5 Beautiful Bridal Braids for Your Wedding

Who doesn’t use pinterest to plan their wedding?  I certainly wish it were around when planning mine!   I found these fabulous bridal braid ideas that I thought would be perfect for your mehndi or your wedding. 

 

1)  This gorgeous braided up-do!

Image

 

2) Love this Katniss inspired side-braid 

Katniss

Image via Hunger Games

 

3) This gorgeous crown braid – how stunning would this be with your “dupatta”?

crown braid

Image via Pinterest

4)  For the bride who wants her hair down, this gorgeous half-up, half-down bridal do

Half up half down hair do, braids

Image via Pinterest

 

5) And finally, my personal favorite, this floral braid which would be seriously perfection for a mehdni

Flower braid

Image via Pinterest

 

Which braid would you rock at your wedding or mehdni!?  Sound off below!

 

Related Posts:

Traditional Pakistani Mehdni, with a twist!

Mehdni Photo Inspiration

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Pakistani/Indian Bridal Trousseau: How to Select and Order Your Bridal Dresses on Facebook

I’ve taken a hiatus from blogging, but I’m back!  Hopefully with more posts and more wedding planning excitement and tips for brides in the midst of planning.  As a reminder, if you’ve just gotten married or had a super sweet engagement session, submit your pix!  Would LOVE to see your wedding photos and share them with my awesome readers.  🙂

So, what is a Pakistani/Indian girl to do if she’s planning a wedding in the states and simply does not have the time to go overseas to pick out clothes?  It’s almost unheard of these days that a bride actually get to take the time to go shop overseas, and it may be because our community is progressively producing more and more professional young women who can’t take prolonged vacations in addition to honeymoons.  That, or, we just learned how to order dresses online.
So, how do you prepare for your bridal trousseau shopping?  You have the mehndi dress, your wedding dress, maybe your valima dress, and inevitably the outfits for future events.  It amounts to quite a bit of fancy new clothes.  Dresses by top designers like Nomi Ansari, Bunto Kazmi, Sana Safinaz and the like can help your bridal budget spiral out of control (each party dress is like $800, bridals are $3,000+), so a lot of women opt for designer replicas.  The best-kept secret in Pakistani and Indian fashion is out of the bag, ladies.

There has been a surge in Facebook groups where women sell designer replica dresses.  As a matter of fact, my bridesmaids dresses were from a woman who does business via Facebook, but I also met her personally so I felt secure dealing with her.  More on the process for another blog post!

Here is an example of a Facebook page where I found a shalwar kameez design I saw online and placed an order.  My cousin and his wife visited Karachi and she was kind enough to visit this woman and place an order for me.  The outfit came out literally exactly like the photo.  I don’t have a boyish body like this model, though, so the outfit fits differently on me, obviously.   I found a photo on this Facebook page, Azmeh Ahmed Couture.  I was SUPER happy with the end result.  Here’s a photo of me wearing my outfit at a valima brunch (left) and the original (right).

The end product (left) and the original outfit (right)

Needless to say, I can recommend Azmeh and would buy from her again in a heartbeat.  I believe I paid around $200 or $250 for this outfit.   I wear this outfit as often as I can, especially at brunches or lunches.  She has a wide variety of clothes, so I recommend you guys hop on over and take a look.  [also, no, this is not an endorsed post].

Has anyone else bought outfits via Facebook clothiers?  Do share!  I’d love to see how things worked out.  Did you have a good experience?  Have you heard any horror stories?

5 Things You Must Ask Your Wedding Makeup Artist

I recently got an email from a bride asking me for advice on what to ask makeup artists before she chooses one.  So I got to thinking and came up with a list of five things you absolutely must ask a makeup artist before hiring them.

Indian Pakistani Wedding Bride Makeup Jewelry

via Pinterest

1)  Ask the artist for photos of brides they’ve done makeup on

This will help you see their work, a photo speaks volumes of a makeup artist’s ability and I recommend asking to see examples of past work.  You wouldn’t buy a wedding dress without seeing the designer’s quality of work, so don’t make the same mistake with your wedding makeup artist!

2)  Get a trial

If you can, get a trial!  Usually, brides start scheduling their trial appointments 6 months prior the wedding, and more in advanced if the makeup artist is in high demand (particularly in the Pakistani/Indian wedding industry).  You can negotiation to have the trial cost discounted or included in the day-of rate if you end up going with the artist.

3) Ask what brands makeup is used

This may or may not be important to brides, but, I would like to know what kind of makeup will be used.  I asked if an artist airbrushed and also made sure to find out what my eyelash options were.  My favorite brands for face are: Make Up For Ever, MAC, Nars, and Bobbi Brown (they have great colors for Indian/Pakistani skin tones).

4) Ask them how they would do your makeup (Face Chart!)

Urban Decay Face Chart

Urban Decay Face Chart

If you have the misfortune of living far from the wedding site or simply don’t want to pay for a trial, ask them to fill out a face chart with the colors they would use on you.  Ask them to tell you how they would accent your face and highlight your features.  If they can confidently tell you they will “slenderize” your nose by using xyz highlight techniques, they kudos to them.  (I still highly recommend trials if you can get them!)

5) Ask how many weddings they have done in the past year

It’s important to know how many weddings an artist typically does because the more experienced in-demand artist is probably better at their art.  This is also important so that you can talk to brides who have used the artist to find out how they felt about the makeup artist.  You wouldn’t hire an employee without a reference… don’t hire a makeup artist without one either!
I hope this list helps out.  Do you have anything else you would add to this?  If you’re a makeup artist, what would you add to this list?