Bharani Silks,is one of the premium Silk saree sellers in Erode with more than 37 years of heritage. Bharani Silks sarees have been worn by many a bride but this time it's a very special occasion as it is their darling daughter Smirthi's wedding!! Smirthi heartily shares her wonderful wedding story!
HOW WE MET
The long search for the bridegroom came to an end on November 15 2015, when I and my family first met Raj in a nearby temple. Ours is an arranged marriage. I was so nervous and even prepared myself for more than a week to meet him. But the funny part is he was more nervous than me. We spoke nearly more than 20 minutes. Durai raj is working as an assistant professor in SRM University, Vadapalani.
First I thought being a Professor; he would be like all other strict professors whom I had encountered in my life. But everything was totally upside down. He is a person filled with humour sense and smiles all over. I can say it was love at first sight. Till now I can picture him saying that he liked me at the end of our conversation. We exchanged our numbers and that's how our love story begun.
THE WEDDING PLAN
My dad was in a hurry to celebrate my wedding so we had exactly 3 months to make all the other arrangements. The engagement and wedding was on February 16 and 17 respectively at Guruswamy Mahal, Erode. We decided to invite only close friends and relatives for the wedding. It is a pakka gounder wedding and my family and in-laws decided to do each and every ritual. The grand reception was arranged separately on February 20 2016 at Muthu Mahal, Erode. The crowd that day took over the function.
WEDDING ATTIRE
This is how I started my shopping. Many of my friends suggested Shopzters. Since I love to get dressed up, I was concerned about every little detail. First and foremost, I reviewed every post of Shopzters and I was sure that each make over for all the 3 functions should be different from each other including the blouse patterns, jewellery, makeup, etc..
I must thank my lovely cousins who were my bridesmaids for helping me throughout the shopping and being with me at all happy times. I got all my accessories from Coimbatore. We travelled a lot for shopping and now I can help people through my experience.
SAREES
Obviously all my sarees were bought from Bharani silks. My reception saree was specially made by one of the weavers we have in Kanchipuram. I always love to go with contrast colours. So I made a selection of a lovely bottle green blouse for my orange engagement saree and a bright magenta blouse for the golden reception saree.
RAJ'S WARDROBE
Raj has a unique and a very good dressing style. He loves to wear bright colours especially white ones. For the wedding and engagement he chose a white silk shirt and Dhothi. His selection was simple yet it was rich and elegant in its own way.
For reception, I insisted him to go with two choices we made. One was a combination of maroon and half white Sherwani and the other was a golden coloured coat with a little embroidery touch. The coat was a perfect match for my saree. Both the dresses were ordered and got from Bombay from one of our agents.
It almost took a couple of weeks for the wardrobe selection. There was no difficulty since all the purchases were made from our own retail store.
BLOUSE PATTERNS
Many people suggested Anya, Coimbatore and I too loved their designs. Once I entered their store it was fabulous and the way they received us was good. They already told me that it will take at least a month to deliver the designs. So as soon as I got my sarees I went straight to Anya and designed the patterns. They were very specific about what a bride wants and they bring out our expectations in their designs.
For engagement I picked a cut work, for wedding- green embroidery (contrast to maroon) with pleated sleeve and for reception- creeper design with elbow sleeve. The work done by them was lovely and I should say that they are perfect in their deliveries.
For my other occasions, I got my blouses stitched from Shrishti, Hope college, Coimbatore. The price was reasonable and the work they do is also good.
JEWELLRY
I love antique jewellery. My jewels always carry out uniqueness. For wedding and engagement the jewels I wore were bought from Big shop, Ooty and Sumangali jewellers, Coimbatore. The reception jewels were bought from Champalal jewellers, Vellore. Each shop was unique in its own way and had many number of designs to choose from.
I got the chutti for muhurtham from Kushals, Coimbatore. It was the exact piece which I was searching for a long time so I bought it for my personal use. I ordered and got the nose ring from Queen's emporium, Coimbatore. Other hair accessories I took for rent from Sudha Mohan in Erode and she has many varieties of designs and does a great business in renting jewels. The antique anklet was bought from Keerthi silver Jewellers, Erode.
MEHENDI
Every bride loves to put mehendi yet I was more passionate about it. From one of my dad's friend's daughter in Chennai, I came to know about the professional mehendi artists Neela and Chetna. I had booked them two days before my wedding and they did a wonderful job. They are also famous among some of the celebrities in Chennai.
MAKE UP
I already knew Angels in Erode. They have their head office located in Chennai. I booked them for all the 3 functions. They did HD-Mac for engagement and muhurtham and Airbrush for reception. I had nothing to worry about the makeup. They came at the right time and did their work with patience. They gave me a bridal package that included facials, pedicure, etc for 3 months. I took them in a proper way and it helped me to have a classy look on my wedding occasions. Their services are the best.
CATERING
My dad had booked Thangavel catering and hospitality limited from Madhampatty. They provided so many new varieties and the food was appreciated by our guests. It was one of the main factors that made this function a grand success.
FOOTWEAR
I am a regular customer of Metro. I am comfortable with their designs. So the footwear was bought from Metro, Coimbatore.
We didn't go for any event managers because all the work from A to Z was taken care by my dad and grandfather with the help of our company staff members. Without them I don't think we could have managed. I suggest the upcoming brides to make a well planned shopping chart before hand to avoid confusions at the end. The small advice from me is - Beauty packages alone cannot make us pretty; we should be more specific about the food we take!
DECORATIONS
For Gurusamy mahal we booked the local decors- Rajamayil decors. The wedding was planned in a traditional way so my dad insisted the decors to use more flowers and he was also more concerned about the wastes made by the decors.
For reception I and Raj decided to go with an elegant and a classy decor. We chose one of the designs given by mark 1 decors, Coimbatore with the help of my cousin Nisha. All the arrangements for decor were looked after by my cousin and my grandfather which was a great help to my dad.
PHOTOGRAPHY
These days photos speak a lot about a wedding. I kept searching for good candid photographers for a reasonable price. During one of the exhibitions held in Tex valley, Erode we met @the-photo-today# from Coimbatore. By seeing their pictures displayed there, my cousin had so much confidence in them and we booked them immediately. They didn't let us down and did a brilliant job.
A troop of over 12 guys came to shoot the wedding. They were enthusiastic throughout the function. As you can see, the pictures turned out very well. Every single person enquired about the photography. I am glad that we booked them.
For traditional photos we booked Bharath studio, a well known and our family photographer in Erode.
