The first thing on the checklist for a bride is to finalize her wedding lehenga. I was really late for my lehenga shopping and could only start it 60 days before my wedding. Ideally I would suggest all to-be brides to start looking for a lehenga at least 5-6 months before the wedding. It will save you the last minute jitters. Thanks to my habit of procrastinating things, I was checking wedding lehengas online more than visiting actual stores. Since we had limited time left and I was already panicking, me and my fiancé decided to do our wedding shopping together. He says it’s all a part of the getting married experience!! 🙂
The journey for the search of my wedding lehenga began in South-extension!!
My wedding is a traditional Brahmin wedding and we are supposed to wear a saree before we sit in the mandap for the rituals. So the lehenga was only supposed to be worn for the Jaimala function before the actual wedding. I am then supposed to change to a silk saree(mostly banarasi is worn) and he is supposed to wear a silk kurta with dhoti.
So I didn’t have a huge budget in mind for my lehenga as I am only supposed to wear it for 1.5-2 hours. After much delay finally on the first Saturday of December, one of my friend and I were walking around in South Ex to check out the wedding collection. I was obviously aware of the exorbitantly high prices of the lehengas stacked therein, but just wanted to give it a try and gain some knowledge about what is trending in the market.
The first shop we went to was Frontier Raas to check out a few of their bridal collection. Most of the lehengas they had were too blingy. The blinginess of the lehengas increased with the price. The auntijee with her daughter sitting next to me were also checking out wedding lehengas. They were uncontrollably arguing with the manager to give them a 10k discount since they would also be buying a suit for the wedding. I don’t know whether they succeeded or not, but I decided I cannot negotiate to this extent for the price.
They had some awesome lehengas but the one which caught my attention was a beautiful peach lehenga with a pink blouse. It was a raw silk lehenga with Zari brocade and floral motif embroidery in zari and resham. I tried the lehenga and I knew that this is the kind of work that I am looking for. I knew I had to change the colors of the lehenga since my to-be sister in law who is getting married 4 days before me is wearing the same color combination.
It was the perfect lehenga for me. It was elegant yet stylish and had a lovely work. It seemed like it was made for me. We saw few other pretty designs but everything was really overpriced and nothing was as good as what I had just tried. I had fallen for the lehenga and wanted something of that sort for my wedding. I wish I was richer!
We continued our search for a lehenga within our budget but in vain. Finally we landed in Ushnak mal which was way cheaper than the rest of the shops in South Ex. However the kind of lehenga that I was looking for was still above my budget. They had some nice designs and but I found nothing which could match my expectations or was similar to the one I had tried at Frontier Raas.
I had to somehow get a similar lehenga. But how?
My stress levels were increasing several folds with every shop I was visiting. Will I get a lehenga of my choice within my budget? Finally once my fiancé arrived, we decided to go to Chandni chowk to look for a similar lehenga but in a different color. The color combinations that I had mind was blue and pink or the traditional red and green.
I had seen almost 100 lehengas and had checked out almost every nook and corner of Chandni chowk to find something similar. This is how I landed in Ritu Dzign. They had some nice lehengas which fitted my budget but nothing really caught my eye.
I had shown few pictures of the lehengas I had found online to give the shopkeepers an idea of what I was looking for. They all promised to re-create the lehenga but had nothing similar for display in the shop. You can’t risk your wedding lehenga in the hands of strangers. I was about to lose all hopes when the salesman unfolded the 25th piece before me. There it was! Exactly the way I wanted it to be. Not too subtle not too blingy. The perfect one for my taste!!
I placed the order immediately and just ordered to change the color of the blouse to green. The lehenga was a bit messy- the threads were falling out, the fabric was unstitched and the gher didn’t look much when I tried.
I still get jitters thinking when how would I look in the lehenga. Would he do a good job? What if it doesn’t look good? What will I do if the color combination doesn’t look that great? Would I have to buy another lehenga? Argh!
The wait to get my lehenga is long. Most of the shops in Chandni chowk take 45-60 days for the stitching and this is really not helping. I still have nightmares thinking about it. I am yet to receive my lehenga and I am just keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully they do a good work on it.
