Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Tanishq

My mom is leaving for Pakistan next weekend, and hopefully she'll be able to get my wedding jewelry while there. I went to a few stores (locally) and the selection was a little outdated and dull. I came across Tanishq online the other day and am currently in a frenzy printing out photos for the inspiration book I'm making for my mom. My favorites are from the Wedding and Aleya Collections.



Photos taken from tanishq.co.in

Tanishq, by the way, is the designer responsible for Aishwarya Rai's Mughal Empress jewelry in the 2008 film Jodhaa Akbar.



Jodhaa Akbar pictures taken from fansite: aishwarya-rai-in-jodha-akbar.blogspot.com

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Makeup

I'm not a fan of the matchy-matchy makeup a lot of South Asian brides go for. Your lengha is pink and purple? No, your eyelids do not need to be contoured in pink and purple. I feel the same about red lipstick. I love a red lip, but it's almost a rite of passage..like to some overbearing aunties, you aren't even a considered a bride without the signature red lip. NOT EVERYONE LOOKS GOOD IN RED LIPSTICK.

With that said, here's a picture of Lydia Hearst. I love, and much prefer, her style of makeup (and hair too!) to the aforementioned peel-n-seal eyeshadow.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Getaway

via cinemavehicles.com

My fiance originally suggested a classic 2 seater for our getaway car. I think limos are a little overrated, so I was intrigued. My dream car as a child was a red corvette (maybe because of the constant Prince playing from my sister, maybe because of Barbie's pink version), so my dad started buying me models of corvettes, as well as a huge fact book of every model from the past few decades (I may have briefly been the son my dad never had lol). It was then when it changed from a red corvette to a '69 stingray. Google image it, it's really beautiful. It's safe to say I love the classic car idea. My sister (who should now just be dubbed the Wedding Planner) suggested an old pickup truck, which at the time, I thought could maybe be cute, but could also be kinda farmer-ish, which really didn't go with my plan! Well, I stand corrected. Look at that 1962 Chevrolet Blue Pickup...

A girl can dream, can't she?

Nails Done, Hair Done, Everything Did

My sister sent me this picture a few days ago and I am obsessing over this model's hairstyle.


There's something very traditional but chic to it. Not to mention her tika and jhoomar (jewelry on her forehead and the side of her head) are beautiful, though I don't think I'd opt for a jhoomar. Too much hardware going on for my comfort. Her jewelry set in general is extremely heavy.

Right now it's logged as #1 for my wedding day hairstyle, jumping ahead of Kim Kardashian's beehive from the recent Critics Choice Awards.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

True Colors

The Dress. Probably the biggest concern of every bride-to-be. You have your general style, shape, and cut. Then there's length, sleeves, veil, fabric, etc etc etc. For South Asian brides, I'm pretty sure the first question to answer is "What color?" For the traditional white wedding, there's white, ivory, and if you're feeling daring, champagne. I've seen SA brides in just about every shade of the rainbow, but the traditional go-to is red, and has been for just about all of time. Most brides wear red, and somehow, it usually seems to look good on them. Red is actually my favorite color. When given the chance, I will almost always choose it, especially that deep blood shade. So I always thought my wedding dress would be red. That was until I was browsing around bargello.com awhile back and saw this:

**Buyer beware: I'm pretty sure Bargello is all fakes

The reason I fell in love with this lengha was because of the colors. I love antique gold, and prefer it to yellow gold any day. Not to mention, makeup in earth tones just tends to suit my features better. So after seeing this, I was sold on choosing a neutral color for my wedding dress. I sent for a swatch to get a better idea of the colors and beadwork, and the white was too white; not as ivory as it looked in the picture. After weeks of google searches, all I knew was that I wanted something classically decadent with antiqued beading, in a neutral earthy color, and in the style of a longer top and subtly flared skirt. Now, if I were going to Pakistan to get my wedding dress made, that teeny list of notes would have been sufficient. I could've picked any fabric, had it dyed any color, beadwork of my choice, custom tailoring...a true one-of-a-kind lengha in my style. But given the ongoing political turmoil in Pakistan, I decided to forego my annual trip and just go shopping here (Artesia is great for Southern Californian-South Asian brides...Mirage in particular is my favorite store and where I've already done an absurd amount of wedding shopping). About a thousand trips back to google images and here were my main sources of inspiration:

HSY Bridal

A design from Samar Mehdi (probably my favorite Pakistani designer)

Hassan Sheheryar Yasin and his models (2009 I think, my main color inspiration)

So how do you describe that color? It's kind of brown, kind of gold, kind of dusty grey...but that doesn't really translate. I decided to take my pictures in, refer to it as champagne, and call it a day.

I went wedding dress shopping last week (at Mirage) and was able to find the shade I wanted in their swatch book (fingers crossed it comes out close to what I'm picturing) and placed an order based off of a few different dresses I tried on that day. I stuck to a longer top (longer than I thought I would choose) that opens into the skirt, which has a train. It should be here in about 3 months and I'm already aching with anticipation...