Our first engagement! After a dream of a proposal, the next day our closest family and friends gathered at Sneha’s house for an cozy, informal Hindu engagement ceremony for the tradition of agreeing to the wedding proposal by exchanging thambulams and to get everyone’s blessings (including the India family via WhatsApp haha). In Telugu/Tamil, thambulam means an offering made with betel leaves and areca nuts. Typically, it can also include other fruits and nuts, flowers, kumkum and turmeric. During weddings, thambulams are exchanged between both families as a symbol of the groom’s family accepting the bride and her family and vice versa.