The Everlasting Beauty of the Sari…CTC West Style

I recently had the pleasure of coming across a wonderful website, Old Indian Photos, which is essentially an archive of photos from the Indian subcontinent. Many of them are simply breathtaking and I have spent hours going through picture after picture. Apparently, Gaurav from CTC West has also fallen in love with this site and posted a series of vintage LIFE magazine pictures documenting “How to tie a sari” a while back. Using these pictures as inspiration, Gaurav selected a team of creative geniuses to recreate the shoot with Canadiana colours and symbols. It’s absolutely breathtaking. I love how the shoot juxtaposes old and new while simultaneously highlighting the everlasting mystique and beauty of the Indian sari.

Credits:

Original Creative Concept: LIFE Magazine 1945
Photography: Christine Lim
Make-Up & Hair: Amplified Soul
Producer: Gurjeet Kaur Bassi
Model: Pardeep Bassi
Assistant: Gagan Bassi
Outfit: CTC West

xoxo,

LBB

Bridalicious Fundamentals 2011

I had a great afternoon at Bridalicious today! It was wonderful meeting a couple fellow bloggers, some amazingly creative and friendly vendors and, more importantly, reconnecting with the wonderful people who helped make my wedding day incredibly memorable. Thank you to Arora Wedding & Event Planning, CTC West, Amplified Soul, G+H Photography, and The Perfect Setting for putting together another informative session.

I promise to post a more detailed description of the afternoon, but thought I’d post some pics from today’s event in the meantime. A caution about the pics: the lighting was beautiful in the venue, but not the greatest for taking pics…and I wouldn’t even label myself an amateur photographer…I just borrowed J’s camera and took some pics of things that look pretty!

xoxo,

LBB

Love these Looks: Lakme Fashion Week

After perusing through the galleries on Lakme Fashion Week, I concluded I was not overly thrilled with the fashion. Some of the looks (e.g., Manish Malhotra) were overdone and offered no inspiration, and other looks were just weird. Below are the stand outs for me (all pics from Lakme Fashion Week):

Anamika Khanna

Sabyasachi

Deburan Mukherjee

Preeti S. Kapoor

Satya Paul

Palavi Mohan (ok…all these dresses are SO ME! Exaggerated shoulders, tight, and short. It’s not for everyone, but I love this look!!! These would be awesome stagette options!)

xoxo,

LBB

Love this Look: Shyamal & Bhumika

Image from SouthAsianBrideMagazine.com

Love the colour combinations, the modern yet still traditional jewelry, the fresh make-up, and the bright pink bindi. She looks modern and vintage at the same time. Love it.

xoxo,

LBB

The Details: Reception Fashion

As promised, I’m posting pics of our reception outfits—well, mostly of my outfit! LOL! I loved my reception lengha–it fit me very well, I felt super sexy, and it was incredibly comfortable. I DANCED ALL NIGHT IN IT (and in my Choos of course!)!!

As you may recall,  I custom ordered my lengha from CTC West.  The process involves going through their samples and deciding which one you liked best. You can modify aspects of the lengha (e.g., colour, shape of blouse, general placement of embroidery) or combine aspects of two samples together. I changed the shape of the blouse, choosing a neckline and backline that I find flatter me. I also slightly changed around the placement of the embroidery. The lengha was made of a soft brocade silk, embroidered primarily with gold and silver sequins, and silver stones.

Here are some pics…

Back of my blouse

Not the most flattering pic (taken while I was sitting during the "Shoe Game"), but I included it because the colour of the lengha is captured well.

I love hair pieces and was intent on getting one for the reception!! I had one custom designed by Mikki Rizvi from Ever Thine–she did an amazing job, particularly given the fact that she never saw a pic of my lengha (I ordered the hair piece before my lengha arrived) and she based her design on a description I gave her in an email!

I thought I’d post a couple pics of my Choos. I *heart* my Choos.

And, last but not least, a pic of Mr. J’s sexy suit. The entire suit–the pants, blazer, vest, shirt, and tie–was custom designed by Garrison Bespoke. Loves it! J looked totally hot. Loved the vest because it gave him the option to take off his blazer while he was dancing, but he still looked put together with the vest on.

Bride & groom, hand in hand.

Bridal lengha: CTC West

Bridal jewelry set: Lebas of India

Hair Piece: Ever Thine

Photography: Kumari Photo & Design

Groom’s suit: Garrison Bespoke

xoxo,

LBB

The Details: Reception Fashion Teaser

Our reception outfits were off the hook. As some of you may
recall, my reception lengha arrived an anxiety-provoking two weeks
before our wedding day, but all the panic was worth it! The
lengha fit perfectly and I felt gorgeous and sexy. J’s light
charcoal suit was a perfect compliment to my purple lengha, and he
looked handsomely hot!!

I am trying to get my favourite reception fashion pics together, and I thought I’d post some teaser pics in the meantime! Enjoy!

 Reception lengha: CTC West

Bridal hair piece: Ever Thine

Bridal mendhi: NJ’s Unique Henna

Groom’s suit, shirt, & tie: Garrison Bespoke

Groom’s shoes: Aldo

Reception decor: The PerfectSetting

Photography: Kumari Photo & Design
xoxo,

LBB

The Details: Wedding Ceremony

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas weekend and got some good boxing day deals! It’s been a weekend packed with family events and lots of food. Can’t complain!

I’ve been working on putting together pictures from the wedding ceremony and reception–yay!! Today is the second installment of “The Details”. First was the mendhi, today is the ceremony.

In a nutshell, the ceremony was simple and beautiful, with emotional moments.

J wore the blue sherwani he always wanted (well…wanted since he decided he would wear a sherwani), and I coordinated in my red lengha with blue stones and blue jewelry. I kept the jewelry to a minimum: earrings, tikka, necklace, and very traditional chuda (wedding bangles). Although I always wanted a naath, I couldn’t find one that matched my jewelry and I didn’t really have time to look! I also opted for simple, traditional chuda rather than the blinged out chuda I see everywhere. I grew up admiring my mom’s traditional chuda and always imagined I would wear similar ones. My lengha was amazingly comfortable and I felt awesome in it.

Make-up wise, I also kept it on the simpler side, but incorporated a little drama with awesome falsies, slightly smokey eye with dark blue shadow, and blue eyeliner. I looked and felt like me, only better.

Below are some pictures taken by the awesome Kumari team. Enjoy!

The next picture is in the above collage, but I wanted to post the full size pic–it’s one of my favourites!!

Here’s a pic of my eye make-up:

And now back to collages!

Venue: Scarborough gurdwara

Bridal lengha: Zedds (ready to wear)

Tikka, earrings, and necklace set: Fashion Valley

Bridal bindis: Indian Costume Jewelry

Wedding chuda: Sartaj

Kaleray: gift from my aunt in India

Make-up: Sherry Van Stone

Hair: Pam from Beauty Bliss

Mendhi/henna: NJ’s Unique Henna Art

J’s sherwani & shoes: Fashion Valley (custom made)

Engagement ring: Birks

Wedding bands: Fine Gold Jewellers

Wedding planners: Arora Weddings & Events

Photography: Kumari Photo & Design

**All pictures were taken by Kumari Photo & Design. I cropped some pictures to fit in the collage. All pictures belong to me. Please ask me for permission to copy any of the photos**

Reception pics are coming up!!

xoxo,

LBB

Pretty lenghas on a lazy Sunday

It’s a muggy, dreary Sunday in Toronto. It’s the kind of day that promotes laziness, sleepiness, and downright unproductive-ness (yes, I just made up a word). It’s been a non-stop week for me and the idea of blogging away, rather than cleaning my room and my bathroom, is very appealing.

Throughout this wedding planning process, I’ve collected and saved copious amounts of inspirational images and photos on my computer–so much that I’ve actually forgotten about some of the pics that I have! In my effort to avoid housework, I started perusing through my pictures again and came across pretty saris and lenghas from Lakme Indian Fashion Week.  I realized that from all the shows, Rocky S’s designs were my favourite.  His collections don’t seem to get much attention from media (at least media that I’ve come across), and I’m not quite sure why. His designs incorporate traditional fabrics and embroidery, but the patterns and and shape of the clothes are fresh and unique. They are also different enough without looking like they are trying to be different.  Effortless style–I like.

The files are pretty large, so I’ll split this post into two. I’ll post the lenghas now and the saris in a follow up post. Enjoy!

I absolutely love the numerous ways the dupatta is draped with the outfits! Definitely inspirational!

(All of the above images are from Vogue India)

I’ll put up the sari post in a few minutes!

xoxo,

LBB

Wedding Trends 2010: Brown Bride Style (Part 2)

Hey all,

Continuation of my previous post, Wedding Trends 2010: Brown Bride Style. The trends already covered: Vintage Styling; Sustainable sit downs; Fashion forward head pieces; Small, intimate affairs.

5. Wedding videos as cinematic events

My sister was married 11 years ago, and we have 3 (maybe more?) VHS tapes full of  wedding footage. It’s boring, uneventful, and did I mention boring? Mercifully, the unedited, 9-hour long wedding sagas of years past is no longer in vogue.

Click on the link below for the video highlights of a grand Sikh wedding by the amazing Phototerra team. They captured the energy and the scope of the wedding impressively well. (A little tidbit for the bhangra fans out there: Watch out for Malkit Singh–he performed at this wedding!!!!)

A  caveat if you’ve never been to an Indian wedding before: this wedding’s a bit on the extravagant end of the spectrum. For those of you coming to my wedding, it will (hopefully) be awesome, but not in the unlimited budget awesome kinda way this wedding was. Malkit Singh will be there, but in the itunes version.

http://phototerra.com/#Portfolios/Videos/Harmanjee & Brahmjot/1

6. Dramatic, tiered cakes

I’m not really feeling this trend. First off, I can’t eat regular cake (I’m allergic to wheat and dairy), and secondly, I think money can be spent elsewhere. Nonetheless, we are entitled to our opinions, and a beautiful cake is priority for many couples. Cakes are universal and can be easily adapted to meld with an Indian wedding.

Beautiful mendhi-inspired cake with gold ribbon. Kinda matches my reception lengha. Cake designed by Schockley's Sweet Shoppe; photo by David Schwartz Photography

Inter-cultural cake topper. How cute. (Image from Novelty Cake Toppers)

7. Bright coloured bridesmaid dresses

Us brown brides have got this one down–bright colours and Indian fashion are like Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski: meant to be!  However…I’m not the biggest fan of matching Indian bridesmaids outfits. The hallmark of Indian design is its one-of-a-kind appeal, and it’s slightly disorienting to see 5 women wearing the same sari or suit. I’m also noticing many Indian brides dressing their bridesmaids in neutral colours, especially beige. With so many beautiful, vibrant options to choose from, why beige???

A cool take on this trend would be to dress your bridesmaids in different bright colours. For example, see pic below of a bride with her bridesmaids. The dresses represent the colours of a rainbow, and they go together beautifully. The overall look is fun, fashionable, and individual. Love it.

Image from Ruffled.com (photo by Joel Flory from Flory Photo)

And now, imagine a bride surrounded by bridesmaids in colourful saris. Pretty, no?

8. Alternative registries

Rather than registering at the Bay for towels or Williams Sonoma for flatware, many couples are creating registries for honeymoons, cars, even their wedding photography. These alternative registries are geared more so for couples living common law prior to marriage.

How do you brown bride-ify this trend? I dunno. Maybe make a registry for your gold wedding jewelry? That ish is crazy expensive.

9. Wedding night staging

For those of us who grew up watching Bollywood movies, seeing the newly married bride and groom enter their room with a beautifully decorated matrimonial bed was a common sight. A Night of Romance, a company based in Toronto and run by two South Asian-Canadian women, borrows from this tradition and specializes in romanticizing the matrimonial suite. Their “Bollywood Night to Remember” package uses South Asian decorative elements to create a sensual suite made for the likes of Abishek and Ashwairya.

That’s all for tonight, folks. I’ll be busy the next few days. My friend from grad school is getting married. I’ll be attending my first Ismaili wedding and I am so excited! It’ll be a fun time catching up with old friends and participating in general wedding awesomeness.

xoxo,

LBB

Reception lengha: Check!

As promised, an update about my reception lengha! So, as I discussed in my previous post, I ventured to CTC West to explore reception lengha options. Based on my previous meeting with Gaurav at Bridalicious, I envisioned a successful shopping outing.

But….I didn’t predict that the first lengha I tried on would be the winner!

Gaurav, who was cuter than I remembered, warmly welcomed me, J, my cousin U, and honourary MOH A into his family’s home. He walked us to the showroom where we were greeted by Gaurav’s lovely parents, two of the most soft-spoken Indian parents I ever met!

CTC West specializes in customization, and they had numerous samples ranging from $1300 and up. Their pieces were beautiful and the room glittered like the engagement ring section at Birks! The samples were arranged according to price range–a transparent and helpful approach that reduces ambiguity and disappointment. I picked up a couple samples in my price range. The first lengha I tried was actually my second choice…it was mauve in a soft brocade with gold and silver embroidery in a whimsical pattern. When I tried it on, it looked amazing!! AND, it was easy to move in–important!!! I felt like “me”…the lengha was  traditional in style, with a mermaid style skirt and a short top, but the pattern was slightly unexpected, which meshed with my clothing personality. I loved it! I didn’t even want to try on the second lengha. When I did, it confirmed that the first lengha was for me. I surprised everyone surprised with my speedy decision, but when I know, I know.

I’m customizing the colour and blouse shape. I’m going with a darker purple and a short blouse with cap sleeves, a low back, and the neck will resemble the pointed-v neck in the diagram below:

I have to wait till August to get my lengha….and I’m feeling slightly anxious!! I chose the colour based on a colour swatch. Because the material is a soft brocade, gold thread is weaved into the material. And so, the final colour of the lengha can be estimated, but the end result with be a surprise nonetheless.

I love the lengha. I love the style. I love the pattern. I love the weight. And I love the price–LBB came in within budget! Yeehaw!

Hopefully, the lengha will be classy and fun, yet sexy…kinda like me…although my level of class really depends on the situation.

xoxo,

LBB