May 28

The reason I am writing this article is because I got married very recently. A very few people are lucky enough not just to find their ideal man, but to get married to that man in an ideal wedding.

We are from the South of India, so we had a Telugu style wedding. The traditional way to start the wedding is to offer prayers to the Lord Vinayaka, who is said to watch over the wedding, making sure that everything goes perfect. The traditional wedding dress of most Indian weddings is a “saree” and that was what I went to shop for next. I was adamant on getting a Kanchi silk saree known as “kanchi pattu”. Red is the most commonly worn color for most brides, followed by yellow. Black is almost never worn.

All brides go on some crash diet or another to look that perfect size, which is the most common mistake most brides tend to make. Starving yourself is not the best choice during the midst of planning a wedding, as brides might end up looking tired and malnourished during the ceremony and in the photographs. The wisest thing to do is stick to a normal diet. Have lots of water, to protect against dehydration or fresh fruit juices to keep you going. I remember one wedding of a close friend, and at first instance I thought I was at some other wedding. The reason was that my friend looked totally different, so try not to overdo the make up and jewelry. It’s not about looking extremely different, but looking the best YOU can look.

One of the most important parts of the wedding is the food. Mostly, a typical wedding spread includes around 15- 20 dishes including starters, entrees and main courses. As most south indians are vegetarians, the food is kept mostly vegetarian, and includes things like vegetable biryani, lentil soups, vegetable curries etc.

: Of course, dessert is not be underestimated, as it is a sweet occasion that is marked. : There is an array of desserts to choose from on your wedding. Rice puddings, dry fruit sweets, gulab jamun etc. are also excellent choices. Before the actual ceremony, celebration goes on at the both the bride and grooms house for quite a few days. Traditionally on the brides side, the most popular function that goes on is the “henna” function, where the brides hands and feet are adorned with henna tattoos. Another popular function is called sangeet where family and friends of both the sides gather and engage in singing, dancing and dinner.

Most Indian weddings are quite large and include a long guest list. The whole wedding tends to last over a few days at least. Usually all costs are endured by the brides family and can range from the hundreds to thousands of dollars. Many videos of Indian wedding celebrations can be found online.

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May 21

I recently married the love of my life, and that prompted me to write this article. Most people spend their whole lives looking for the perfect man or the perfect wedding, but lucky for me, I had both those things!

Our wedding was Telugu style as we belong to Southern India. To make sure that all goes well, and the wedding is blessed, we start off by offering prayers to Lord Vinayaka. The next step was to find the perfect wedding dress, and I started to shop around for a “kanchi pattu” saree, which is the made of the finest kanchi silk. Red and yellow are considered lucky for the bridal colors and black is considered quite the opposite.

 

Most brides make the mistake and go on very strict diets to drop down sizes to look nice and thin for their wedding. Crash dieting is a bad idea, since a bride needs to be healthy during stressful wedding planning, and might end up looking tired in the ceremony or in the photographs. The best thing to do is to continue your normal eating habits, and to keep it healthy. Do have large quantities of water and juices to keep from being dehydrated and to keep you going strong. Once I was thought I was mistaken and ended up at someone else’s wedding and not my friend’s. My friend looked so different with heaps of make up on, that I couldn’t even recognize her, so try to keep it simple and be yourself. Keep the jewelry and make up minimal. Try not to look like someone else, but to look the best version of yourself.

Food and catering is a vital part of an Indian wedding. The wedding dinner is an assortment of at least 15 dishes including the main course, appetizers, and side dishes. The wedding spread mainly contains vegetarian delicacies and includes vegetable curries, dosa, rice biryani, etc.

Dessert and sweet dishes are also an important part of the wedding as they symbolize an auspicious occasion. Choices of sweets are quite wide and may include traditional indian sweets, like laddu, barfee etc. to mark the occasion. Aside from the wedding ceremony, there is a party and pre-wedding ceremonies going on at both the bride and groom’s houses. These days, the most common function at the brides house is that of the henna function. This is where women gather and they decorate the brides hands and feet with beautiful henna designs and tattoos. Another pre-wedding party is for “sing-song” or “sangeet”, where songs are sung and people sing and dance through the late hours of night.

Indian weddings are usually quite grand in scale, and include a long list of guests, family and friends. Rejoicing and feasting continues for several days over the week. The cost of the wedding is covered mainly by the brides family and can cost a lot. Some footage of Indian wedding ceremonies and parties are available on the internet.

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May 18

 

The Indian tradition of intricate painting and design is also one of things that is very prominent in Indian wedding cakes. This is probably where the concept of using Henna cake has originated.

Indian wedding cakes are not different from other cakes that are used in other weddings. The only thing that makes them distinct is the design that is used in making the cake. Indian wedding cakes are known for their unique and traditional designs. To be fitted for the occasion, intricate designs are put into these cakes. You can tell the culture which the cake originated from by the way it is designed. In the case of Indian wedding cakes today, blending the modern world with the past culture is always a challenge. Even if the ingredients that they have are already adapted from western cultures, there is always that traditional sense present in the patterns and designs.

Nowadays, the prices of wedding cakes are the primary reason why a lot of people prefer doing it themselves. This is the same thing with Indian wedding cakes. All you need to do is to have the ingredients and the necessary equipments for baking the cake. How do you go about making your Indian wedding cake?

1. The cake selection. The first thing that you need to do is choose the type of Indian cake you like. You can look over the bridal magazines or sites online that are offering a variety of Indian wedding cake ingredients and designs. Since Indian wedding cakes are known for their intricate designs, you can adapt the most common designs that some Indian couples have made in their wedding cakes. But if you are creative enough, you can come up with one of your own. The ingredients that you choose should not be hard to find. You can choose from a wide selection of flavors that are available in all other wedding cakes.

2. Making the cake. Once all the ingredients and the necessary cooking equipments are prepared, you can now bake the Indian cake that you want. You can start by making plans on how your cake will look like. How many layers do you want it? How big does it have to be? These are some of the questions that you need to answer first before you bake your Indian wedding cake. One way of doing it is to make a trial cake. This will ensure that the taste will turn out exactly the way you want it. Also, this will be the basis on how the final wedding cake will look like.

Having a trial created will help you decide if you want to make some necessary changes that you do not want to have in the final Indian wedding cake. You can try and enlist the help of the expert in baking wedding cakes. They can give you tips on how to prepare the icing or the pillars if you do not have any basic idea about them. Making your own Indian wedding cake cannot only save you some money, you can also come up with the design and style that you wanted. The good thing about making your own Indian cake is that you can make certain that it is baked to perfection. Moreover, your Indian wedding cake will surely be one of a kind.

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May 14

As I got married just now I wrote this article. My marriage felt to be an exceptional one to me as I was blessed with both an ideal partner and a ceremony that I desired.

I had my marriage ceremony the Andhra Style. My ceremony began with a prayer to Lord Vinayaka so that there would be no troubles while it’s going on. : A bride’s attire in India is mostly saree. I chose to wear a saree too and hence went and purchased a Kanchi Pattu saree.

 

Yellow and red are opted to be fortunate colors for a special occasion such as marriage. Blacks are opted out for these days. : Most ladies make tend to desire a slim look on the day of their wedding and hence they blunder by going hungry. Controlling the food intake excessively, right before the marriage days make them look drained and worn out during the ceremony and in the photos. My suggestion is to eat properly. Also see to it that you include a lot of liquid into the diet as the busy schedule can be tiring. It so happened that when I had gone to an invited ceremony of a friend of mine, for a minute I just thought I was at the wrong place. A lot of make up made her seem appear like a different person. Hence see to it that you get a teat of the make up to be done before hand. Keep it neat and undemanding and you will look beautiful. This is your wedding, so be your best that day.

The meal is a vital component that makes a complete ceremony. A marriage meal constitutes of about 15 main courses, 5 garnishes and about 5 appetizers. As most south indians are vegetarians, the food is kept mostly vegetarian, and includes things like vegetable biryani, lentil soups, vegetable curries etc. Of course, dessert is not be underestimated, as it is a sweet occasion that is marked. There is an array of desserts to choose from on your wedding. Rice puddings, dry fruit sweets, gulab jamun etc. are also excellent choices. In the bride’s house, henna ritual is popular these days, and the bride’s hands and legs are colored beautifully for the event. A musical called the ‘Sangeet’ is blissfully arranged for the joyous dancing of all concerned throughout the night.

Indian weddings warrant lot of expenditure involving many guests. A traditional Indian wedding can last anywhere from a few days to a week. Events before the marriage are usually paid by the bride’s family and can cost up to a few hundred thousand dollars. You should check out examples of a traditional Indian wedding online.

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May 11

FIVE THOUSAND years ago was born the desire to adorn oneself and thus took root Indian jewellery. India being a “gem-bearing” country has been a treasure trove of various precious stones and has enticed many a traveller, trader and invader alike. Transgressing through time and history, Indian jewellery has not remained just a craft, but evolved into an art – both in design and workmanship. For the rulers, jewels were a statement of power, prosperity and prestige. But for the Indian woman, jewellery was and is, even today in many parts considered as a security, the value of which will almost always accentuate, never depreciate. Temple jewellery: Classical and traditional in its appearance, temple jewellery is commonly associated with dancers practicing the dance form of Bharatanatyam or Kuchipudi. Temple jewellery is characterised by some of the finest handwork, painfully crafted by skilled craftsmen and jewellers.

Due to the finesse required in crafting it, the time required to deliver the jewellery may sometimes even go up to a year, depending on the number of pieces required. But one sight at the final product and most of customers will forget the agony of their wait. From earrings to necklaces to pieces for adorning the hair, feet, hip and even the plait, the temple jewellery that is custom-made, according to the measurements of the customer, is surely an enviable possession.

 

Made with uncut rubies (pucchakallu), emeralds, uncut diamonds (param), pearls, sapphire and other precious stones with the foundation in gold. The price range could be anywhere between Rs. 80,000 for a pair of jhumkas (earrings) to several lakhs for necklaces and other specialised items. A set for a dancer, meeting all her requirements for the perfect adornment could be between Rs. 8,00,000 to Rs. 15,00,000. Says Kirtilal’s manager Gunashekar, “the reason for the expensive nature of temple jewellery is obviously the making charge, which itself is almost one-third of the total cost. Even today, the original temple jewellery is made only by certain craftsmen, who have to follow stringent requirements during the course of making it, like maintaining a cool temperature (as heat could damage the delicate gold threading), total concentration on each set due to the intricacy involved (which means taking up only one order at a time), and so on.

The creation of necklaces, rings and so forth is a time honored tradition that evolves as mankind does showing how our tastes, cultures, desires, needs and passions have changed as well along our journey.

May 11

The most important rule of an Indian wedding that everyone should remember is that it’s never about the people getting married. Even though the idea revolves around holy matrimony where two people are bound for life the truth is more closely related to a social event where customs and rituals have to be followed for a successful wedding followed by marriage. As for any wedding the most important apparel for the bride is the wedding dress which completely depends on the location and culture the person belongs to however the most conventional and universally accepted wedding wear is a sari.

If the wedding is conducted for a lady whose roots are from south India then the choice of the sari fabric should be south Indian silk from the state of Kerela. If the girl is from north India the choice of fabric should revolve around a Banarsi silk sari for socio ethnic reasons. The other acceptable wear is a “gahgra choli” also known as a “chania choli” which is essentially a long flowing skirt and a short top with a scarp. The fabric used for a ghagra choli is silk as well. The best colors to use for a wedding dress are red, orange, bright yellow, turquoise, royal blue and purple.

The most common mistake that women make while preparing for the wedding is that they generally miss out on minute details that please them in order to make every one around happy which is not often a choice but an obligation. The greatest errors are in the choice of the kind of jewelry. Even though everyone around would be at their best to coax the bride into wearing heavy gold jewelry one must know that the ceremony lasts hours and the more jewelry on you the more weight on you and hence the more exhaustion. Hence it’s wiser to wear gold jewelry which is hollow so that it gives the effect of being solid.

Most Indian food are delicacies, the only thing that one needs to make sure is that vegetarian food and no-vegetarian food is served at different tables more over the only universally acceptable meat that can be served at an Indian wedding is mutton, chicken and fish. Since most Indian wedding are considered to be the union of not only two people but that of two families all pre-wedding events must be held at both the bride and groom’s place so that both families get to know each other. As for the expenses for Indian weddings sky is the limit. The more grand you make it the more the expenses sore.

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May 7

My wedding that took place lately caused me to do this piece of writing. I had a guy just right for me and a ceremony just as I wanted. Hence I was feeling so nice and special.

My matrimony took place in a South Indian, Telugu manner. In order to drive away any hindrance and issues during my marriage, we initiated it by asking Lord Vinayaka for his blessings. Sarees are the most common outfit for a bride in the Indian custom. Hence I brought myself a ‘Kanchi Pattu’ saree.

 

 

Dressed in attires that have any tint of red or yellow and never black is assumed to be very lucky. The craving to loose a little weight before marriage makes women not eat properly, and sometimes not eat at all. A worn out face for the marriage and in the photos will be the result if one stops eating amidst the busy schedule. To have your food well and balanced is the best possible advise I can give you. In order to prevent the tight schedule from wearing you out always remember to have a lot of fluids like water and juices. I thought I landed at the wrong ceremony when I once went to attend a friend’s matrimony. My friend seemed to look so unusually strange due to a lot of make up. It is advisable to have light and neat makeup. Also do not forget to see a trial of the make up to be put before hand. Your look should be elegant and the best you have ever looked. It’s your marriage.

A wedding ceremony can never be complete without food. Around 15 principal dishes, 5 frills and starters is what makes a complete wedding presentation. The wedding spread mainly contains vegetarian delicacies and includes vegetable curries, dosa, rice biryani, etc.

Dessert and sweet dishes are also an important part of the wedding as they symbolize an auspicious occasion. Choices of sweets are quite wide and may include traditional indian sweets, like laddu, barfee etc. to mark the occasion. Mehendi Ceremony is catching up in every wedding nowadays, where intricate drawings with henna are done on the hands and legs of the bride. ‘Sangeet” or the song and dance programmes go on till early hours of the morning, where all are free to perform and enjoy.

Indian weddings are quite expensive as every detail is paid attention too and invites are many. The totality of the wedding celebrations is anywhere from a few days to one whole week. The cost of the pre-wedding events can range from a few thousand to several hundred thousand dollars; pre-wedding events are usually paid for by the bride’s family. If you would enjoy seeing examples of an Indian wedding, there are videos online.

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May 4

The first step to prepare for Indian wedding is to make up their mind to follow the tradition of their culture. The dresses for the wedding must be taken from the opposite house that is for the bride the dress should be taken by the bride groom’s parents. Like that the opposite house should take the dresses. Then jewels for the girl should be taken according to the boy’s parent’s instruction, if there is any or it depends on their own interest. Most women will choose their jewels and dresses with high weight which will disturb them a lot while standing for the wedding. So it is advisable to choose less weight silk sarees.Only sarees should be worn by the girl at the time of wedding. While the boy should wear paijama which should also be in silk material. The most important thing in an Indian wedding is the traditional foods. The food should start from keeping salt in the plate to sweet. That is the food should include a roti with side dish, a fried vegetable, three to five variety of curries , a fruit salad,pappet, a donut ,sweet ,milk shake and ice cream. There will be many pre events which will be done by the relatives. The function will be done for both the bride and bride groom. It will be like the relatives will put some traditional ornaments for the bride and groom. To do a simple Indian wedding without any pre events, the cost will vary from two to three lakhs.While for a very grant traditional Indian marriage ,the cost will vary from 15 lakhs to twenty lakhs.

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