TDB’s Wedding Wardrobe Breakdown

24 May

Where did I get my wedding outfits from?

I’ve been asked this question many times, and I thought I’d answer it all in one go (thanks Apurva, for the idea!)

Pre-Wedding Shoot

Pre-Wedding Shoot

This pre-wedding shoot dress was from Akshar Bhan – he has a studio in Defence Colony (not the main market, the one under the Def Col flyover which has the popular store Shagun). He keeps really simple outfits – from dresses to plain lehengas and suits.

For more pictures of the pre-wedding shoot, go here.

Mehendi

Mehendi

I wore this crushed skirt with a corset on my Mehendi ceremony – both pieces are from Goldy’s Nest in M-block market, GK1. This entire outfit was super reasonable (I didn’t want to spend much because it was a home function) – just under INR 2,000. Yes, I’m sure nobody else inside my home that day was wearing an outfit as cheap as mine :)

To see more pictures of this outfit, go here.

Sangeet

Sangeet

I got this lehenga designed from Aumbre at Hauz Khas Village – by A&S (Astha & Siddharth). The whole outfit cost me somewhere around INR 20-22,000 (see, I’m turning out to be such a money-saving bride!) Again, I didn’t want to spend too much on an outfit that will not be re-used. I still did try to ensure it was light enough to be re-used atleast a few times. Like for when I’m a guest at a wedding. And it’s definitely appropriate for that – Astha has already re-made similar versions of this outfit for two people I know who will be wearing it to weddings they’re attending as guests.

You can read the story of how I found my sangeet lehenga here, and see more pictures of it in the posts about my Sagan and Sangeet.

Wedding

Wedding

I bought my wedding lehenga from Om Prakash Jawahar Lal at Chandni Chowk.

You can read about the whole tamasha that went into getting my wedding lehenga here, and if you’re more interested in just pictures and wedding day story, go here.

Reception

Reception

The reception jacket lehenga was from Rakhi & Vandana, a store in South Extension. The story of how I managed to find this spans over two posts – part 1 and part 2. You can also see more pictures from the Reception (including the crazy Photo Booth!) if you go here.

Which outfit did you love? Have you bought anything from the same stores?

The Ultimate Wedding Makeup Guide: Part 2

22 May

Last week, I wrote a very special guest post for Indian Roots on the pre-wedding homework you must do for Bridal Makeup. This week, I follow it up with the next post in the series The Ultimate Wedding Makeup Guide: On the Day Of The Wedding.”

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Remember to read this one in detail right before your wedding – it will take you through every step of getting ready on your wedding day. From what you should wear to the parlour (yes, it matters! For a practical reason) to how to ensure you’re comfortable throughout your wedding ceremony.

Let me know if you found it useful, in the comments!

The Ultimate Wedding Makeup Guide

Part 1: Pre-Wedding Homework

Part 2: On The Day Of The Wedding

How to survive the Indian summer...wedding!!

21 May

Reblogged from The Unreal Bride:

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Via

What we refer to as the 'wedding season' in India has just stretched on and onnn this year with brave brides and grooms setting dates not only through spring but well into summer. Since summer weddings are pretty unusual in this part of the world, when I received a few invitations myself, I started to wonder, how does one prepare for festivities in the heat?

Read more… 1,562 more words

You have GOT to go through this post on surviving a wedding (your own, or someone else's) in the summer heat! It is beyond helpful. It's jam packed with useful information - for brides, wedding planners and wedding guests. And it's written in the most entertaining manner, in a way that's so typical of The Unreal Bride team. Enjoy ladies, you do NOT want to miss this one!

Trousseau Destination: Anita Dongre

21 May

Exactly a year ago…

…I was on a project in Mumbai. I had gone to Phoenix Mills in Lower Parel for an early bachelorette of sorts with my girlfriends from college. Don’t ask for the details, because you’ll never get them :)

Just when we entered the mall complex, the Anita Dongre bridal wear store caught my eye. And since I had started trousseau shopping already, I went in for a quick peek. 15 minutes later, I was on the phone with my mother convincing her that she needed to fly into Mumbai to have a look at the gorgeous lehenga heaven I had discovered.

Unfortunately, I never did quite get back to Mumbai after that trip, and my dreams of owning an Anita Dongre trousseau piece remained just that – a dream.

So this time around…

…when I was planning my Mumbai trip (my first one to my favourite city since I got married), I decided that I *needed* to visit the Anita Dongre store again.

I went with bride-to-be Supriya, and needless to say, by the end of the visit she was feeling like quite the bride! We started off with the lighter lehengas (and we never reached the seriously heavy ones because, well, they were too heavy!) – there were rows of outfits in elegant whites, with blouses in bright raw silk reds and fuschia pinks adding the much-needed pop of colour to the ensemble. And then there were rows of outfits in pastel hues – soft peaches interspersed with baby pinks and gold. Once again, I was sure I had come to the right place – it was trousseau heaven.

Reema, who met us at the store, was really helpful with suggesting outfits to try on. Unfortunely, they keep only sizes 8-12 at the store, and our bride was not able to try on as many outfits as she would’ve liked. But that didn’t stop us from trying on as many as we possibly could!

What bride Supriya had to say about the collection -

“There were lehengas with chikankari bootis, scalloped hems with beautifuly embroidered motifs and gota patti work on the blouses. Ideal for a day time pre-wedding function. Riding high on understated elegance.”

And I think that sums it up perfectly. If you’re looking for a day-time wedding outfit, or for a pre-wedding function, this is the place to go. But you have to be thesubtlebride type. There are hardly any loud colours here, but if you’re a sucker for soft peaches and self-work (which I am!), this is your place. I also fell in love with some anarkalis, and if it were my own wedding, I would’ve walked out with atleast 5 buys from here. Everything is just so *pretty pretty pretty* But of course, since it’s designer wear, it comes with a hefty price tag. A simple (I say simple because you Delhi girls will scoff at wearing some of these on a wedding function!) mehendi, sangeet or reception lehenga from here could cost you anywhere between 1-2.5 lakh.

My honest opinion -

I would’ve loved to buy my mehendi and sangeet outfits from here (only downside being the price). I’m not a heavy bling girl and the soft pretty shades here totally stole my heart. This was the first store I fell in love with while trousseau shopping. It was the first place that gave me confidence that what I wanted for my trousseau was out there, it was possible to find beautiful trousseau outfits that weren’t all loud colours and bling (as much as I love bright shades!).

Final verdict -

Still crushing on the Anita Dongre bridal wear store!

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And now for some pictures.

Enjoy the visual candy!

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{{For the complete photo album, go here}}

You can buy Anita Dongre designer wear online on their website, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Photography Team: Satrajit Basu & Swetha Sarpamalay

Models: Ayesha Chowdhury & Sarah Harekrishna

thedelhibells: Reception

20 May

I got married on a Sunday. And the Reception was on a Wednesday. In between — there was sheer madness.

Rec

Monday morning, I woke up in my new house. My first day as a married girl. We had a late breakfast, and I changed into a sari that was gifted to me by my in-laws. It was draped haphazardly, as I was in the mood to do it myself, newly independent married girl and all that!

It's evident that the sari was draped by me, the novice!

It’s evident that the sari was draped by me, the novice!

My husband (no longer fiancé) and I went over to my house for lunch, as that is the tradition. Post lunch, we changed into outfits gifted to us by my parents and went back to our new home. Yes, that was a lot of sari changing for a single day! This time around though, I got the sari draping right with the help of my mother. And it stayed intact through the evening!

Once we were back to our new home, we played a few games. I won most :)

Undoing the knots

Undoing the knots

The games we played

We had dinner, and in what seemed like just the blink of an eye – day 1 was over.

Tuesday was going to be a hectic day. We had to get all our honeymoon essentials together, which included shopping for any last-minute items. And then we had to pack as much of it as we could, plus meet my husbands’ friends for some quality bonding time. In the evening, my husband asked me, “What happened to your photo booth idea? Didn’t you want to have one?” I had wanted one, but hadn’t been able to manage it for the lack of time. “Why don’t we have one tomorrow? At the reception,” he exclaimed. Ummm…because it’s tomorrow, honey! We can’t manage to put up a photo booth in a day. I don’t even know where to begin! Will the photographer agree? What needs to be set up? How will we get props? What will the theme be?

My husband got onto the phone, and got everything done in under 10 minutes. He called Tarun (our wedding photographer), who immediately agreed to it and even gave us a lot of helpful suggestions on how to get it done! Then he called his friends and told them, “Get us props. Lots of props.” And they went off shopping and got us plenty! Then he called up the venue and gave them specifications about a separate photo booth area. And…it was done! I was going to have a photobooth at my Reception! 1000 brownie points for the knight-in-shining-armor husband!

Day 3. Reception Day. After a little more honeymoon packing, I went off to the parlor. You’ve seen the getting ready pictures in my last post. On this day, I loved my makeup the most – I got the golden cream eyeshadow look, which is something I always wanted. But overall, I think I looked the worst. Mainly because of my hairstyle I think. I just wasn’t loving it. Although it looked great from behind, I was not a fan of it from all the other angles.

This was the only day when I was completely alone at the parlor. No sister with me (mine was so tired, I don’t think she even went to a parlor that day!), no relatives around. But Mona was there, my makeup artist. And over the last few days, I had spoken so much to her, it was as good as having a friend around. Because I was so finicky and unsure about my hair, we got a little delayed. It was the only day I was late. And it was also the only day I first went back home from the parlour, picked up my husband and other family members, and then went to the venue.

Image

We arrived at the venue and to me, it felt like we walked into a dream. The decor was beautiful! This was the first function I was attending for which I had done nothing, and had known nothing before hand. There was a band playing, a dance floor on the other side and then the stage for the meet and greet. In between all this was our special made-in-a-day photobooth! With musical notes strung as the backdrop, the photobooth had a props table right next to it. What had started off as a Music theme had turned into a mish mash of all sorts of themes – we had a guitar balloon, tiaras, sunglasses and masks! There were funny wigs, big hats, moustaches – you name it, we had it!

We first met the guests on the stage and followed it up with cutting a congratulatory cake. Our sisters re-did their dance performance here, and a cousin of my husband played some mean guitar on a Coldplay song.

Image

Reception

From the corner of my eye, I could see that the photobooth was garnering a lot of attention. And I couldn’t wait to get into it! After some dancing to the DJ’s tunes, we headed over to the photobooth – finally! We got some cute pictures, some downright hilarious pictures…and it was hands down THE most fun part of the whole night!

I put together a slideshow for you to enjoy :)

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We got done with the Reception at 1 am, and headed back home. But our day was nowhere near over. We had to wrap up packing for the honeymoon as we were catching a morning flight! I managed to grab 60 minutes of shut-eye time while my husband pulled an all-nighter. We rushed to the airport, and entered the flight a little low on sleep but heady with newly-married joy. Australia, here we come!

How was the honeymoon? Find out everything, and more! In what will probably be the final post in this series – thedelhibells: Honeymoon. Coming up this June.

You can read the whole thedelhibells series here:

  1. Prologue
  2. Mata Ki Chowki
  3. Pre-Wedding Week
  4. Pre-Wedding Shoot
  5. Haldi
  6. Mehendi
  7. Sagan
  8. Sangeet
  9. Wedding
  10. Reception Preview
  11. Reception

Photographs by Tarun Chawla Photography

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