BOLLYWOOD ISTYLE: Anushka Sharma Weds Virat Kholi

I’m sure a lot of you caught photos for this one – Anushka Sharma’s super-secret wedding to Virat Kholo last month, which was planned by the couple themselves, in a small ceremony in Italy (which I did follow via hashtag #Virushka!) The couple looked like they had a fun wedding, and it seemed like a pretty happy event all around. I wanted to post the outfits the bride wore, which were a good mix of styles - although all designed by Sabyaschi!

The Engagement

This was a pretty smart affair, with Virat wearing a smart suit and Anushka in a gorgeous velvet maroon sari which she rocked with a simple updo and red flowers in her hair, and a gorgeous choker necklace. I think this would be among my favourite of the looks she had, striking, classy and elegant done well.

The Sangeet

What I liked about this most of all was how genuinely happy the couple looked here – neither of them are overly dressed up, and the henna looks exquisite. I really liked Anushka’s and Virat’s outfits – they’re wonderfully colourful, and feel fun fun – perfect  for a henna event, and you can see how relaxed the bride and groom are. And I’m sure none of us missed the déjà vu feeling though – seeing some of these photos reminded me a little of the wedding in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil! Anushka looks pretty in a print, brightly printed lengha choli and Virat looks great in a complimenting hot pink waistcoat jacket.

The Wedding

For the wedding ceremony itself, Anushka wore a pretty floral lengha by leading designer Sabyasachi (who seems to be everyone’s first choice at the moment, I’ve noticed). The outfit was a girly one – pastel pinks and white, with a very spring vibe to it. I have to confess, I didn’t love this wedding look  – it was okay but it could have been so much better. Perhaps I’m used to the more glamorous looks, but something about this looked a little ordinary – especially the hair and makeup, which looked a little flat, and felt like Anushka’s  beauty didn’t shine through. I was a little surprised by rave comments about her bridal but I guess it’s down to different tastes. Personally I think Anushka would have looked amazing if she had gone for a similar look as this one (especially the hair which I love!) – but hey, that’s just me. Having said that, I later saw photos of Anushka's hair under the dupatta which had beautiful soft pink roses, which looked really pretty!

The Delhi Wedding Reception

For the couple's first reception in Virat's home town, Anushka looked appropriately ‘wifey’ in a rich red silk Benarasi Sabyasachi saree – can’t get more regal and respectable looking than that – and with her gorgeous figure pulled it off well. She got the ornamental side of things pretty well put together as well, and I do think that she looked more glowy on this event. having said that, I still think her hair was again, a little flat, and could have been made more glamorous, but it did showcase her sari and extravagant jewellery quite well!

The Mumbai Wedding Reception

This last event was the wedding reception in Mumbai with all the stars, where Anushka wore another Sabysachi ensemble, this time a nude-beigey gold lengha-choli outfit. I think this outfit suited her the most, and was another of all of her bridal outfits that I really liked. I also think her hair looked the best on this day – it framed her face well and looked elegant with her tasteful makeup.

  

Over all I think Anushka did look pretty on her wedding events, but some looks were better than others. I can guess that like a lot of Bollywood heroines, Anushka has done a lot of bridal looks before so wasn’t looking to go overboard or too blingy on her wedding, which makes sense. I also think that the first bridal look in pink pastels and florals looked great for a destination wedding, and I can see the theme she was aiming for.

What did you think of her bridal looks? Which one did you like best?

OUTFIT OF THE DAY: The Colourful Printed Chinyere Kurta

I went to a dholki night a few days ago for my best friend's younger brother who was getting married (it's amazing how the younger generation have grown so quickly, I feel old!) and thought I'd go for a simple but comfy look.

Out came one of my newer purchases from Chinyere at a local mela in the summer, one brand I love and will always be loyal to because of how wearable and funky their designs are, not to mention their reasonable prices. I bought this in the summer time for barbeque season, but never got around to wearing it (downside of having too many clothes!) - so it was perfect for this dholki.

This is the outfit, it was mainly colourful prints in blue, red, black and green, with a colouful necklace and printed yellow sleeves. I don't often go for something this colourful but I loved this, and thought it was ideal for a warm night in (even though it was freezing outside!) I also really liked the beading detail on the neckline of the kurta, which made it feel very Pakistani in style.

I decided to pick out the royal blue for my accesssories, but kept it relatively simple - plain blue clutch and shoes, and threaded bangles - all about comfort here! I also didn't want to go overboard as it was a simple event (not to mention the 'haldi' night for the groom, which meant potential flying liquids everywhere!)

This is how I wore the kurta, I paired it with plain white trousers which felt summery but very comfortable, and also bought out the colours. I also opted for simple eye-makeup and rich red lips - always a must for me!

I managed to get my mehndi done by one of the guests at the dholki, which was lovely for me, especially as I haven't had it done in ages and keep meaning to practise on myself. It's already come off after less than a week, but I can't complain!

I loved wearing this outfit, it was comfy and very simple, and perfect for a function like this. It's not quite the short kameez fashion that is in at the moment, but I think the white pants and the beautiful print definitely worked together and looked on-trend. I also loved that it worked so well with my hijab, as one of my problems with colourful outfit is finding a scarf that doesn't clash!

THE WEDDING POST: Mehndi Memories!

Can you believe that it's been a year since my wedding?! I really can't, it seems like only a few weeks ago that I got married and moved away from my parents, and yet I'm so settled and comfortable in my married life that weirdly enough, it feels like I've always been married!

So this time last year, on this day, I had my mehndi night. which was surprisingly an emotional day but a lovely one, surrounded by friends and family. There's a lot of things which I stressed about at the time but on that day, walking in under a curtain of flowers and looking at all of my friends, a lot of that stress and anxiety melted away (to the music of Ali Zafar's Jhoom, if anyone wanted to know!)

I thought I'd do a series of memories posts this week - what I remember from my events, including my mehndi day, the good, the bad and the funny, especially as it's amazing what sticks out in your mind afterwards!

So here's a few random things I remember from my mehndi night, in no particular order, although I'll try not to complain too much! I do remember wanting to do a hundred and one things and stressing about it, and I'm only mentioning them now because a year later looking back, I really don't know why I worried as much as I did.

Getting ready
I'm lucky enough to know a lot of make-up artists and henna artists, so naturally I got my sister-in-law to spend do my makeup, which I loved. We even managed to spend a little free time in the the day where she took me out for brunch before we got ready, which helped relax me a lot. She got the look even better than I thought, I wanted simple and glowy and she managed both without making my face look too heavy or busy, and I loved the result.

It made me happy that I was able to save so much money by booking a makeup artist for my main wedding day, as it can really add up with the more functions you have. I was also glad that it looked the way I wanted without having to compromise - I've met so many women who have opted to do their own makeup or ask a friend to do it, for one or more of their wedding functions and they've looked great, so I'd definitely encourage that options for brides who are thinking about it.

My hair and the mess at the end of the day!

My jasmine flowers (which were such a headache to buy, because I wanted fresh ones!) came loose half-way through the mehndi and basically looked a mess by the end of the day - you can see them unravelling in pictures below, and the before/after of the flowers! This isn't to criticise the hair-stylist at all - I got my hair and dupatta setting done by Shamalah Hairstylist and LOVED what she did, the flowers themselves just wilted and were bound to fall down after a lot of dancing and moving around! The hair looks not so bad in the second picture, but by the time I got home the flowers had dried and my hair was all over the place!

Also, if any Londoners wants to know where I got the flowers, Vallis in East Ham, East London do them at an amazing price of £1 per string meter and they smell beautiful! A tip for any brides using flowers though, keeping them in the fridge really helped me in keeping them fresh overnight.

Even worse, when I got home, it took me ages to undo my hair and get my hair sorted out. It was actually more painful than my wedding hair was because there was a lot more extensions and back-combing involved, and worse for me because I didn't realise it would be this difficult! 

Non-attendees

A few of my friends didn’t turn up to the mehndi, which I was a little upset about at the time, although I did get over it 15 minutes into the mehndi, once the dancing started! I only mentioned this because it's inevitable that someone can't make it, or something can happen which can be really annoying - try not to let it get to you too much. A friend of mine who got married around the same time I did told me that she was pretty upset that a some of her friends and family didn't make it to her mehndi, enough that when she went home she was upset and even cried a little. You're bound to be emotional but don't let these be the last and defining moments of your Big Days, the last thing you would want to remember about your events is being upset for the wrong reasons.

It's also easy to get annoyed at the little things like these, when it's so much better to appreciate people who DID turn up and make the effort, which can really make a difference on the night! It's fair to say all of the right people turned up and it was really warming to see that they made the effort, not to mention all of the hard work from my mum, sisters and sister-in-law!

Asian Timings

I got to my mehndi venue really early, and was a bit annoyed that I turned up before the guests, particularly as it meant my brother, who was my chauffeur for the night, and I had to wait because I didn't want to talk into an empty hall. Thankfully, my photographer was already at the venue, and used this time for a quiet photo-shoot which I loved – some of my favourite pictures are from this shoot. I was also glad to be punctual because it meant I had some quiet time to myself beforehand.

Sweets and Favours

I barely saw the beautiful sweet table my sisters made and set up. I sure as heck didn’t get to eat anything from it. At least I had lots of photos of it afterwards! Similarly I had spent a lot of time with my sisters making up favour bags, sweet cones and decor boxes in a peacock print theme, which kind of got lost in the hall decor, but admittedly on the day, it didn't matter as much to me anyway.

Ghagray

We’d bought lots of jasmine strings to make into bracelets (ghagray) for some of the guests, and some of them got forgotten. Two of my friends ended up putting dolly-mixture sweet bracelets on my wrists to make up for it because we forgot to get my best friends to put the flowers on my wrist! I don't know why I look so serious in the photo below because I remember laughing about it all!

Food!
Our food got served late, which was very frustrating, as the caterers had been calling me all afternoon while I was getting ready to ask me about venue access and set-up. I actually got up from my stage at one point during a break when the guests managed to eat, to go into the kitchens and tell off the caterers. They learned their lesson and served the food on time on the wedding day though, so at least I told them off effectively!

Dancing the night away!
We managed to get some of the older ladies, the mums and aunties, up for a Beyonce dance which was fun, and it was even better when my sisters and friends joined in too. One of my friends is an amazing (and enthusiastic!) dancer so she stole the show with her moves and got me to join in as well, although I'll admit I was a lot more embarassed!

My niece and I doing twirls!

It feels pretty strange to look through some of these now and see myself all dressed up, especially because I looked pretty calm in a lot of photos and I know I was quite nervous!
A friend of mine got married a few days ago and told me she felt the same - I think it was that point after months of stressing that she walked in and decided to just enjoy herself rather than look for things that had gone wrong.

I know there were a lot of things which were missing, didn't look the way I thought or just general things I thought were needed - looking back I now know that as much as we brides love the little details. the beautiful decor, the amazing dances, it's more important to enjoy the night and being with your close ones. Above all, just sit back, relax and focus on looking good!

My Blogging Year...A Look back at 2014!

2014 was a very eventful year for me, especially as I had a lot of personal events happening in one go! I wanted to do a quick re-cap of a few things I have blogged about in my year, in case you missed some of them!

I got engaged - I was lucky enough to have my wedding fixed with my husband (at the time, to-be-husband) and started the mad flurry of wedding outfit designing, finding venues, caterers, and looking for all the various wedding things that comes up!

I had two new baby nieces born - to two of my older sisters (and both of them are now smiley little pixies!). They were both a beautiful blessing to their parents and to us, their aunties (and their cousins!), and have spent the last six months making us giggle.

I got married in a beautiful and crazy series of functions which almost passed in a blur! I had an amazing series of events, which made me feel pretty amazing and also gave me an opportunity to not behave so bridezilla-ish, and spend time with my family! Here's some of the outfits I wore during the wedding, I don't have a favourite because I loved them all!

I moved into my new house with my husband, and now have a huge wardrobe. Seriously, it actually fits all of my beautiful Asian clothes. Having said that, the look on my husband's face when he saw them all is something else.

I went on my honeymoon to the amazing Istanbul, and had some amazing food and saw some amazing sights. It's put the travel bug in me already, and I'm sure I'll be going somewhere again very soon!

There were several other things which happened this year, but these were the highlights of the year for me. I don't expect 2015 to be as stressful as 2014 was, but I do hope it's as fun! I've had plenty of dawats (dinners with family, friends' and relatives) which aren't quite done yet, and lots of opportunities to meet some lovely people, and find beautiful clothes, lipsticks and food.

Having said that, I don't really have any new year resolutions, but I am looking forward to the next year because I think it will be a new challenge, and it'll be especially fun to learn new things (like cooking!) and spend time with my husband and my family!

The Dholki Nights #4: Blue Silk and Mehndi Hands

We've finally come to the last dholki night, which was the night that I put on my actual bridal henna on my hands and feet. We held this two days before the actual wedding day so that the henna on my hands and feet would come out darkest after two days (and it did for me!) and also because rather than have too much to do the day before the wedding, it would give us time to have one last shin-dig so that the day before we'd have the house to ourselves and be able to do last minute preps.

My outfit for the last dholki night was relatively simple after the previous dholkis. I had found this beautiful dupatta in a local store in a rich royal and peacock blue which was covered in gota work (strips of metallic fabric sewn on). I had actually bought this a good few months ago and immediately wanted to save it for my dholki, its traditional and simple, yet looked striking. I also loved it because it reminded me of the sort of thing my mum used to wear when she was younger.

I got a matching plain royal blue silk salwar kameez outfit stitched to match with the outfit, I wanted something simple which wouldn't cost too much and would comfy, especially if I ended up getting some mehndi stains on it!

This is how I wore it, I didn't get to take too many pictures because I soon got very busy, but you can see that I went for more of a Punjabi-style outfit; a short kameez with a loose salwar for bottoms. I love the vivid blue of the outfit and the dupatta, which was quite big so I had to keep draping it.

The dholki kicked off when my mehndi artist arrived to start on my bridal henna, which she ended up spending more than two hours on, doing intricate detail on my hands and feet. I didn't want mehndi further than my elbows because my bridal outfit was full-sleeved, but I did want really intricate designs so I gave my mehndi artist a few pictures for ideas of what I preferred, and she used that as inspiration for my final design.

This is my bridal henna (in progress and the end results!) on the night of the dholki, picture credits go to my sister! I did get some henna done on my feet as well but I won't post that because I hate pictures of my feet!

While I was doing mine, my sisters, mum, nieces, aunts and some of my friends also got their henna done as well - we didn't end up having enough cones for everyone so some of my sisters waited til the dholki was over and the next night to do their henna!

And of course I couldn't not include one of my toddler nieces getting a small butterfly on her hand from my mehndi artist, although this lasted about five minutes before it got wiped off!

I don't have a lot of pictures of the other guests, but this is me posing with one of my close friends, who wore a beautiful butter-yellow outfit and some amazing head-piece jewellery!

I also have a shot of two of my nieces wearing matching outfits in different colours eating some crisps they managed to persuade my mum to give them!

I really enjoyed this dholki, especially because it gave me an excuse to be the viewer and sit and watch everyone dance, sing and generally be silly without joining in! It was also really nice to have one last girly night with all of the family and friends before the big day - wedding post coming next!