Monday, July 21, 2008

what it looks like

I've been fooling around on the internet, finding pictures of wedding-related style elements that I like. Here are a few of them for your enjoyment.

LOCATION
Photos like this might help explain why I want to have an outdoor wedding. Everything looks airy and picnic-y. I also like the outfit the girl in the top picture has. She managed to avoid the massive armor plating trap. In the second photo, they've got a curtain of flower garlands along the "wall" of the wedding canopy, which I think is awesome. In the bottom two images, I like the pink-yellow-orange-red multicolor scheme. Maybe I can talk F into it.





CLOTHES
I like the blue-green borders on this wedding lehenga, and I also like how the embroidery work on it is rich without achieving the "massive armor plating" look. I dig the grid-like geometric pattern, too.

This outfit has some of the same features: blue border, geometric pattern, not armor plated. I like it too, but it definitely has a different mood than the first one. It's more old-fashioned (the designer named it the "Devdas bridal" after the movie, which was set in the early 1900s). It's not like that's not stylish, though - fashion is often strongly influenced by recent movies.


MEHENDI
Mehendi is the name for henna body painting. There's a whole party centered around the bride getting decorated with it, because after the henna goop is on she has to sit still for a long time while it stains. Somebody's gotta entertain her and feed her stuff! So all the ladies get together and keep her company. There are different styles of this, too. I like big, pseudo-floral styles with a lot of empty space, like these:

But some people prefer designs with a ton of tiny details:


Opinions? Clearly these people all had very good photographers, too. That's part of why their stuff is so pretty. But besides that, what kind of styles do you like?

4 comments:

Mariah said...

I like the old-fashioned outfit. The skirt kicks ass. Your mom would also be happy about the top being longer ;)

Unknown said...

Great blog, KC! It's fun to read your initial stages of planning. I've been through this all the past year. My guy, M, is also Gujarati - so I've had to work to become familiar with Gujarati wedding traditions.

I'm totally with you on liking more floral and sparse mehndi! I think those type of designs tend to be more of an Arabic style of mehndi as opposed to the more detailed "Indian mehndi". For my mehndi, I'm hoping to go with the sparser stuff both because I like it better aesthetically and because I don't know how much patience I'd have for sitting through getting the more detailed work done.

Ruth said...

I love the henna art in the middle, black and white photo. You're going to look gorgeous no matter what though!

Priya said...

If you wrap a sari Guju-style just right (end in front, not over your shoulder like in Bollywood), you'll barely be able to see any of your midriff.

A tip about flowers on the mandap (wedding stage): go with fake flower garlands. I know real flowers are cooler, but Chicago isn't India. :P It's cheaper, you can make the garlands ahead of time and they won't turn brown, wilt or get crushed if mishandled. We got some good fake flowers at Michael's (I think) for my sister's wedding and you really couldn't tell they were fake unless you were right up next to them. (I think you saw the pictures.)