Wedding Wardrobe: Sumedha

Once in a while, a bride chooses to share her wedding journey with the world. She pens down her experiences, carefully selects precious personal memories to show you – through vivid photographs that captured what was, perhaps, the best day of her life.

Sumedha is one of those brides.

I found her wedding blog, The Postcard Bride, where she gives us a glimpse into her December 2013 wedding. Exactly 2 months ago, she posted photographs of her wedding day.

And I was left enamoured.

One look at her wedding lehenga and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Bright, bright red, ending with a splash of colours. And heavy embroidery. Very bridal, indeed.

Sumedha got engaged in December 2012, and by the time the summer of 2013 rolled in, wedding preparations were in full swing. Her mother-in-law had informed her that it was a family tradition for the groom’s side to buy the bride’s sagan outfit, so she flew from Mumbai (her home) to New Delhi in July to begin shopping excursions with her MIL. They decided to explore Chandni Chowk, as Sumedha had found her engagement outfit from the famous Sudheer Bhai store in the same market.

While the hunt for her sagan ensemble was on, the bride and her family decided to begin looking for her wedding lehenga as well on their Delhi trips. First, they paid a visit to Anarkali, another one of those popular stores everyone recommends you visit in Karol Bagh. While Sumedha found some absolutely beautiful lehenga options in that shop, they were way over her budget. Every single lehenga was over INR 1-1.5 lakh.

What next? The family took a quick decision to visit Chandni Chowk. But which store? She had not had any luck at Sudheer Bhai’s this time around. Luckily, her mother had heard about another store – “Ram Kishan Sarees” – from a colleague who had vouched for them and said, “give them my reference, and they will take care of you.”

Off went the whole family to 259, Katra Pyare Lal, Chandni Chowk. What kind of lehenga was Sumedha looking for? A Tarun Tahiliani style outfit, not a Sabyasachi. “I like Sabyasachi lehengas, but I feel they’re overdone.” Such a contrast to what every 2^nd bride I meet has to say. They’re usually aware that Sabyasachi lehengas have been done to death, but they don’t care. They’re way too deep in love with that style to even imagine wearing anything else on their wedding day.

Once the family reached Ram Kishan Sarees, Sumedha quickly found a lehenga she loved.

There was only one problem.

She didn’t like the colour combinations – AT ALL!

She wanted to change everything about it – the colours on the lehenga, the blouse, and even the dupatta! It was a cream lehenga and blouse, with multi-coloured borders. But she imagined it looking better with a red skirt, a rusty orange blouse, and completely different borders on the dupatta.

The more she thought about it, the more stressed she felt. “I’m not a designer! I was skeptical to place an order for an outfit I wanted changed in so many ways that I couldn’t even visualize the end result and trust it would be good.” So Sumedha and her family left the shop, wondering if there was something else out there that would match her choice.

Luckily, upon visiting another store in Chandni Chowk, they spotted a lehenga in the same colour combinations Sumedha was trying to customize her lehenga into…

And it looked good!

Funny how things work out sometimes 🙂

Sumedha rushed back to Ram Kishan Sarees, and placed the order for her wedding lehenga – complete with all her colour customisations. She reduced the number of kalis to 10, to reduce the cost and fit it into her budget. They gave her the second dupatta for free (which they made a mistake with eventually, but it was nothing major – she got the border replaced with a golden one at a place in Mumbai later on.)

On her wedding day, Sumedha looked exactly as she had imagined. And what a sight she made.

Sumedha completed her bridal look with jewellery that perfectly complemented her outfit. I loved every piece of her jewelry, but she was most excited about her maang tikka. “It was the same one my mother wore on her own wedding!”

The rest of Sumedha’s jewelry is artificial (gold-plated silver). Since I’ve heard time and time again about how brides feel the pressure to buy real jewelry for their wedding day, I wondered if Sumedha had also faced any. But it was refreshing to hear that this topic of discussion never came up while she was choosing her accessories. In fact, she didn’t even consider buying real jewelry because she wanted the flexibility that comes with buying artificial – you can pick what ever you want, any stone, any colour, any size! A great idea all you brides-to-be can think about, I say!

Wedding lehenga from Ram Kishan Sarees, Chandni Chowk | Time taken to stitch 2.5 months | Price INR 70-80,000

Jewellery from various stores in Mumbai & Delhi | Haath-phool Kundan Kali, Mumbai | Earrings Silver Streak, Mumbai | Necklace store in Shahpur Jat | Maang tikka Bride’s mother’s | Heels from Steve Madden

Photographs by Simran Oberoi (PhotozAapki) and Richa Kashelkar | Hair and makeup by Chandni Singh (read my review of Chandni here)

Read more about Sumedha’s wedding and see more pictures on her blog.

Did you also love Sumedha’s lehenga and jewellery, as much as I did?

You can see all other Wedding Wardrobe posts here. If you’re a newlywed who wants to share details of her wedding outfits on this blog, send in pictures of yourself in those outfits to thedelhibride@gmail.com with “Wedding Wardrobe” in the subject line.