Planning a wedding: Interracial couple looking for ideas and suggestions

Mostly Indian weddings are big with lots of guests. We already had two big weddings in my family back in India (my brother got married last year and my sister in 2014). So I think I'll fly my parents to the US for our fusion wedding.

I'm South Indian (Kerala) as well and FH comes from an Irish heritage. We're adding a few touches to the wedding that incorporates my Indian background. I'm changing to an Indian outfit after the ceremony and we might have a henna artist for the bridal shower at the request of our friends. We're not religious but are planning to include a 'minnu' tradition (link below) to the ceremony. My minnu won't have the cross, just the leaf and the stones in the shape of an S. I was raised Christian and attended many South Indian christian wedding ceremonys and that tradition was my favorite so will be doing it.

If there are certain traditions you like about your traditional Indian weddings, you can add that to the American wedding. The wedding in India would be cheaper (compared to American) but the problem with going to India is you'll have to take into consideration the guests might not be able to afford the trip there. One alternative (I see this ALL the time) is to have a wedding in India and throw a reception here for those that couldn't fly to India. This way both families will be included. I personally don't like the idea but it happens very often around here so it's worth a mention.

I say do a fusion wedding in Pittsburg, keep the guest list on the smaller side (we've got a slightly bigger budget than yours and can comfortably host 50 people but that's here in New York), and pick traditions from each culture that you really want and add it to the ceremony. We've got a non-religious officiant and there will be no mention of religion. If you want a religious aspect and are having a priest or someone religious officiating, make sure to run it by them that they would be comfortable overseeing traditions from a different religion. A friend ran into an issue with that. Had everything planned and then ended up having a priest from her church and his temple do their parts/2 different ceremonies.

http://blackbookfortheindianbride.com/kerala-christian-wedding-traditions-church-ceremony/

Thanks Tulip for your suggestions and the link. Lot of things depend on our budget from all who have commented it looks like if we can get the guest list down I think we'll be fine. Also my fiancé wants an elephant for the wedding :-D I think he got this idea from one of the ads for Incredible India or something where there show Kerala and the majestic elephants with decorations. I think we'll have our honeymoon in India and take him to Kerala to ride the elephant :-)

I personally really prefer a fusion of the two cultures in one ceremony. The wedding is about the two of you becoming one family so it makes the most sense to me to embrace this in your ceremony and have both cultures represented in one ceremony rather than keeping everything separate.