Like every girl, I had imagined my wedding day at least a million times since my adulthood! When it was finally time to plan my wedding day look, I had so many ideas! I couldn’t curb my excitement and had such high expectations. I wanted my look to be trend-setting, something that brings out my personality yet respects the traditions of our culture. I wanted the look to be a beautiful blend of cultural and modern values.
To begin with, I went through all the screenshots I had saved as my wedding folder in all these years! Big fan of Monica’s wedding album quite wonderful.(Reference to Friends TV Show) I am sure most girls out there have their version of screenshots for the wedding day. In this blog I want to share the journey to making my perfect wedding outfit 🙂
In Maharashtrian weddings, the bride wears a saree during the ceremonies. As the tradition goes, bride wears the most colourful silk sarees. The saree is usually draped in a typical Marathi Dhoti style, also known as ‘ Navvari‘. It was something that my parents also wanted. I wanted to give this a personal twist. So when we went shopping, I was looking for a light weight, smooth texture saree that has beautiful borders. Being a huge Bollywood fan, I had always imagined myself in a red attire as a bride.
I found this beautiful red Banarasi saree in a huge shop in Dadar (Mumbai). It had delicate golden thread work design. I could repeat the saree again which goes with my belief for sustainability. The saree border has trees printed across which makes it look so unique. This was one of the reasons we decided to make the theme of wedding day as enchanted garden. The wedding decor was also green and lots of flowers on the mandap- went perfect together.
Next step was to design a blouse that matched the elegance of the saree. The blouse had to carry forward the garden theme, should look bridal and yet modern. After getting a lot of ideas from the internet specially Pinterest, I drew up a creative blouse design. It had similar tree design on the hands and a very delicate work in golden beads at the back to bring together the pattern.
In maharashtrian weddings, bride take a ‘Shela’ which is similar to a hand dupatta to accessorise her Navvari saree. To continue with the tradition with a twist of Bollywood in it, I decided to wear a Net dupatta that would go over the head. I found a gorgeous red net dupatta with small gold design on it in the Dadar Market. To add some personal touch we added a lace to this dupatta. After a lot of search, I found a red and gold lace that had the beautiful Sanskrit shlok written on it ‘Sada Saubhagyavati Bhava’ with translates as ‘May you always be lucky as a married woman‘. I just loved this idea to engrave a sacred phrase into my wedding outfit.
The tailor embroidered our wedding logo on the net with a golden thread. It all came together so well! The dupatta looked traditional and personal! The final product looked so bridal too!! Just the way I wanted it.
I was very excited with my final wedding outfit. It looked very bridal, traditional yet so light that I could dance around in it! Wearing the saree for 6 hours didn’t feel tiring, instead I was so energised the whole day!
I also want to share my experience on makeup and hair. Special shout out to my makeup artist who did a great job that day. One quick tip Girls- do make time to do trial rounds for the main look. It helped me try out different styles and also my make up artist could understand what goes on me and what doesn’t! As it was an outdoor afternoon ceremony the beautician kept it subtle. Paired up gold shimmer eyes and bright red lipstick to balance the look. She tied a cute bun with my hair with fresh flowers to stay loyal to the garden theme.
Adding the flavours of my tradition, two more accessories were included that were indispensable to a maharashtrian bride. One was the ‘Challa’ which is worn on the waist by a married woman and second is ‘Mundavlya’ or a string of pearl which is headress for bride and groom. This headress represents unity between the couple and it’s customary during the ceremony for them to touch foreheads illustrating that unity as well. I found stunning ones in Satara, which is my native in Maharashtra.
My wedding look was just the way I had imagined and it was possible because of the help I got from my family and the artists who brought my vision alive. Beginning with the tailor, to the vendors, makeup consultants and florists everyone gave their best to make this possible.
I had many sleepless nights, moments of anxiousness before my wedding day on how my look will turn out. But don’t they say in the movies, ‘agar kisi cheez ko sache dil se chaho to puri kayinat use sach karne me jud jati hai’– I have witnessed the energy in reality. The wishes and blessings I received, made me the happiest bride.
As per Maharashtrian traditions, wedding is a combination of Pujas and vows that happen at the mandap. The priest recites the holy chants here and hence, this place holds a significant importance in the wedding preparations. Our ‘Mandap’ was decorated beautifully with fresh flowers just like a garden. We also added tents around the mandap for our guests. The tents were covered with green cloth to stay loyal to our wedding theme.
In a nutshell, the wedding was a blend of traditional and modern values together – a vibrant, fun filled day full of love and magic! That’s how our forever began…
Silent Narratives 