BOLLYWOOD ISHTYLE: Anushka's Dreamy Nikah Outfit in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

I've been seeing some promos for this movie the last few weeks, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil which released a few days ago in time for Diwali celebrations. I'm a big fan of Ranbir Kapoor's movies for the quirky characters he plays, and also of Anushka's bubbly personality, so will be looking forward to this one!

One of the things everyone has been talking about (apart from the beautiful songs and their lyrics!) is Anushka and Ranbir's wedding scene, which features Anushka wearing a beautiful, regal red and gold outfit designed by Bollywood costume king Manish Malhotra.

This is the dress itself (posted in Manish Malhotra's instagram account!) - I love how regal and old-school this outfit looks, while still mixing in beautiful jewellery and modern trends. I think the jewellery for this works beautifully, and looks very Pakistani or traditionally Indian which is gorgeous.

This was the only image i was able to find of the trail of the dress (and it's not that clear, is it!), but it shoes the lovely A-line shape of the skirt.

The draping of this bridal look is what makes half of it (the jewellery too!) there's two dupattas being used here, the one on her head and the second one draped across the front of the outfit for a traditional look.

Over the years I've noticed that Bollywood brides in films tend to use very simple, light makeup (like this bridal, for example!) - for this scene Anushka has more of a smokey-eye look and soft pink lips, which I liked because it looked a lot more like brides I've seen in real life. Having said that, the eye makeup also makes Anushka look slightly ill - perhaps less pink around the eyes?

I haven't seen many other outfits from this film yet, but I did see these two sneak peeks below which I liked - the left is the mehndi outfit and the right is a glimpse of a pretty sparkly white outfit. I loved that Anushka's outfit on the left is a mix of embellished skirt and s kundan necklace with a off-white collar-shirt, very cool!

Apparently the bridal dress weighted 17kg and was a real struggle for Anushka - you can see her talking about it here.

 Images from @manishmalhotra and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil promos

I've also seen a lot of comparisons between Anushka's brida outfit from this film and the pretty white and gold bridal outfit she wears in Sultan - I personally love both!

What did you think of this bridal outfit?

OUTFIT OF THE DAY: The Seasons Floral Maxi Dress

This is a while back, but remember these floral dresses? I finally managed to get hold of the floral print dress I wanted from Seasons ADW, a gorgeous cream dress with floral print all over and pink accents, and of course took the chance to wear this for an outdoor wedding hubster and I went to a while ago (this was acually in the summer when the weather was warmer, I've been lazy about posting this!)

The thing I loved about this dress was the amazing quality - it really reminded me of Ted Baker's floral dresses and shoes, which seems to be their trademark these last few years (especially with the little girl clothes!) and I loved how thick the material of this dress was - not flimsy at all.

This is the outfit and what I wore it with - I didn't want an overly blingy or heavily-accessorised look and loved the pop of pink, so opted for pink shoes and pink lips - and not much more. I didn't even need bangles (and I do love wearing my bangles) because the sleeves had velvet cuffs which I loved.

And of course, I couldn't resist taking a swirly pic in this dress! You can see how flowy the skirt of this is, and how nicely it hangs, which was really flattering the figure (not sure why some of these images look grainy, apologies!)

I really enjoyed wearing this (I'm sure you can tell!) and found it pretty comfortable - it's pretty hijab-friendly and I think it would be wearable without or without the pink dupatta. I can also see this being worn to a Western event or an English wedding too and fitting in nicely with a summery theme.

And of course a sneak at my shoes - I love picking out bright colours in outfits and these pink shoes worked perfectly for me!

I've been lusting after this outfit for a while so I was glad to finally be able to wear this. The dress itself is fairly reasonable in price, and was made to measure by the store, hence the lovely fit. If I wasn't already married I'd love to wear something like this to a bridal shower or a registry - can you imagine the wedding theme for this dress!

It's gotten a little chilly these days so I think I've put this outfit away for now, and will be bringing out the velvets and dark red pieces, but I'm sure I'll get to wear this again soon!

WEDDING INSPIRATION: Cakes from the Cake & Bake Show 2016

I went to the London Cake & Bake show this last weekend, and thought it was a treasure-trove of inspiration for brides to be, as well as those looking for cake displays for special events like baby showers, bridal showers, birthdays and even just girly tea parties.

I won't post all of the photos of the things I saw (there were just too many!), but wanted to show the variety of themes, styles and cakes out there for those who are looking for more inspiration.

I'll start with my favourite tables, the professionally-made dessert tables - these were beautifully made floral cakes grouped together, made by professional cake companies to showcase their skills. I love that each dessert table had cakes and biscuits to match the whole theme, which looked gorgeous together.

I loved that each dessert table had more than one cake (maybe that's just me being greedy) so that it made the table seem more luxurious and extravagant. I thought this was an interesting alternative to a lot of tables I have seen where the cake is the main showpiece and everything else is centred around the main cake.

I also really liked the colours and textures used for the cakes - lace, floral pieces, ribbons - not to mention some very cool looking mini cakes which looked a bit like bath bombs!

There were cakes on display all around the exhibition, which showed a variety of techniques, themes and colours so that brides aren't just stuck with the traditional plain white cake. I particularly liked the wooden-themed nature cakes below, and the beautiful pearl cakes!

I also loved this beautifully detailed cushion cake - probably took ages to make but doesn't it look beautiful?

The Cake show had a huge number of vendors selling tools to decorate and embellish cakes - there were lots of styles I hadn't seen before such as glittery lace, edible gem stones, detailed beading and beautifully worked icing in a variety of ways.

Macarons are the latest, fashionable edibles for wedding cakes, so naturally we also saw some of these - I loved the giant gold macaron cake below, although not sure how it'd taste!

Another thing that also gets neglected a lot in wedding tables are biscuits - and there were some amazing ones at the Cake and Bake shows. My favourite were these wedding-themed biscuits, such as the wedding dresses, proposal biscuits, floral bouquets and even biscuits for the bridesmaids! I thought this would be great for bridal showers as well as henna night and wedding dessert tables.

There were also some gorgeous cake stands available for those looking to display their own cakes, or even for weddings. I love that these weren't restricted by size or styles (we even saw a huge stand shaped like a horse-and-carriage!)

Another things which has become fairly fashionable recently are cupcake bouquets - they look cute and are fairly easy to make! I thought these looked so pretty, and would made a great centre-piece for a dessert table, or even as a hand-held bouquet!

I also saw some great cake ideas for mehndi events - such as these peacock cakes below. I liked these straightaway because it made me think of the peacock theme I had for my own mehndi - I would have loved to have these on display! I also liked the embellished biscuits below, which reminded me of  a lot of biscuits I've seen for mehndi parties which have a henna design on them.

Cake-pops and meringues are another pretty alternatives to cupcakes or cakes - they look colourful and cute, and would look amazing for a dessert table! My sister has made us cake-pops before and they have looked really pretty on dessert tables (or in our hands!) and I liked the variety of flavours and colours below. I'm less a fan of meringues but I LOVED the rainbows ones available at the cake show - you could have just these on the table and they'd look beautiful!

There were a huge amount of cakes at the show, and we spent a good few hours browsing, buying goodies and also looking at new techniques for cake and cupcake making. It's given me a lot of ideas for future tea-parties, as well as different treats to try out, so watch this space!

You can see more of  my pictures here, and also on my sister's blog here.