Meet these real life brides who created their own unique wedding wear!

Hello!

I have seen way too many posts about Sabyasachi brides, Manish Malhotra brides, Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla brides amongst others We all love the sheer grandeur & uniqueness of their creations and  aspire to buy the originals one day! However today is not that day.

Here are some mesmerizing “non-designer” looks of brides who have created their own unique bridal style.

P.S : They also happen to be my sisters! 😛

The Non-traditional One

This beautiful girl, is my eldest sister. She is the first daughter of our family and we fondly call her “sweetu didi”. Not to brag; but “best sister eva!”. Belonging to the Gujarati community, we are required to wear a traditional white and red saree/lehenga during our wedding ceremony  (not necessary) & since there was no reception ceremony for her wedding, di decided to drop the traditional and wore this beautiful pink and orange custom made lehenga.

The outfit was assembled piece-by-piece by my perfectionist sister. The Zardozi embroidery was handpicked from at-least 100 options, the lehenga’s color was matched with the groom’s sherwani. There were a minimum of 5 fitting trails in order to make sure everything was perfect. Notice how elegant the orange drape dupatta looks instead of a pink one – a classic tip to use contrast instead of matching colors!

Being the eldest and the most perfect daughter her lehenga had to be the most expensive one.  This beauty cost her Rs. 70,000/- but was completely worth it.

The Intelligent One 

This stunner is sister no. 3 –  Niyati. we fondly call her “niyu or strawberry”. Niyati, has always been the level-headed one among the four of  us  So when it came to her wedding outfit she made sure it was worth every rupee she spent.

What’s different about her lehenga you ask ?

Look carefully. She has used the same ghaghra for the wedding & reception ceremony. She very effortlessly drew on a graceful green cape on the ghaghra.

The ghaghra embellished with pure silk thread work, simple Jewellery and a well-fitted bright red blouse looks like a dream on my baby sister.

The entire outfit including the green cape cost her Rs 45,000/-. So 22,500 for one outfit is not a bad deal at all.

Niyati is wearing a mang-tikka designed by herself. You can buy more of her statement Jewellery here

Chic and cheap is always a good deal. No ?

The lazy one  

http://www.joymanavath.com

http://www.joymanavath.com

Yes, that me! I am probably the laziest bride ever. I hated shopping for my trousseau and I hated shopping for my lehenga. So i did what I do the best. I googled!

I found a boutique in Juhu named “Chamee and Palak”. They design gorgeous wedding wear for a good price. The best thing about “Chamee and Palak” is that they give you full attention when you visit their boutique. The designers will show you their collection & you can pick , choose & modify all the outfits according to your taste.

My lehenga adorns simple gota-patti embroidery paired with a peach and red dupatta. I dislike layered neck-pieces, hence I went for one heavy Jadau set with chandelier earrings.

My lehenga costed around Rs.45,000/- along with 2 dupattas, however the wedding lehengas start from Rs. 25,000/- onward.

Later, I converted my wedding and reception lehenga into different outfits. Watch this space for the blog on my transformation.

Now, since I have already spoken about 3 sisters out of 4, how could I not talk about my youngest one. Nope, she isn’t a bride but she makes one hell of a bridesmaid.

The loved one

 

Virti, No.4 and the most loved daughter of the house. We fondly call her “Viru or cherry”.  Virti, should by now be a professional bridesmaid. 6 weddings in the house and she has managed to wear a different outfit for every single one of them. How this newly employed child is so rich is still a mystery for the family.

In case you have a friends/sister’s wedding, Virti’s way of designing her own clothes is amazing. She found a brilliant local tailor and loads of reference images on the internet.

Who knew cut, copy, paste works so magically while making outfits!

Take a reference picture of the lehenga when you visit the market to source your fabric. Buy every element of the ghaghra yourself – embroidered borders, lining, latkans, dupatta material, blouse material, ghaghra material etc. and give it to you tailor. Make sure he has a reference image too! And voila, your bridesmaid outfit is ready.

Here are some more looks from our wedding! Have a look…

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I hope this blog will help you in your wedding preparations as well.

Do write in to us in case you need any further information on our looks.

Fyi, my wedding make-up was done by the fantastic Urmi Mehta. Do get in touch with her during your wedding, you cant help but fall in love with her make-up (& her!).

Loads of Love.

Pri ❤

The Challenge Of Not Having A Real Challenge

Hello Friends,

When I was a single girl in Mumbai, I had quite a decent social life. I would meet my friends at least 3-4 times in a week. I relocated to Delhi post marriage and made new friends here. We met few wonderful people in Delhi. Some are as close as family 🙂

As much as I love having new friends, I do miss “my people”. As a result of constantly missing each-other my BFF and soulmate decided to visit me for 5 days. Oh boy! we did all the crazy, whacked-out, insane stuff one can imagine. Suddenly, I went from a 29 year old well-behaved lady to a 21 year old girl who knew how to have fun and let go! My mother-in-law was generous enough to take all my household responsibilities while my friend stayed with us. Thanks Maa ❤ .

One night my friend and I talked about our journey of life and the challenges we faced. The rush of completing college assignments, the competitiveness of ranking first in class, the urge to be better at your job, the sheer joy of completing a project successfully, the stress, the struggle, the challenge and the VICTORY. As  adults, we loved challenges. Throw us into any sticky situation and we’d wiggle out of it with ease. Fun was in the process of “wiggling” ourselves out, the final result was just a recognition of our hard-work and efforts.

Oh dear god! How I miss those days…

We then, canvassed our lives today and the challenges we faced in our day-to-day schedule. Sadly, we had nothing to discuss. We had no real challenges; no rush of being no.1, no competition, no pumping adrenaline and no rewards. My ultimate point of stress in an entire day is to cook food before 9am which is not challenging enough. Touch-wood, my in-laws are really nice so I dint have that particular challenge either. On a normal day all I do is sleep, eat, cook, watch saas-bahu sagas (I love them) and sleep again.

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Yes! when I gym, learn a new recipe, clean my room or just do all my household chores, I do get a sense of temporary achievement but what next ? whats new ? are there any more complex issues to deal with? is this enough ?

The quality and intensity of the challenges I face post marriage differs drastically when compared to my single days.

I thought to myself; is it just me or do all home-makers feel the same ? Is my life so comfortable and lazy where I don’t face any real challenges ? Have I reached a point of retirement from learning new things, facing new obstacles, being the problem-solver or troubleshooter for other things but my home? Will I never experience that raging sense of achievement again ?

Since then, I have been introspecting and observing other home-makers. Frankly,  I came up with no logical solution or reply.

Questions! Doubts! And More Questions!

My head still wondering and my heart waiting for a solution. If any of you have faced a similar situation, then please comment below and let me know how you dealt with it. What did you do ? How did you get your daily doze of rush ?

This time I am just searching for some answers- answers for myself and other home-makers who might have the same question.

Thank you for helping 🙂

Pri ❤

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Mumbai: A Loving Mother, Delhi: The Tough Father

Hello friends,

As I said earlier I was born and brought up in the city of Mumbai and married in Delhi.

Delhi: a city of amazing food, cool winters,  state of the art metro, lively parties and warmhearted people.

Mumbai treated me like her child. She pampered me, she made me happy, she wiped my tears, she gave me my education, my job, my friends and  the rest of my family. Mumbai, you make me so happy. Even today, I cannot wait to get back to you. Do you know the feeling  you get every time your mom hugs you ? That is the same feeling I experience every single time I step into Mumbai. Mumbai, tu sach main meri jaan hai ❤

If Mumbai was like a mother who nurtured me, then Delhi was the strict father who wanted his child to be strong and fearless. Delhi made sure  I grew up, he made sure I wasn’t protected and cocooned anymore.  As a kid, my dad use to give me swimming lessons. I used to be terrified of the deeper side of the swimming pool. One day my dad simply picked me up and threw me into the pool without any prior warning. I sunk to the bottom and immediately started swimming my way up. From that day on wards my fear vanished and I was confident enough to swim anywhere. Delhi did the same with me. Today, I am not that shy and timid girl who would take people s#*t. Now, I am stronger and smarter!  Thank you Delhi ❤

However this love for Delhi came much later, initially I faced a whole lot of difficulties. As any father would, Delhi was extremely tough on me. To cut the sob-story short: i dint have any friends, no knowledge about the city, no entertainment, no close relatives, no way to pass time etc. etc. Slowly the city got to my sanity. I started getting bouts of depression. I reached the very bottom in my personal life. I would fight with the husband everyday, I would hate staying home, I hated everything and everyone including myself. Life reached at a point where I hated myself for everything and just wanted to die alone. I did visit a psychiatrist in a desperate attempt to make myself happy but no results.

However, things changed: after sinking to the bottom, I pushed myself to swim up. The husband also pulled up his socks and made sure we get through this teething process together.

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Now that I have gone through this learning process with great difficulty, I wanted to share a few tips and tricks which helped me adjust to a new city and life faster.

1. Learn to travel independently – Learn how to drive a car or master the public transport of the city.  I can now travel anywhere in Delhi without being dependent on my husband or anyone else
2. Be  Independent – Financially, emotionally or physically. For example: I always save cash from my household expenses for a rainy day.
3. Get up and get dressed – Even if you have nowhere to go, get dressed for yourself. Look beautiful for yourself.
4. Create a time-table – Draw your own timetable which involves a balance home and other activities. Make sure you are busy all the time.
5. Exercise! – Take a walk, join a gym, dance or do whatever suits you. But move that body.
6. Learn something new every day – Just because you are a home-maker I doesn’t mean your learning should stop. Join some activity classes ( I learnt professional make-up, Chinese food and Garba dance) or book reading clubs etc.
7. Make you own friends – Meet as many new people as you can. Make your own friend circle apart from the one you share with your husband.
8. Do you own work – Don’t just laze around and wait for a house-help to finish your household chores. Do it yourself.
9. Explore the city on your own – Check out all the markets, visit historical monuments and experience the city as tourist. Watch a movie alone or just drink coffee and read a book all by yourself.
10. Spend time with your new family – This is extremely important. Get to know your in-laws well. My mom and I shop till we drop, we go for luncheons, we go for a walk together, we eat all the meals of the day together, we even pray together.  My cousins especially my brother-in-law played a major role in helping me adjust to the city. My devar(s) and sister-in-law were my first friends in the city.

I hope these tips would help you when you shift to a new city. Apart from all the gyan, don’t stress too much you’ll rock your life irrespective of any hurdles you face 🙂 !

Have an awesome 2107 year everyone.

Until next time,

Love,

Pri ❤

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