Radhi Jangla, a graphic designer married Mumbai Stock broker Aditya Vora. She shares her experiences.

At the Taj President, Cuffe Parade

In my teenage years I was rebellious and quite a tom-boy, Advertising & design was my career choice and I had never imagined my wedding to be a big fat Gujju one. They say love makes the world go round, but mine was a step further - it was turned inside out and upside down. Having worked with wedding card designer Sindoor Shah (www.sindoorcouturedesigns.com) may or may not have made my life easier - even a day before the wedding I kept saying. "I wish I was attending my wedding." But the best thing is that on the Wedding day me and Aditya had a complete ball and lots of fun!

Rewind- four months before the wedding, I had lived in USA for long, where there were no social obligations on the dress front, my Indian wardrobe was quite boring and drab-- my deep loathe for shopping gave me palpitations at the thought of dressing up or getting a makeover. I soon discovered a different side to me, and started enjoying all the attention and shopping jaunts around town. Everyone around me started coming together to get me ready and dolled up for the big day.

The Sangeet (Pallavi Jaikishen) & Reception (Anamika Khanna) outfit were my first purchases. The wedding was just after the reception-so I was unsure if I could change after the reception, due to time constraints-thank god, I finally did. For the Mehendi, I wanted to wear a salwar kameez, but when I saw this creation by Manish Malhotra, I knew I had to wear it.

The Sangeet

The Mehendi

The Reception

So, it turned out (not planned and surprisingly) my favourite outfit was the Wedding one, which was designed just one month before-by an upcoming designer Ekta Shah (label name Ekayana). Two months of scouting for the perfect Wedding dress and I knew exactly what I wanted. The rest of my outfits being ghagras I opted for a lehenga sari. Since my reception outfit was maroon-red I picked the traditional panetar colors (red and off-white with gold) for the wedding. I added an additional chunri for my head, which unlike the traditional style was not tied to the groom's chunri to avoid discomfort, tugging and messing up of the hair during the pheras. Mehera Kolah- my magician of a make-up artist gave me this valuable suggestion.

We wanted our wedding venues to be a little different from the typical Bombay wedding venues. Except for the Sangeet which we hosted at popular venue Taj President, the venues for the other functions, were a little offbeat. The Mehendi was at the Wodehouse Gymkhana and the Wedding & Reception at Silver Arch & Urvashi Gardens in Nepean Sea Road.