Indian Bride Guide | USA Indian Weddings (2019) | QUICK READ

Hello soon to be Indian Bride! (Or Pakistani, Punjabi, Gujarati, South Indian, Sri Lankan).

In this post I'm going to explain a few Indian bridal basics in a quick 3 minute read specific to Indian weddings in America or Canada. I'll cover Indian Bridal wear, Venue selection & decoration and finalizing your wedding schedule. Too many article's online talk to you about hotel selection as if you're already going through contracts...I need you to take a step back and prioritize a few things first. (e.g. If you approach a decorator for example without knowing you'll need them for 3-4 events you won't plan your budget properly!)

You should know if you are going to have a Big Fat Mehendi or informal one before asking for quotes!

Ok, let's go!

FIRST THING's FIRST!

1. INDIAN WEDDING VENUE (LOCATION FIRST)

Before you start looking at Indian wedding jewelry or anything, you need to finalize a city/country for your wedding.

Should you have your Indian wedding in America or India? Or Thailand or Sri Lanka?

After LOCATION THEN YOU can finalize a venue. Then you can think about bridesmaid dresses, bridal photography and other things.

Location determine's venue, venue determine's decoration.

Also location will make you think about your guest list.

The two processes can go hand in hand because you will either cut people out based on travel or add people in based on location. Once you have location and venue ideas sorted...you can start planning your vendors. As in the linked article above, remember...not everybody will get a USA visa easily! (e.g. even the richest people in India get rejected for US Visa's everyday!)

FIVE FIRST STEPS in INDIAN WEDDING PLANNING (IN DETAIL) AFTER YOU GET ENGAGED OR PROPOSED.

2. Indian Wedding Dresses

Unpopular Opinion: Growing up in America, I have to admit...I thought all the latest trends and styles came from here with regards to Indian Clothes. But if you're going to look for the latest bridal trends, look online at Indian retailers then try to get the same thing here. Also, please remember even if you try buying online from someone in India, your measurements will 100% not be perfect.

I've written about lehenga's here. But my main tips from two family Indian wedding's in the last year will be:

Get familiar with Sabyasachi, Shantanu and Nikhil, Manish Malhotra and other big stylists. Then decide what you like. If you're interested my favorite Indian wedding designers for 2019 are at the end of this post. (e.g. Instagram's who are open to conversations).

3. SCHEDULE FOR INDIAN WEDDING IN AMERICA

Before you jump into pinterest, now that you know what days your selected hotel or venue has available, if they'll allow a 3AM after party keeping their other guests in mind, and how much you want to spend on your Mehendi decorator (e.g. $5K USD), your Sangeet decoration (e.g. $15K USD) and Mandap (e.g. $5K to $15K USD), things can start falling into place.

Now you can look at 800 dresses, 90 Mandap designs, and so on.

INDIAN WEDDING PLANNING INFOGRAPHIC

CONCLUSION

1. FINALIZE A LOCATION, which determine's VENUE AND GUEST LIST.

2. LOOK AT STYLES OF INDIAN BRIDAL FASHION AND PLAN (Yes, you should start 6 months' before hand).

3. LOCK IN ON YOUR SCHEDULE of EVENTS.

Few Indian American vendor's I work with who nail Indian/South Asian weddings:

DECOR

Shawna Yamamoto

PHOTOGRAPHY

Robles Video

DJ

Well, US LOL. But if you want to see others, check out Sound Nation. and any other's by googling Indian DJ Los Angeles.