Indian bridal wear - Celebrity style

Like any bride, I am dreaming about my bridal gown... and lucky for me, I get to pick a few outfits for all of the different events at our Indian wedding. In fact, I am planning to make a trip to India to do my wedding shopping. A few weeks ago, at my mother's prodding, I drove down to Artesia - aka Little India - with the fiance to have a first look at some Indian bridal dress options. Ideally I am looking for a lehenga for the reception and sari for the ceremony. I still haven't picked my color palette (eek!) so I thought the sky was the limit in terms of color options. However, I have since discovered from my mother and various helpful websites that it is most traditional and lucky for the North Indian bride to wear a red sari (or something in the red family like pink or burgundy).

From CitySaheli.com

The color red has deep rooted significance as it represents abundance and fertility. Today, many brides stick to this tradition and wear red on their wedding day, while some brides wear offshoots of red, such as pink or orange. You won’t, however, see a Hindu bride wear white, since white is the color of mourning in India.

I am not huge on ALL traditions but this is one I don't want to mess with. I'll take all the luck I can get my hands on! As far as design goes, there's a lot more flexibility. In my internet search for design ideas, I stumbled upon some photos of celebs donning beautiful wedding outfits. Check out Victoria Beckham, Heidi Klum and Liz Hurley (my favorite) all rocking the desi bridal duds.

Source: Vogue India magazine

Source: SareeDreams.com

Source: Glam.com

Source: Glam.com

The search for the bridal dress

In actuality, there may be more than one dress – but let’s start with one. I will freely admit that I am not the mostup-to-speed on Indian weddings. Frankly, I haven’t been to that many and so I’m not really sure about a lot of protocols. One thing I have discovered in talking to friends and looking at photographer blogs is that it seems like most Indian American brides wear one outfit for the ceremony and then change into a completely different outfit for the reception. I’m totally down for two different outfits!

There are a couple of reasons why this works on a practical level. My ceremony is probably going to be fairly conservative and therefore I want to be covered up to be more respectful. On the other hand, for the reception I expect to be bee-bopping around and, of course, dancing(!) so I want something more fun and easy to move around in. I’m pretty sure I want a lehenga for the reception and for the ceremony either a lehenga or a sari. As a sari novice, I don’t think I could boogie down in it – I would constantly be stiff and worrying about it unraveling.

Here are some pretty options I found.