Lehngas and Anarkalis

Okay. It still feels so odd saying this because I can barely wrap my head around it but my best friend got married last July!

It feels so bizarre, because it was a sort of reality check that screamed:
HEY! WE’VE GROWN UP!
It all started with a phone call on the night of Christmas.

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“Hey, so uhm, I just got engaged” she said.

I wasn’t sure I heard right so I frantically asked her to repeat what she said but deep down I knew I heard every single word clear as crystal. Instead of having a million thoughts bobble in my head trying to connecting the dots, instead of thinking of how this made sense I just screamed “To who?!” as she giggled as she told me who it was.

“what??? how why when?!” I asked while my mind was going completely blank.
“Yeah, his parents just left and everything is settled and, well, I’m engaged now!”
She slowly tried to explain but I was having trouble processing the fact that my best friend, that friend whom I’ve had the best memories with, that friend who I grew up with, that friend is engaged. My head was spinning as I attempted to grasp that fact.

She finished explaining and I was speechless. She was getting engaged the the boy who had been in love with her since I could remember. Why couldn’t I wrap my head around it? I knew it may happen someday. Heck, I even asked her about it that Summer but she shrugged it off and asked me to forget about it. So I did.
That’s why it came as even a bigger a shock for me. I had suggested it and she shrugged it off like I asked her to eat her vegetables.

“Okay, well. I think I need some time to digest this. I’ll call you back” I said to her before calling her back two days later and asking her to explain everything all over again.

Then it hit me: what the heck am I going to wear?!

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After a whole lot of thinking (especially on my mom’s part) we finally managed to find a solution to my outfits for the Indian wedding coming up in July.

The bride was going to India to find her own Indian outfits and was kind enough to pick some out for me as well! And a damn good job she did.

There were three main events and two other events were much more private and personal.

The outfits here are the ones picked out by my friend and worn to the three main events: The Mehndi/Sangeet, where we put on henna and dance till our knees kick in, the Pheras, where the bride and groom spiritually get married, and the Reception.

Firstly, for those of you who don’t know, a lehnga is typically an Indian outfit that consists of a long skirt and a crop top with a dupatta draped in the way of choice.

Here is the beautiful blue/violet and pink lehnga I wore  for the Mehndi/Sangeet. This is the outfit I surprisingly managed to dance in…

I paired it with matching bangles in gold and pink with a little hint of blue in between.

The blouse of this lehnga originally came in only the print you see in these pictures, so excluding the see-through material at the top. This blouse was custom-made with added material.

No outfit is complete without the accessories! (AKA a set!)

I got this set from Amazon. It was actually quite a miracle that it arrived on time. And my mom and I were nervous to buy jewelry off of Amazon.. but it all turned out perfectly!
It was a set of earrings with matching necklace and chindi. I ended up not wearing the chindi for long because it just would not stay on my head, haha.
This set matched absolutely perfectly with my lehnga.

This lehnga was so perfect for the night. The beautiful gold border at the bottom just made the piece! The chiffon material of the duppatta (pink material draped around me) was a little difficult to work with and in these pictures it hasn’t been ironed either, oops!

For the next event (Pheras), I wore an anarkali. This is basically a long a-line dress with leggings and a dupatta. Only in this case, the dupatta isn’t the star of the outfit.

This anarkali was a stunning sky-blue colour with bronze detailing. This anarkali was a whole lot heavier than it looks because of the design! The entire dress had heavy work and looked even more stunning in person.

The best part of this outfit was the detail of the design! It was absolutely gorgeous.

I went with matching bronze gold bangles with just a touch of blue in between.

I also wore jhumkas aka earrings that matched this anarkali, however, I wasn’t able to get a photo of those…

The last event was the reception, which was also on the day of the pheras, only at night.

I honestly didn’t have a lot of pictures taken that night.. We were all just so exhausted! And the photographer disappeared, too…

This lehnga was a bright orange and pink beauty! I absolutely loved this one. I never would have thought I’d like a lehnga in these colours so much!

The photographer caught a picture of me from the back on the dance floor! The best part about this lehnga is the back of the blouse!

The skirt itself was actually an orange with some yellow gold … shine? As you can see in the following picture, my skirt looks quite yellow while in reality it’s just the angle of the light that made it look so yellow! 

As you can see here, the skirt is orange in normal lighting:

Like I said, the back of the blouse! Absolutely loved the detailing on this one!!

I absolutely fell in love with the border. It’s a flat print in the sweetest colours! Orange and pink! I’m honestly not a huge fan of orange, but I really liked this lehnga. The following picture is of the front, where the dupatta covers the front of the lehnga.

Oops, kind of wrinkled, this one…

I paired this lehnga with another beautiful pearl gold set I got from Amazon! It fit perfectly with the lehnga I was wearing. Since the lehnga itself was quite bright and colourful, I opted for a more neutral-coloured jewelry set. It came with matching necklace and earrings with a chindi, too. (which I wasn’t able to photograph, either)

The bangles that went with this look were similar to the ones I wore with the other lehnga, only these had more yellow and a lighter pink. The gold bangles were also more bronzey than the other set of bangles of the blue and pink lehnga.

And that rounds up my outfits for the main events! There was still the civil wedding and the thread ceremony. However, those were older outfits and I didn’t manage to photograph those. These were the star of the show!

I also went all out with my makeup and was quite proud of how it turned out 70% of the time. Because of all the craziness I wasn’t able to actually get proper pictures of my outfits on the day itself let alone my makeup! I was the maid of honour and took my job seriously! Haha. I enjoyed it so much, though!

I fell in love with my lehngas no matter how self-conscious I am of my belly. I thought they looked amazing! Besides that, I had a whole ton of fun, too and would love to relive it! I would especially want to relive the night of the sangeet because it was the most fun I had!

Full of energy and happiness for my best friend, the music was good, the people were good, everyone was and looked amazing! But the one who was the most stunning was, of course, the bride. No one could beat her even if they tried!

I don’t do these types of posts often, but I had fun writing this one anyway. It was nice to be able to relive the first two weeks of my summer holiday. Oh, how I miss it, though…

Until next time,

XVX