Wedding Vogue - Part 2 : Marriage

Hey dearies, how's it going? I've been trying to escape from the continuous wedding pressure at home, and juggling between work and studies and also trying to keep up with the pace here. Anyway, three consecutive years of publishing my wedding fashion series on this blog, and you've shown immense love to each post. Can't thank y'all enough for the great support throughout! Got the last part of this year's series today to show you a brand new marriage party look I created with the help of fashion designer - Aditi Jaggi Rastogi from STRAWBERRY FASHION STUDIO, and a dear friend and professional makeup artist - Simran Taneja.

So shall we get rollin'?! Yes? Great!

I guess it won't be wrong if I say that the most elaborate functions of the Indian wedding series is the wedding or the marriage ceremony itself. Starting from baraat and then the dinner party for the guests, followed by the midnight marriage rituals between the bride and groom; everything is done in the most perfect manner from both sides. Unlike the pre-wedding functions, the wedding day is the most lavish and a magnificent affair! The guest list is extravagant as compared to the attendees of the pre-wedding functions and its actually the day when not only the bride and groom are dressed up from top to toe in grand outfits but the family members and all the guests too. 

Which brings me to say that the entire wedding function calls for splurge. Whether you're the bride, or the bridesmaid, or the sister or the friend, you gotta dress your best and steal the limelight (or just shine as much as you can, eh?). As far as styles among Indian wedding lehengas are concerned, Indian women are generally open to a lot of choices! Considering the fact that wedding day is quite auspicious, lehengas as an element of the modern bride's wedding event trousseau has appeared to be much more stylish and trendy!

lehenga, kurta, dupatta : Strawberry Fashion Studio | all jewelry : Neha Diwan

The marriage ceremony for every bride is the most important, as she gets to dress in her dream outfit, for once in a lifetime! Tons of options to choose from but the quintessential lehenga-choli has always been one of the most favored choices of the Indian brides! It's no secret that a fancy lehenga gives a charming look to the bride as well as represents the Indian dressing aura. So, for my look this time, I picked a pure silk lehenga with mukaish in lemon yellow & white, with multi colored embroidery; paired with a banarsi silk long kurta in pink and gold. I've never worn a heavier lehenga than this one, which pretty much means this one had tons of layers for that beautiful flair when you twirl! Adding a little more grace, I draped the outfit with a floor length, heavy net dupatta with intricate zardozi embroidery on the borders. Undoubtedly It's one of the prettiest wedding outfits I've got my hands on!

I chose to accessorize the look with some traditional Indian jewelry, which included a pearl studded set of broad maang tikka and matching earrings, with a huge finger ring to impart the style of a princess (say from the mughal era?). Keeping it minimal with the styling, I did opt for a dense makeup and queen-curled hairstyle on the other side, which is one of the most essential parts of dressing up for an extravagant marriage ceremony. Simran gave me deep pink eyelids with false lashes and risen brows, making my eyes look bolder; along with bright pink lips and perfect contouring& highlights making my face shine aptly.

The entire outfit looked and felt magical to me. Twirling in it was my favorite part, and I'm not sure about you but if I get to be a bride anytime soon, I'm definitely opting for this piece for my big day!

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We end with this year's wedding fashion series here. I really hope you liked reading both the posts (check out the cocktail look HERE)! Do let me know in the comments below what do you have to say about this look from Strawberry Fashion Studio; if it's princess like or not? 

Also, tons of thanks to designer Aditi Jaggi Rastogi and her entire team for the cooperation, MUA Simran Taneja for making me look gorgeous as ever, and photographer Yash Athwani for capturing the best sides of me! Until next, lots of love.

~xoxo~

Wedding Vibes : Part 2 - Tilak/Sangeet

Hey pretty girls, all good ya?

Firstly, thanks a ton for appreciating the first post of the wedding collaboration that I posted 4 days back with Shishta Maurya for engagement party outfits! If you've missed out on reading, check it out HERE. Secondly, thanks again for being so patient with this post. I know I've delayed it by 2 days but how do I tell you, my internet became super sucky & I felt like I couldn't do anything! But yeah, back on the roll...finally uploading the second post of the wedding collaboration now. Like I told you all, this one's with a blogger I've already collaborated with earlier, so I guess you didn't have to think too much; she is none other than my dear friend Sumbul Siddiqui from Stylebon.

Well, I had already mentioned in the previous post that Indian wedding ceremonies are absolutely fun to attend! And for people like me, we are always ready to rock & roll at family weddings which are super light and crazy! The celebrations start days before the Big Day. Various ceremonies such as engagement, mehendi, tilak-sangeet, baarat, wedding and reception are again followed by post-wedding functions keeping the near and dear ones extremely busy with the enjoyment. But let me tell you, Indian weddings are no longer the conventional ceremonies dating back to time immemorial, they have moreover drastically changed and have become stylish affairs like never before. These days, all ceremonies are followed by high oomph and with a must-have glamour quotient. Talking of the Tilak ceremony, where family members of the bride and groom apply tika on the groom's forhead, showering blessings on him and giving him and his family lots of gifts! This ritual is often followed by Sangeet ceremony, which is infact the most enjoyable funtions out of all the rest! To be specific, it's the major entertainment factor at the Indian weddings where all the family members of both sides dance on various songs, play special numbers and crack jokes on each other (ofcourse in all sporting manner). 

But not only dancing, the most important thing that actually is and should be taken care of is what to wear to the Sangeet ceremony. Now, we girls always love to dress up fashionably for such occasions, so today, Sumbul and I have got you 2 beautiful outfits for this occasion which we both think you'd love! Scroll down to know more...

She's wearing - lehenga skirt : Big Bazaar | kurta : Self-Designed | footwear : Inc.5
necklace, earrings, rings : Globus | clutch : FabAlley.com

I'm wearing - lehenga skirt, crop top : Self-Designed | footwear : Jabong

earrings : Aminabad Market (Lucknow) | rings : Flipkart | clutch : FabAlley.com

Nothing new to hear, a lehenga has been one of the most ancient Indian dresses. A two or three piece set of garment that women wore since the early ages! This set basically comprises of a long, flowy skirt, a blouse/top/kurta, and a dupatta. The most commonly worn of all Indian outfits is actually a lehenga, starting from the bride, to the bridesmaid, to the other women of the family, everybody wears it in atleast one of the functions during the wedding! But, today we've got you some modern styles of lehengas that are appropriate for a Sangeet ceremony. Starting with Sumbul, she is wearing a long cotton skirt with pretty authentic prints on it. She got this one from a Big Bazaar store, where she had a lot of color and print options but she chose this fuchsia pink one with gold print. I really like the broad black line at the hem of her skirt that perfectly contrasts the dark colored kurta that she chose to add on the skirt! Its a burgundy colored one made up of velvet fabric. Since Sumbul is a little plumper, she chose to keep the kurta long and high slitted from the sides, buttoned up in front and kept the sleeves full to give that grace to the whole attire. She designed and cut and stitched this kurta all by herself which I think is commendable. Since Sangeet is more of dancing and stuff, she added pink ball latkans to the side of the lehenga too, which bounce along whenever one dances around so that gave an oomph the whole look of hers! She chose to complete her look by adding a gold flower-cut necklace and some gold plated rings and earrings too, to compliment the print of the skirt! I loved the choice of her earrings and footwear that matched perfectly with all the other accessories. And the most attractive part was her golden glitter clutch that she carried to store her essentials. I would also like to mention that its necessary to understand your body type before picking up an attire for yourself, and I like how Sumbul always chooses clothing that goes with her body and not just wear anything to give it a skip! 

As for me, while searching a perfect attire for a Sangeet ceremony this year, I literally couldn't come across anything online and really didn't have time to go out shopping too! Meanwhile, I realized that I have in stock a long skirt that my mom used to wear when she was my age. So basically this cream skirt that you're seeing in the pictures belongs to my mom from 30 years back. It was a plain skirt with 3 linings, one in the core made up of cotton, then the 2nd one made up of satin and the last one that's the top, made up of georgette! There's an elastic too to secure the tightness at the waist. Now, I re-designed this skirt and wore it like a high-waisted lehenga skirt and also added golden sequins all over to give it a party look. To be true, I tucked each sequin with a needle and thread all by myself in 2 days. For my top, I had sketched a crop top about 3 years back and I wanted to get it made in real so I bought a piece of black cotton, got the gold and bronze design made and got the top stitched, attaching the black net sleeves! The best parts about this crop top are the high-neck chinese collar, the front zipper line and the cuffs on the sleeves that I got done with the cotton design too. Wore it over the skirt where it ended at the waist looking almost like a one piece but no! I'm a short heighted girl with a bloated tummy and I wanted to give an illusion of a tall lady, so that was the main reason I went in for this outfit. To complete my look, I picked a pair of white stone dangler earrings, of which I got parts colored in black and golden, a big black stone ring and an american diamond too, and added the black ball latkans on the side of the skirt which as I mentioned above look really cool. Plus, to my skirt it gave the much needed indo-modern look! For my footwear I wore a pair of cream-goldenish heels which is one of the most comfortable pair I own in my heel section and carried a silver glitter clutch to keep my belongings during the function. Finally, adding that red lipstick was a must since we both are addicted to it, and also because it gives the makeup a little dope look! Like I love to, Sumbul and I left our hair lose open and I realized it was a good step taken by both of us because it made the whole appear super flattering! ----- What do you think?

I think both of us chose our outfits for the Sangeet ceremony, keeping in mind the dances, the whole celebration and stuff and apart from this a very important factor, which is comfort. These lehengas are extremely comfortable as they are loose from the bottom and flare it up as we move or dance! Nothing is too tight even if we talk about the tops, unless you really want to make it look body-hugging! Also, you must have noticed that neither Sumbul, nor me carried dupattas with our ensembles. Well, we didn't really feel the need to carry it since our outfits already looked sexy enough and also who likes to take along a burden that keeps falling in the middle of the function and you have to keep settling it now and then. So yeah, the major reason was this! Now to end, I would suggest all you girls to get yourselves some lehenga skirts and kurtas and crop tops designed and flaunt them in your own way in the next Tilak/Sangeet ceremonies you go too!

Photographed by : Nahid Saman

~xoxo~