The Wedding

A wedding is an event that invokes countless feelings and emotions for the couple – tears of joy and laughter. It is a special day where so many memories will be made through vows of love and spending a lifetime together along with the happiness and best wishes of close and loved ones. It also for this very reason that weddings are celebrated, and all brides wants this celebration to be just perfect. Although the traditions and customs followed in weddings are quite different everywhere, the wedding is seen as a celebration of love and the beauty it represents.

These days we can see different trends emerging in the wedding scenes as every bride wants to have a unique and special wedding; one that will be remembered for a long time to come. Be it wedding dresses or sarees, traditions and rituals, jewelry, décor and so on the list is endless.

The wedding outfit is one of the most important part for the bride and so special care and effort is taken for it. The age-old tradition of having a red hued wedding ensemble is still a trend these days as it is reminiscent of traditional sensibilities that appeals to many brides.

Sabyasachi, a top bridal designer aims to revive the heritage of the regal era though his bridal collections by giving a royal and majestic vibe. Many other top designers like Manish Malhotra, Anita Dongre, Jayanti Reddy all have bridal collections centered around the celebratory and classic color red though it’s not just one shade of red that rules the bridal wear segment; the entire bridal collections are based on different shades of red.

There are also brides who go for the modern and romantic vibes given by English garden pastels. What appeals to these brides is the fairy tale like and ethereal feelings that it induces in them through traditionally embellished designs in their wedding day outfits. One of the other changes seen in wedding fashion is that the brides are moving away from heavy wedding ensembles to wedding outfits that are made of lightweight fabrics like Italian tulle, georgette, sheer silk and so on.

Tarun Tahiliani, an ace wedding couturier has wedding collections in neutral shades and dreamy pastels with gossamer embellishments and intricate detailing made of lightweight material.

”Brides usually have difficulty in choosing to go for a traditional bridal saree or to go for the more modern gowns”, says Pooja Pothen, a fashion designer student. Brides who prefer traditional bridal sarees go for slight variations in it. There are bridal sarees with embroidered trails which is an inspiration taken from the English traditional gowns having long trains, upto 1.5 metres of length, also known as chapel train.

The Indian bridal sarees has the ‘pallu’ in a long trail with embellished floral spread work along and a heavily embellished blouse with intricate handiwork. This is usually customized and can be made according to the brides’ wishes. Many brides who wish for a modern wedding outfit usually go for gowns. Even gowns have trains whose length and designing is usually done to suit the brides tastes.

There are different kinds of trains: court train which has a length of only 1 metre, sweep train which doesn’t really reach the floor and just sweeps the ground and so on. The styling of the gown and the designing of the train is different and unique to each bride.

“These days many brides prefer wearing their mother’s wedding outfit as it is close to their heart and is reminiscent of the feelings of nostalgia. It is also an expression of the phrase “Old is Gold”. Brides want to bring in the traditional factor into their dressing style and so it has turned into a trend now.” says Anu Jacob, an entrepreneur from Cochin.