Prarthna Vasudevan
Staying away from heavily embroidered work, Prarthna's trousseau is all about movement and comfort
Manoj & I first exchanged glances at a wedding in Mumbai. A couple of conversations later, we knew where we were headed. Manoj is a Tamilian from Hyderabad and I am a Punjabi Khatri from New Delhi. Since our story was a ‘2 States’ one, we both decided to together plan a beautiful and fun wedding that would integrate both cultures and families.
Punjabi look for Mehndi
For the Mehndi ceremony, I bought a bright red & yellow Phoolkari Dupatta which I got designed into an ethnic looking casual and comfortable dress.
And for the mehndi celebration in the evening, I wore a churidaar suit and teamed it up with flower jewellery. Manoj went traditional with a deep red raw silk kurta with black churidars and a black Nehru Jacket in linen by Karan Nasir.
Indo-western for Sagai-Sangeet
While shopping for my wedding trousseau I came across Punita Dua, a very promising Delhi-based designer at Shahpur Jat Village. I loved her style and creativity and so instantly decided to get my sagai-sangeet lehenga made by her. I wanted to wear an Indo-Western lehenga in coral pink colour, with a lot of body and movement which would look beautiful and graceful to dance in. Punita understood my requirements perfectly and created the most beautiful outfit that I could have ever imagined. She designed the lehenga in coral pink satin and layered it fully with net all over to give it a sheer effect. At the bottom, she added a very broad silver & gold border (with hand-embroidered sequins) and lots & lots of kallis (flairs) to the lehenga that gave it a very distinct and WOW look. She teamed up the lehenga with a zircon-studded golden blouse and a matching sequined dupatta.
Manoj selected a Karan Nasir Semi-Bandgala blazer in black with matching trousers and a soft pink Chinese-Collared shirt to complement my lehenga outfit. To add a fun element to our celebration, we got ourselves a fun cake with our cartoons in the same outfits as ours.
I did not want to miss out on all the dancing and fun on my sangeet. So I got my dear friends Sahiba & Vineet, founders of The Dance Factory, a leading dance and apparel company, to design stylish and dance-friendly salsa heels for me. They customized the most gorgeous and comfortable pair of salsa heels to match my sangeet outfit.
Traditional North & South look for the Wedding
Manoj and I decided to stay away from trousseau with heavily embroidered work as both of us were very clear that we wanted to enjoy our wedding day. I was looking for something elegant with a banarasi touch. Fortunately, a friend of mine introduced me to Roop Sarees at South Extension, which I believe has an assortment of the most beautiful and unique wedding lehengas. Roop Sarees designed an extremely beautiful watermelon red coloured lehenga in banarasi silk with intricate hand embroidery done with antique gold motifs and highlighted with pearls. And an emerald green blouse and a coral red sheer dupatta to go with it. Manoj wore a traditional beige achkan with thread-work and minimal zari embroidery, coupled with a silk jodhpuri churidar- designed by Karan Nasir. For the pagdi, we got chanderi silk cloth dyed in coral red colour to complement my dupatta and the overall look.
Make-up & Hair By Chandni Singh
Chandni Singh was recommended to me by a friend so I decided to meet her in person to discuss my requirements. I instantly fell in love with her work and style, and moreover she was very friendly which made me feel comfortable. Chandni is well-known for her natural and subtle make-up look which is just what I wanted for the day wedding.
The Vidai took place in Tamil style for which I wore a traditional looking emerald and maroon Kanchipuram saree with golden zari bootis all over it and beautiful paisleys all over the border. The beautiful saree was gifted to me by my mother-in-law which she bought from a saree shop in Chennai.
The jewellery for my wedding functions was picked up mostly from Ram Lal Kundan Lal, Art Karat, Chitih Sparkling Gems and a few shops in Chennai. I was very particular about wearing comfortable footwear to be able to enjoy my wedding – the most important day of my life. Stilettos were completely out of the question. So I decided to purchase wedges. Fortunately, I found a beautiful and very comfortable pair of antique gold & pearl ones from Kimaya which totally matched my lehenga.
Manoj and his friends were keen to get Manoj to dance in the baarat. So we decided to get a convertible vintage car for him to arrive in for the wedding. And later his family and friends bade us farewell in the same car. Manoj likes to joke about it that he lost his independence in a 1947 Buick Shikar Tourer
Photography by Photo Tantra
Getting the husband-wife duo (Vinayak Das and Snigdha Sheel) to capture our special moments was one of our best decisions of our wedding.
Prarthna is a Brand Manager for a leading media company. And Manoj is a social entrepreneur.
