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When you enter the driveway of Taj Palace, you can feel the buzz of Vogue Wedding Show. Once I was in, I was given a folder (which was very useful to collect all the brochures I kept getting at every stall) that contained all the information I needed to know about the show – list of designers and other wedding experts showcasing their work + maps of the two halls in which the show was taking place. The Durbar Hall has the Indian Bridal Couture and Jewellery stalls, while the Shahjehan Hall has “wedding services” companies – such as the wedding planners, invitation card designers, etc. I asked if I could bring in my SLR camera, but it was not possible. So you’ll have to make do with my description of what I saw – I hope I can add pictures later if and when Vogue makes them available.

I’ll give you a brief overview of the Indian Bridal Couture section first. Warning: If you’re a bride to be and can afford to spend upwards of 2 lakhs on a lehenga and above 1 lakh on an anarkali, you’ll find the information below actually helpful. For the rest of you, I hope I can giveaway free designer wear to my blog readers some day :) In the meanwhile, we’ll just drool over these!

1. Sabyasachi

Let’s begin with the God of bridal wear. I saw a lot of netural shades here, a lot of beige and ivory. The lehengas I liked?

• There was one gorgeous lehenga with aari work – beige and ivory. It’s the first one you see when you walk in. The work on it was very heavy. But, heavy aari work done tastefully looks gorgeous. And Sabyasachi probably created the word tasteful in the fashion world.
• A peach net lehenga, which is so fluffy and the color so flirty that you’ll feel like a princess in it! It had a heavily embroidered blouse and the lehenga had 2 layers. The top layer had sequins. Beneath it was another net layer that had white threadwork on it (gone are the days when we saw brocade under net – thank God, I was never able to warm up to the trend). I fell in love with this lehenga – it was just so pretty and fluffy! If you’re having a day wedding and are looking for a pastel shade lehenga, you should consider this. Price 1.95 lakh.
• A lighter-than-salmon pink chikankari lehenga, which was also all fluffy and pink and pretty! The blouse had very neatly embroidered small flowers on it - similar to my wedding blouse actually. Wait a minute, did I just compare my wedding blouse to one from the Sabyasachi collection?! *grins* The dupatta looked like a starry night in the sky, a salmon pink sky with a generous sprinkling of tiny silver stars on it.

I also saw a unique “parsi sari” (in Sabyasachi’s words). It was a salmon pink sari, which had a pale blue border on it’s sheer heavy pallu.

About Sabyasachi - He talks the same way in real life as he talks on Band Baaja Bride (the show on NDTV). And his collection was actually wearable. It also made me wonder – are pastel shades in?

2. Anamika Khanna

Her area was full, full, full! Every time I stepped in, there were too many people around her. She had personal appointments back-to-back. Lehengas I liked?

• A beautiful and elegant white lehenga jacket. The jacket had silver gota patti work on it, while the lehenga had silver aari work embroidered onto it. The lehenga looked fluffy mainly on account of the full ghera it had.
• A silver gota patti work lehenga, that was so full of work that the beautiful shade of the turquoise blue base underneath only managed to peep through sparingly.
• While I was in there, a bride was trying on an eggplant purple silk lehenga with a heavily embroidered red blouse.

I managed a peep at a cobalt blue long jacket filled with white embroidery – it was gorgeous! Also, it was just 5,000 rupees shy of 4 lakh in cost!

About Anamika Khanna – she was super sweet. I had entered her “stall” twice, and had not been able to view half the collection because of her ongoing appointments. I had spotted the cobalt blue jacket from a distance, but was not able to get to it. Finally, when I entered the third time, I asked one of the assistants to please show me the cobalt blue jacket, but once she realized it was right behind where Anamika was standing (it was quite crowded to get to that piece), she asked me to come again later please! Anamika spotted us, and quickly asked the assistant, “Which piece should I hand over to you?” She realized I wanted to look at it, and ensured I got it in my hands, even though she was in the middle of a personal appointment and really needn’t have put in the effort! I thought it was really sweet on her part to do that. Now you know why I said she was super sweet. She really is, isn’t she?

3. Suneet Varma

He was walking around saying hello to his dear friends, saw him chatting with Anamika & Sabyasachi. I saw a classic white lehenga with a red border here. Unfortunately, it reminded me a lot of something I have seen at Frontier Raas before - isn’t it sad that I’m comparing a Suneet Varma design to Frontier? It’s obviously the other way around - they copied it from him. But the one thing I LOVED here was a heavy red anarkali! It was so, so beautiful! Everything about it was lovely – the design in which the back was cut, the way it flowed, the embroidery. Perfect for a bride’s trousseau. I want it.

4. Pallavi Jaikishan

Didn’t see her today. Her collection had a lot of pastel shades with floral threadwork (which is what Mehak of peachesandblush.com loved about her collection last year). The pieces I liked were:

• A net pista green lehenga with gold gota patti work and chiffon flowers, paired with a bright pink blouse. Lots of floral embroidery on it.
• A pista green sari with the same work as the lehenga
• A pale yellow sari with bright pink border
• A rani pink and red subtly shaded sari with relatively heavy golden emroidery

The bridal lehengas were too blingy for my taste, unfortunately. But the sari collection was nice.

5. Tarun Tahiliani

There were a lot of pastels and neutral shades in his collection as well. I’m confused though - aren’t bright colors in? Or was that last season? Fasion bloggers, help! He had a lovely toned down collection for grooms – sherwanis in shades of ivory, and black. I felt bad for the boys though – they have such limited color options. I also managed a peek at yet another salmon pink fluffy lehenga that looked very princess-like. Dreamy! And another heavily embroidered lehenga that probably weighed 10 kilos…or more!

6. Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla

They had a very limited collection on display. And out of the 4-5 that were on display, none that catered to my taste :(

Others that need a mention and no, these cannot wait till tomorrow to be written about:

1. Judith Lieber has a scheme on “a trousseau box of clutches”. These are blinged out clutches, fit for a party and cost upwards of 1 lakh each. But if you buy a box of 4, you get 20% off. Boxes of 2 and 3 can also be customized at discounted rates. I saw a very pretty pale blue clutch here that I want. On a side note, did you know that pale blue is my current favourite color? I’m obsessed with it.

2. Janavi is a must visit. I met Puneet (who, btw, I later realized is the CEO of the company) who showed me pashmina shawls in bright shades – pinks and oranges, with embroidery on them that’s similar to that done on a sari! This is all from their Wedding Collection, which may or may not be available at their DLF Emporio store post the exhibition. The shawls were really soft, and are fit to wear over a sari or suit without spoiling the whole party look you’ve got going. I fell in love with a burnt orange shawl that had antique gold, almost bronze subtle embroidery on its border (INR 20,000). You can also buy men’s stoles for INR 10,000 – put them together, and you’ve got the perfect wedding gift for a bride and groom. Janavi also had pashmina saris and cute summer stoles with colorful animals embroidered at the end of the stole.

Looking forward to Day 2 of Vogue Wedding Show!

Any one in particular you want me to meet and talk to? Have a look at the full list of wedding experts here and let me know.

You can read up on Day 2 at VWS here, and Day 3 here.

Tags: Anamika Khanna, For the Indian Groom, Luxury Wedding, NDTV, Suneet Varma, Taj Palace hotel, Tarun Tahiliani, top trousseau designers in India, Trousseau Destination, Vogue, Vogue Wedding Show, Vogue Wedding Show 2013, wedding exhibition