very
bad way to put it. - You are! When it comes to certain things. When it's stuff that I wanna do, he doesn't wanna
spend the money. - That depends on what
it is that you wanna do. If it's gonna be
something that's worth it. - But I, if I wanna
get a new pocketbook? - If it's a nice pocketbook, and it's gonna be
sturdy and last. - Really? - Really. - Girls look for the name
brand, not how sturdy it is. - That's what you
need to consider! That way you don't have
to buy another pocketbook in two years!
- [Meghan] Well there we go! Two years? I hope I get at least a
pocketbook every couple months! - [Josh] Might
enroll you in like a couponing class or something. (Meghan laughs) (upbeat Bollywood style music) - The love that happens
in an arranged marriage is over time. You learn to love each
other, love doesn't happen like at the first sight
or anything like that. - Morning babe.
- [Ragini] Hey, good morning. - Coffee? - Yeah, I made some coffee, and then I was thinking
we could make some eggs. And by we I mean you.
- [Veeral] Oh okay. - Veeral and I
met two years ago, and we've been engaged
for about eight months. We decided to live together, just mainly for the
financial benefits. Do you mind making the eggs? - Of course not,
you chop veggies, I will make eggs. - Okay, cool. It is unusual in our
culture, or frowned upon, to live together
before marriage. But since we were engaged, and we had our own
separate rooms, our parents did approve
of the arrangement. - [Veeral] Do you
have any garlic, babe? - I don't know if it's
anything that's less than a month old.
- [Veeral] Egg whites? You don't know these
domestic abilities, do you? - That's why I have you! - In the Indian culture, usually most marriages
are arranged, and it was absolutely mandatory that I had my parents' blessing. Some of the criteria
for my bride for my parents were
that she was educated, that she came from
a good family, and had very similar values. - I think the
tomatoes might be bad, 'cause those are the ones that
you got a couple weeks ago. - (laughs) Why are
they in the fridge? Why didn't you throw them away? Ragini has a very modern, Sex and the City
kind of mentality. She's a working woman, she's
very successful in her field, but she's a horrendous cook, she cannot make
any kind of food. You know what your mom
told me when we first met? She told me that you were
like a phenomenal cook, and she's like, "Oh, my
daughter's a great cook!" - She was trying
to sell me, dude! - Yeah, but like, that's like,
can I get a return? (laughs) - You can, it's not too late! - Oh, big words huh? - I work in market research, and my career is really
taking off right now. I can bring home the bacon, but don't ask me
to make dinner, no. Seriously, like,
your family and you need to stop ragging
on my cooking, 'cause it's not
very encouraging. I'm gonna do more than
just cook, my friend. I'm gonna be an
executive one day. That's the way I'm gonna roll. And if you wanted that
submissive wife, honey, you could have gotten it! (upbeat electronic music) - It's a few days
before my wedding. I'm a little nervous
about everything, it just, I'm worried about
stupid things like... if we're gonna get along. I mean, I think we're
gonna get along but, I'm worried like if
she's a bad cook. And I guess it's
starting to settle in. That I'm spending
the rest of my life with someone I
really don't know. (upbeat music) - To me she's gonna be
like a little barbie doll that I wanna dress
up and I wanna take, you know what I mean? - Show her off.
- [Nina] Yeah! - Like look what we got,
look what we got! (laughs) - She's the new toy. - [Nicole] Hi ladies!
- [Nina] Hi. - Hi, I'm Nicole.
- Nice to meet you, I'm Nina. This is the bride to be.
- Hi, I'm Maria. - Nice to meet
you both, perfect! Is this your first
time dress shopping? - Yes, it is. - Okay, excellent,
come right in. - Today I'm taking my future
daughter-in-law, Maria, to go shop for a wedding dress. At the wedding, Maria will
be wearing three dresses. Two colorful ones, and then
one regular wedding dress. - [Nicole] These are
all of your ball gowns, is that something that
you're interested in? - That's what I'm interested in. - Okay. - In the Gypsy culture,
the wedding dress is like, the parents of
the groom buys it. And that's why I want it to
be like, really really pretty. Whatever you like, just tell me. Don't be embarrassed. - Today is the first
time I'm actually alone with my soon to
be mother-in-law. - [Nicole] It's the biggest
dress I have in the store. - [Nina] Take this one.
- [Nicole] You got it. - [Nina] I wanna see
how she looks in it. - It's making me realize
that this will be my mother. - All right, well I'm gonna
look at the puffy dresses. - [Maria] I don't like puffy. - I'm picking out what I want. - I'll make it work. - You wanna see this lacy one? - Uh... - [Nicole] Too lacy?
- [Maria] Yeah. - I remember when I
tried on my dress, I was really excited to be
trying on wedding dresses. So I thought she was gonna be
a little more like, into it. That got me a little scared. I hope that Maria was the
right choice for Christian. You know what, just let
her try it on anyways. - [Nicole] Okay. - Let's see if I like it. - Yeah.
- [Nina] Go try this one on for me.
- [Maria] Okay. - Every one that you
try on I wanna see, even if you don't like it.
- [Maria] Okay. - And hurry it up, girl! I started looking in church
when Christian was 14 years old, because that's where usually
all the good little girls are. And that's where I seen her. - Oh, I'm falling on this dress! - That looks so beautiful! - This is itchy. - She was very pretty,
that's what caught my eye. 'Cause she was 14 years old and she was a
pretty little girl. And I guess that's what I
was lookin' for. (laughs) So are you ready for marriage? You think you're ready? - Uh, I don't know, I
think so, I hope so. Just, everything is
happening so fast. I always knew this
day was gonna come, but I mean it still is scary to have to know that
you're not gonna be with your family anymore. But Gypsy girls we just know that we're gonna move
out and go live with you know, the one that
you're gonna marry. - No I know that when
I was getting married, and I knew them all my life. - And you were still nervous?
- [Nina] Yes. - [Maria] Really? - So I can only
imagine how you feel. I mean, you know me, but
you don't know me know me. I could be the devil. (upbeat music) - [Payel] Are you excited? - [Veeral] I'm excited. - I think I'm excited that
you're finally getting married. - [Veeral] It's about time? - Are you happy Mom? That finally?
- [Parimia] Yes. - Typical age in our
culture to get married is like, you know, in your 20s. So I kinda passed
that expiration point. - Do you like Ragini? - I love Ragini! Why do you say that? - This is finally a girl
I didn't scare away! (laughter) - It's an institution
in our culture, I think it's
extremely important, I think it's, you know, the next step in my
manhood, in my life, is to have this partner. My parents took the tradition
of marriage very seriously. They played a very active role
for finding a wife for me. - I said "Come on,
we'll go to India!" And he said, "No Mom, I
don't want to go India!" I said, "Come on!" - My parents took me to
India before I met Ragini. Honestly I saw six, seven girls, back to back to back, and it
was a horrendous experience, it was terrible! But there were not
any girls up to par. My parents, they wanted
an arrangement where they find somebody
that's suitable for me. And so the way I met Ragini was through an Indian service site. My mom and dad would
kinda sit with me, and go through all the
girls that I was looking at, and who responded to me. So like, whoever I ended up with had to be approved
by my mother, father, and my sister. What do you like about Ragini? - That she's strong! - She doesn't put up
with any BS, yeah. - No, her candor
can be a little... - She has no filter,
kinda like, you know? - I like her because
she'll control him. (laughter) - [Veeral] Oh, that's
not a good thing! - My job is finished now. (laughter) - [Ragini] Hi! - [Payel] Oh,
speak of the devil! - Hi everyone, sorry I'm late, it took forever, there
was so much traffic! - [Payel] Was there traffic? - So much traffic! - [Payel] So Ragini, you
ready for the wedding? - You know it's just too much. I feel like I'm trapped,
I'm a prisoner of wedding. I'm ready for it to be over. - [Payel] No!
- [Parimia] Don't say over! (quirky music) - His family definitely
makes me nervous. What can I do to help? - She knows you're useless
in the kitchen, so you know. Better to just be...
- Defer to the experts. Veeral's mom and sister
are very intimidating. They're kind of the
quintessential housewives of the Indian culture. His mom is really the
queen of the kitchen, and will make Gujarati
food for Veeral until her hands bleed. - Try this this one, I
make this more bhakri. - [Veeral] So good! - The pressure to fit into
that mold is very intense. - [Ragini] Wanna try some? - I already had some,
Mom gave it to me. - Did she feed you? - She always feeds me. There's nothing wrong with that. She fed me when I
was in her stomach, she feeds me now. - No comments. Veeral's mom's Indian cooking is not what I
would call healthy. And she loves to
hand-feed it to Veeral, and you know what, that is-- - I enjoy hand-fed food to
me, what's wrong with that? - Okay, so anyways,
that's not gonna happen. - Veeral, you want dal? - [Veeral] I love you Mama. (bright, uplifting music) - In Southern society,
it really is expected that you marry within
your same social circle. And I think Josh and Meghan
have done that perfectly. - Oh I do too! I think they were just
the perfect match. - Yeah. - [Meghan] Here we go,
ooh look at that cheese! Yum.
- [Josh] That looks good. Meghan does this good! - As a Southern,
traditional family, we try to get together
with our families as much as possible. My parents definitely
had to meet Josh and get to know
him before we could start dating. I remember, after our first date it didn't seem real, because
you just seemed so perfect. (laughter) It did! It did, don't laugh at me! - He said, "I take
credit for that." I did meet Josh before you did! - It's funny how
your mom and my dad, they dated a couple times.
- [Josh] Oh yeah! - What one or two times?
- [Jack] Small world. We dated some, a little
bit summer of '77. - When I was first
arranged with Josh, my dad, he came up
to me and he said, "I gotta tell you a secret." He said, "I actually used
to date Josh's mom, Lisa." Imagine what would have happened if that worked out, we
would not be here today! (laughter) - You know Meghan, I
was hoping you would marry a fine,
Christian young man. Someone you could depend on, someone who'd be
a good provider. Josh fits the bill. - [Josh] Thank you. - My dad loved Josh
from the get-go. And it's a good thing, because my dad is
paying for our wedding. But I went over budget a lot, and my dad does not know,
and neither does Josh. So yeah, I mean
it's very stressful, and it's something that, you know, I don't know
how they're gonna take. - Meghan's gonna be
a beautiful bride. - [Meghan] Thanks. (upbeat hip hop music) - We're painting the house, the wedding's right
around the corner. We're trying to do our best, trying to take these gray
walls and make 'em look white. When me and Maria get married, she's gonna move into
my family's house, and stay with me
in the basement, since my room is
in the basement. I gotta make the room
look at least presentable. - [Nina] Gotta make
your room look girly. - Look girly, a little bit. - We're definitely gonna
be at my family's house for at least a year. Until we make some more money. - My father painted
the room and actually build the closet. - Yeah. - I dunno. - What happens if
she tells you, Chris, "I don't like this color"?
- [Chris] I'm gonna tell her you painted this. (Michael laughs) In Romani culture, the husband
is the authority figure. And the wife has to always
submit under the authority. Meaning that what the
husband says usually goes. So Maria's gonna have
to listen to what I say. I mean, she might have
some say-so in it. But usually what I
would say, would go. Everything's gonna
change, basically, like, childhood ends. (upbeat music) - [Meghan] Thank you, sir.
- [Josh] You're welcome. - [Woman] Hey!
- [Josh] Hey. - [Woman] How are you?
- [Meghan] Good. - I'm currently a fourth
year medical student. So I still have another
six or seven years until I really get to start
providing for my family. Throughout our four
years together, I've discovered that Meghan
has really expensive taste, just naturally. And I hope that
she realizes that it's not gonna be like
that for a long time. - You're the best
maid of honor ever! - So are you getting nervous? - [Meghan] I'm nervous because
I still got a lot to do. - I mean we're
close to 8,000 over. - [Taylor] Over?
- Over. We budgeted for, you know, between $30-40,000
for the wedding. Going over 8,000 is a lot to us. But I don't know how we
went so far over budget. Well, well I guess I do. We already signed
the contracts for the reception, the church,
the premium liquor, the ice-cream bar,
the french-fry bar, all the things
that I had to have, so we have to pay it now. - How is your dad? Does he know that um-- - I haven't told him yet. But I'm just so
nervous to tell him! I guess I feel bad
asking for more money from what they've already, you know they're already
giving us so much stuff, and it's like hard to say, "Well I actually went over
more than what you gave me." I'm nervous about telling my
dad about going over budget 'cause I don't wanna
disappoint him. And if my dad refuses to pay
for the remaining balance, Josh and me will
pay the difference. And if we have to cover this,
that's gonna be a problem. Big problem. - I mean, he might have a
heart attack when I tell him! - Well he's gonna have to be, 'cause we already signed
the contracts! (laughs) - I'm at home, just trying
to pack up everything, get everything ready
for my wedding. I'm really nervous, but
really really excited, and really happy
at the same time, and I just hope
everything works out. - When Christian
was a little boy, I used to take him all the time to amusement parks,
to go on rides. I just wanna see
it one more time, 'cause I know he's
not gonna ever do nothing like this
when he's married. I know you think that
I'm a weirdo right now. - Really corny? - Yeah, this was her idea,
so don't get mad at me. - All right. (laughs) I'm gonna have a blast. I did it for her because I
knew that she wanted to do it. And I knew that this
was something that would stay inside her mind for
the rest of her life. - [Nina] Don't make fun of me. - [Michael] You having
a good time, Chris? - Oh I'm having so much fun. - [Michael] What would
Maria think right now? - Biggest loser of all time! - I have to let go
of him being a baby. 'Cause I baby all my kids. Christian! Hi!
- [Chris] Hi Mom. My mom is having
a very tough time with me sorta like becoming
a man, and getting married. (bright, uplifting music) - For some reason when
I seen him on the cars, it's taking me back to
when he was a little baby. His face looked
like when he looked when he was like two, that's
the way his face looked. It killed me, I don't know why. I don't, I just, it killed me. Christian is still my baby. And he's getting married,
maybe by this time next year, he'll have his own little baby. - Oh my God! That was a tragedy! - Marriage in Romani
culture is like a milestone. It shows that you're
getting older, it shows that you're a man. My mom's freaking out. But it's way to late
to even think about changing our minds
and going back on it. The Romani community
would get very upset at my family, and would
think of us as disrespectful if we would back out, so
there's no backing out. - [Michael] You had a good time? - Yeah I had fun. (upbeat Bollywood style music) - I'll come home with Ragini. I'll drive up with her
after the marriage. Okay, I love you, bye. Good morning baby. - How are you?
- [Veeral] Good. Want coffee? - Yeah, that'd be
great, thank you. - Okay. - This wedding stuff
has just been too much. - So I think it's gonna be
non-stop until the day of. - I'm not mentally there yet. But I do feel like we need
to rearrange some things. I think we just need to keep it a little bit more manageable. - Well you got the
wedding that you wanted, below 300 people. - We don't know that yet, it just keeps inching upwards. - But it's still,
what is it right now? 291.
- [Ragini] I don't know. 295? - I don't know what's going on. The closer that we're
getting to the wedding, the more we're disagreeing. - I mean as it is,
you know that I wanted a 250 person
wedding at the most. - Then as you know, I
wanted 500-700 people. - Indian weddings are
huge, and very complex. Literally, there's a lot
of song and dance involved. It's not uncommon to have
800 people at your wedding. It's very traditional
for an Indian wedding to last up to a week. And it's full of beautiful
rituals and ceremonies, but I'm just not sure
I want all of that. - Weddings are pretty
much universal. Indian weddings are
pretty much universal. - No. - This is just cultural
tradition that-- - You know what, your family
believes something different about like we wanna
throw this wedding, and show everyone, my
family's different. India has multiple
states, much like the U.S. And Veeral is from
Gujrat, I'm from Punjab. It's probably like the
equivalent of maybe like a New Yorker marrying a Texan, it's different subcultures. This money could be
used for other stuff. It could be either used
for our future kids, whatever it is. It could be used to charity. Why is the non-Indian
average wedding $30,000, and the Indian
wedding, $100,000? - And my parents are like,
we're the only children, the last generation of
their kids getting married, and that's a big deal for them, and they wanted to do this. This is traditions they grew up, their grandparents,
their great-grandparents did these things, Ragini! Your dad is also
from the get-go said he just wants to make us happy. He says that you just
care way too much more about the finances, and are really concerned
about these things. - I think my approach
for a wedding is that it takes a village,
everyone kind of has to be involved and we have to
delegate responsibilities. That's the only way I
know how to be effective. And so that's the way I do it, with my parents included, like-- - But my parents
- [Ragini] But my parents deal with my methods
better, because-- - You mean your craziness. You treat my mom like
she's like one of your employees and
you're trying to like give a presentation!
- [Ragini] Okay look, here's the thing, it's because, because I know how to
manage at work in that way. - But my mom is not an employee, she's my mom!
- [Ragini] I know, but I don't speak Gujarati either! - You should learn. This wedding's been testing.
- [Ragini] It's taken a toll. - I gotta go to the gym. (slow, relaxed music) - So tomorrow's my wedding day. I just can't believe this
is happening so fast. I wonder how Maria's feeling. I mean, I know I wanna throw up, I know I'm all nauseous
and weirded out. I mean, I just
have to trust that they made the right decision. - My whole life
is about to change in a blink of an eye and
I can't even believe it. I'm leaving my family to be with a total new family
that I just don't know, and I'm really really scared. (upbeat electronic music) - I have to go to
the catering hall to like make sure everything's
in order for the wedding. In the Romano way, the
father and the mother of the boy, we're the one
that's planning the wedding, not the girl. So everything has to be
perfect for this wedding. Good knife skills. The bigger the wedding
is, the better it is. Hopefully there's enough
of everything to go around. - [Chef] What goes
in the pot next? - The pork that's cut up.
- [Chef] Okay. - [Chef] Good to see you.
- [Michael] How's everything? - [Chef] How are you?
- [Michael] Good. Right now I'm really
nervous about the wedding. Because I'm the host. All the guests need to be
happy, satisfied, and fed. And all the traditions
need to be fulfilled. I paid a dowry for Maria. I paid somewhere
between $10-15,000. That's the average price. We pay a dowry for
our daughters because they're going to a new family. And we want them to
treat them a little more because they paid for them. You know if I was
to buy this shirt for $500, I'm gonna take
care of it a little more than I would take care
of it for nothing. If I got it for free, I
might just throw it around. - I'm scared! - [Michael] It's either
her way or the highway, I told you that! - [Chef] Nice to meet you sir. - Our marriage was arranged. My father was arranged, my
grandfather was arranged, her father and
mother was arranged, her grandparents was arranged. And they're all--
- [Nina] And they're all till death do they part. - Yeah, they're all
till death do they part. So they stayed together. You're talking 100
years of marriages that were arranged, that
they stayed together. - But I feel when
you allow things to your dad and to your mom
to make your decisions, things will usually
work out better. Your father and mother
always knows best. - Why I wanna see our
kids get married young? It's so they can
start their life off-- - Shut up, it's because we
don't live long! (laughs) - That's so, yeah, our lifespan. - Our lifespan, we
don't live long, so might as well, like
why wait until you're 40 years old and get married?
- [Michael] Yeah that's That's another thing,
our Gypsy lifespan is, if you did 70 you did great. - 70 years old is like, woah! - You know why? That's because of
the food we eat. - [Both] We eat very
unhealthy foods. - This definitely
needs more oil! A whole lot more oil. - [Chef] You gonna say when?
- [Nina] Go. - [Chef] Where we at? Good? - Right here babe. (upbeat country music) - Meghan, oh-- - [Meghan] You look nice.
- Thanks, you look nice too. - Me and my dad have a
really great relationship. I definitely think of
myself as a daddy's girl. - So your wedding
day's almost here, how are you feeling? - I'm a little nervous. - Me too.
- [Meghan] Got a lot to do. - I know, been waiting
on this for a long time, to walk down the aisle
with my daughter. That's something special.
- [Meghan] It is. Being from the South,
it is extremely awkward to talk about money or finances, even to your closest family. - So how's the planning going? - Oh, it's good, we gotta
start writing some checks. Um, we might have
to talk about that a little bit more. - What do you mean by that? - You might wanna drink
that first. (giggles) - Let me take a
sip and we'll talk. - I am very worried about
disappointing my dad. I always wanna make him
proud of his little girl. And I know that this
will probably not make him too proud. Um, some things came up, and I had to pay for
certain stuff, so... we've gone over the
budget a little bit. - How much is a little bit? - It's a good amount. - How much is a a little bit? - So I mean, it's,
it's a good amount, um, Probably about $7500 over. - That's not bad. - Really?
- [Jack] Yeah. It'll be okay, we
can handle that. - Oh, thank God! Daddy I have been so worried
about telling you that! You just don't even know! I wanted my dream wedding, so I didn't really
make any sacrifices or changes to my wedding, we're
just gonna have to pay more. - There comes a point in
time where you have to prioritize things
and give up things. - Hopefully it won't go
up any more than that. My dad agreed to pay the $7500. (sighs) It's such a huge relief. That was step one though. Now I have to take the
next step, and tell Josh. It's gonna be 20 times
harder to tell him, because he's
probably gonna think that I'm gonna do this
when we get married. (upbeat rock music) - It's the day of
Christian's wedding, and I'm trying my
best not to freak out. I wanna throw up
just a little bit. I had a little problem
with the hotel, that's why I'm delayed. Everywhere I went today, I was delayed an
hour and a half. Everything has to be done. I gotta meet up with
the guy to decorate, I gotta make sure
the cake is in place. Her shoes, her dresses,
the veil, the Stagol, everything has to be there. She did a bum job man! I gotta have my charger
plates, my napkin rings, I gotta go in my boxes
and get in my boxes. I'm gonna throw up
in about 10 minutes. Oh! I love the stage Ravi! Oh okay, can we make
this table smaller? - I want more room. - I've been planning
Christian's wedding since he was a baby. Put one of my ice
sculptures right here. And it's today, so
hopefully everything goes to the way that our
imagination was. - Getting a little nervous. We're getting close,
and I'm getting nervous. I wonder how Christian's
feeling right now? (knocking) - Kevin you have hair spray? (knocking) Open the door! Kevin! Do you have hairspray? Well, today's my wedding day. Today life changes. - I'm very excited, I couldn't
sleep all night last night. - Gimme the hair spray! - I couldn't be more happier. (upbeat Bollywood style music) - [Ragini] Hey, good morning! - [Parimia] Hi,
how are you Ragini? - Good. I went home to see my
parents in Houston. I am having mixed emotions
about getting married. And I often go to
my mom for advice. Her wisdom of having
gone through it, you know, in an
arranged marriage, she really helps me with
things that I struggle with. As a bride you should
be over the moon happy about what's about to happen. But there's a lot of anxiousness
that's coming with it. I think previous
relationships that I had, did struggle because
I'm independent, modern Indian woman. I think it was harder
for some guys to accept a woman that had
such a loud voice, and was gonna voice
it as much as I do. Will I be able to be a good
daughter-in-law to this, this wonderful family
that's still conservative? Like will I be able
to be a good wife? Do they have expectations
that I cook in the house? That modern and more
traditional ways, how will they work together? - Well you cannot change the
way Veeral's family thinks, or Veeral thinks, because
they were raised with more of the tradition,
and I raised you for being a little bit
more open-minded. And so you got that
probably from me. Back in India, the
expectations from a woman are still to cook, clean,
three times, four times a day. And her mother-in-law
is more of a homemaker. - Do they have expectations
of me as a daughter-in-law you know that are more old
school than I can fulfill? I don't believe in
the traditions that create some sort
of an inequality between the man and the woman. Those traditions I can't stand. - You have to be willing
to make your sacrifice. And so does he. Sacrifice is the key word. - For Veeral I don't think
he's struggled as much with relationships. Because a lot of Indian
women I think are willing to fit into you know,
what's traditional. And I think he found
a woman that was, is gonna challenge those
and be more resistant to what's been done in the past. - If you are focused
too much on "me", you need to stop doing that. ♪ Everybody loves a dream ♪ crazy as the dream I sing ♪ Loves to dream it big or small ♪ Wishin' on a star to fall ♪ So they can make their
crazy dreams come true ♪ - The theme of the wedding is Cinderella and Prince Charming. And I wanted to make
it look fairytale-ish. I wanted everything
to be the way that I imagined it in my head. I was nervous. - When I walked in the hall, the first thing that
I thought of was like, wow, this is really happening! Do I have lipstick on me now? - In a traditional
Romani wedding, it's a great chance for
all the Romani people to get together,
everyone is invited. It's an honorable thing. And it's expected
in our culture. If the bride arrives
and no one is there, it would be very
very disrespectful, to her family and
the groom's family. In our culture I hope never,
it would happen like that. - What's up guys, anybody came? - No, but it's 9:10. - God only knows how
many people's gonna You spread the word around. Whoever wants to show
up that day is invited. There's no list, there's no
like RSVP, we don't do that. - Can I ask you a question? Why isn't Ricky here yet? Why isn't Butch here yet? Why isn't Anthony here yet? It's 9:15, they need to be
here, it's late already. If the hall's still empty by
the time Maria's family arrives it could ruin everything. - [George] Let's
hope we get people! - I was a wreck. I was sweating, I was
nervous, I was emotional. 'Cause I'm the host. And the last thing I wanna do
is disrespect Maria's family. - [Nina] That would
be a total disaster. (upbeat music) - By 10 o'clock if we
don't have 120 people, we're in trouble. In our culture, we don't
really send out invitations. So it's all by word of mouth. and who really knows
if anybody's coming. At this point it's getting late, and I'm starting to freak out. - [Guest] Congratulations.
- [Chris] Thank you sir. - [Michael] Thank
you, God bless you. God bless you for coming. Thank you, thank you very much. Finally people are coming! - God bless your passion,
love your passion. Thank you for coming. - Thank goodness guests
started arriving there. - [Michael] And then we
started to serve them food. - [George] Unlike a
traditional American wedding, in a Romani Gypsy wedding,
we serve the guests a big meal before
the bride arrives. - Taste this! We underestimated the price. I would expect
anywhere from 70, 60. We went a little over. - Usually people
make a bigger wedding if they only have one son. 'Cause you're only
gonna do it once. I have to do it three times. While we wait for
Maria, we must serve anyone and everyone. Even though we have
waitresses and waiters, and all that, we're
still the servers. - [Michael] Nina! More plates over here,
Miller just came in. We know her mother,
we know her father. You know, they're good,
respectable people. They were supportive of
Christian marrying Maria. - It's just they don't
wanna be on camera, they're embarrassed.
- [Michael] They feel uncomfortable, yeah. - Thank you.
- [Woman] Congratulations! - Thank you so much. It's starting to sink in. Oh my God, this is my wedding. I'm starting to trip, I'm
starting to freak out. Get my father, they're here! (dramatic, uplifting
instrumental music) (applause) - I was shaking from the nerves, I was very very nervous. And I was just in shock because it hit me, like this is my
wedding, I'm getting married. - Now you're nervous a little
bit, 'cause I'm nervous! She was shaking,
she was shaking. I'm nervous and I'm shaking! - When I saw her
walk in I thought, "Oh okay, now this
is really happening." - When I first found out
that I was going to be married to Christian,
there was really no say-so. So I really don't
know Christian, but I did feel,
you know, a relief. He looked nice, he was
definitely nervous. - [George] There are
many different stages before the bride and
groom are married. But first there's always
the traditional dancing. The most famous one
is called the Frolo. This symbolizes the
union of two families. Leading the dance is the staglo. The staglo symbolizes
luck and prosperity. - I did feel all eyes was on me. I was just trying to
keep it all together so that I could look decent. - I'm worrying
about if my feet are dancing the right
way, if I look okay, if my hair's in place. - [George] Through a
traditional Romani wedding, the bride will wear
three different dresses. First, the bride will
come in the dress that her family bought for her. This symbolizes
where she came from. Then the mother of the groom gets the chance to change the
bride into the second dress. Now this symbolizes
that she belongs to the family of the groom. When the bride changes
into the third dress, now it's time for the ceremony. - After like 45
minutes of dancing and showing her
off and whatever, showing her in her
father's dress, I'm gonna take
her and change her into the dress
that I bought her. - This shows off, this is
the dress that we bought. She's changing out of her dress
that her mother bought her, into our dress. - No cameras in the bridal room! Yeah, no cameras
in the bridal room. And as soon as I change her, she's not her family's anymore. Now it's mine. - I'm nervous because I'm
gonna be marrying Christian, and it's just, I
don't know him really. Imagine marrying someone
that you don't know. It's hard. Everything changes once
I get married to him. I'm gonna be moving
in with his family, and it's gonna be
very very different. After a certain amount of time, we did go upstairs to
put on my wedding dress. That was the moment I was
waiting for the whole night. (suspenseful music) - Let's hurry up, come on! Nina, come on,
let's hurry this up! - Okay! - Every time she changed, it seemed like "Oh wow,
we're getting closer." I'm pressured out,
my heart's racing, I feel it, I know it. Then when she changed
into the wedding dress, I was thinking maybe
this was a mistake or something like that. I don't know what to do, I
don't know what to think. I"m snapping, literally. - What do you guys think? - You look curvaceous. - Mother-in-laws. That's one of the
most difficult things that we have to work through. - We will ease it
out half an inch. - I'm glad that's
your job, not mine. - When I first saw
Maria walk in the hall, it just didn't feel
right, it didn't feel like that this was
actually happening. - I was thinking I really
don't know Christian, maybe I'm not ready for this. (upbeat dance music) (cheering) - My friends and I are in Vegas
for my bachelorette party. Unfortunately it
didn't end well. Now I have a broken tibial bone, and I'm completely panicked on
