While the bride wears white/ivory in many American or European weddings, brides in India wear red. Red is a symbol of life, fertility and joy in India. Meenu, our bride to the right, symbolizes the typical North Indian Bride. She wears a lehnga choli heavily embroidered with gold metal pieces. These dresses can easily weigh 20 lbs or more without the bridal jewelry and other items added later by well wishers. What happens when East and West collide? You get a bride wanting both worlds. Melanie, our bride to the left, had her lehnga choli custom dyed to reflect both of the worlds she is  part of. White for American traditions and red for Indian traditions. Her own dress was decorated "lightly" with metallic pieces but even a light dress was very heavy for her and at times, it took two or three pairs of hands to help her to a standing position. For information on ordering your own bridal lehnga choli or sari, please contact us at info@pardesiservices.com

Henna. Mehndi. The strong green powder that is used to make brides and women beautiful. Henna is probably one of the oldest cosmetics we have. The only drawback is that henna has to remain on the skin without any interruption from touch, water, etc. for many hours to develop the deep mahogany shade women hold dear. After 3 hours of application for the hands and feet, Melanie was instructed to keep her henna on for the entire day and even to sleep with it if possible. After 7 hours, she could not take it anymore and scrubbed it from her skin. Meenu, on the other hand, was able to sleep in hers and it remained on her skin for more than 12 hours. Meenu explained to Melanie, "This thing (mehndi) becomes like an obsession with us (brides). It is our pride."

If you would like to learn more about wedding customs in North India, please click here: Wedding Customs