Week 28: Shopping with Bestie!

For those who are not aware, I am on a 52 weeks adventure this year where in I decide my own adventures! For more details, check out here!

How can shopping be an adventure? It will, when you shop for your bestie's marriage across the seven seas! Yohooo, my bestie is getting married this December :)

It is an arranged marriage, a concept still popular in India. You meet the prospective groom/bride 5-6 times and decide if you want to take the plunge. It is a little scary, but when two people are supposed to be with each other they just 'click' in the first meet and take it forward from there. The upside of arrange marriages is you do not know the person completely and every day of marriage is new and full of discovery. And if things go wrong, you can always blame your parents for arranging the marriage ;)

It is all about finding the right person, arranged or love - marriages are made in heaven they say!

Marriages are a huge affair in India, to get an idea you can read this blog on my sister's marriage. So yes, my bestie is getting married this December and we had to do her shopping and fix up things for her BIG day. Last week, we were on skype almost everyday at inhumane hours for me as we are in complete different time zones. At 3 am, my phone used to ring and I used to slowly get out of the bed into the living room so as to not to disturb my sleeping husband.

She showed me every single saree she tried upon via skype and every single footwear which went with the sarees. Finally after 3 days of incessant window shopping, we finalized on a beautiful royal blue paithani (Maharashtra's famous) silk saree. We fell in love with this saree, a rich color and an elegant finish. This is not her real saree, she will kill me if she came to know I just made her marriage saree public. This is just a paithani saree picked up from the internet for my non Indian friends!

Isn't it royal?

We bought matching jewellery on this saree, footwear and even discussed the blouse pattern for this saree. My bestie is going to rock on her BIG day!

After 3 days, the rest of the week was spent on finalizing the mehendi (heena) artist. We shortlisted a few beauticians and make up artists. We also discussed about the songs which can be included for the 'sangeet' function. 

In short, we accomplished a LOT in a week. I am very happy for my dear friend. Hope she finds her true joy in this marriage. I will not be able to attend her marriage in person, but hey skype is always there :)