Wedding File 5 : Mehendi Album

Mehendi occurred the evening of Haldi and Baat, by that day all of my friends had reached Delhi so the house was full of people!!

There are so many tiny details to cover so doing this post as a picture album!

Community Center 

One day before the wedding.

MEHENDI CELEBRATION

The entrance gate

The original theme was skyblue and silver but was changed last minute to white and gold. 

The Decorator tried to reason with me that 'jhula' are out of fashion and nobody uses them anymore but  I insisted and it did look great in the end :D

We had churi's from Babu churi wala of hanuman mandir, for everyone.

I had one request to my mehendi wali that the mehendi should have  a LOT of peacocks and she insured that I did!

TINY TIP :
To all Brides-to-be insure your leg's mehendi is done in a private room either before the function or post. Because when you sit down for it it becomes a little difficult to sit 'elegantly'

My Mehendi started in the afternoon so by the time I actually got to the venue both my legs were done and dry and one of my hand was just finished. Ofcourse travelling from home to the venue (which was quite close) required all my friends to pick up my lehenga from all sides but it did ensure that I had a LOT of fun at Mehendi and still got to go to bed on time.

We had Ladies mehendi wali. Its more comfortable plus they did a good job and put mehendi very fast so nobody had to wait!
I had doli, groom, bride, ganeshji, dhol, shahanayi and looads of peacock. My whole mehendi was finished in 5 and a half hours. It costed us 11,000.
The others she took Rs. 50 per hand for Arabic mehendi (bhel) and Rs. 100 per hand for full.

The Mehendi wali tied the white handkerchief on my kangna so that it won't keep moving and disturbing the mehendi, thankfully she did because then I got a chance to keep my hands on the sides, she also left the back side of one hand empty till the end so I could easily rest my hand.

When she started with my mehendi on the first hand I felt a new profound respect for all brides before me.

WARNING : keeping your hands straight without touching anything or without bending it. Big OUCH! It hurts!! 

Once it drys out then its better but when its wet, it is a pain. Thankfully I had a lot of help from experienced people so I had people screaming at me to keep my hand straight, helping me with my lehenga and chunni, my friend made my hair, I did my makeup, my chachi helped me with my jewelry. 

Oh and this is the Lehegha I designed and made from scratch.
Post on DIY Lehenga coming soon!
Something like this readymade with the same quality would have normally cost me around 50k  in the market,  but doing it on my own cost me around 20k.
Could have been cheaper if I had chosen less expensive borders!

The Original Sketch of the lehenga

Our original plan was to have the DJ and food out in the lawn and Mehendi inside a hall but we made last minute changes and switched the DJ inside. That was actually the best idea we had, because guess what the room was sound proof and we were able to play Songs as loud as we wanted and as long as we wanted without worrying about 10:30 curfew.
So, TINY TIP : Try to get a sound proof hall for your sangeet function if possible.

We had dance performances which was started by my brother playing his drums!

Followed by my chachi chacha dancing on : chalo na naino say ban rey

Cousin Bhaiya n bhabhi on : Subha honey na dey

My little cousin sister dancing on : Maye ne maye munder pe tere bol raha hai kaga

Younger cousin brother on some instrumental song from Raavan

My cousin Bhabhi danced on a melody of 3 songs Aaja Nachley, Palki mein ho k saawar chali rey and a punjabi song (I dont know which) 

My sisters, me and my chachi's then had a dance on melody of many songs. We had earlier thought of having very decent slow 'bride' songs but then last minute decided to have full fun! The boy side wasn't present so we could dance on all jalla walla and jalebi bai!

Disco waley Khisco - Sisters

Mehendi hai rachney wali - Sisters

Dhoom tanna - Sisters and Me

Sasural Genda Phool - Me and my Chachi's

Chaan kay mohalla - Me and chachi's

Jalla Walla - Me and chachi's

Jalebi Bai - Me and chachi

Radha on the dance floor - Me, sisters and chachi's

Everyone in the family danced on the DJ later including my mom, dad, bhaiya who never dance! Even all my cousin dadi's and dadaji's! We had to eventually tell the DJ to stop we were soo tierd. 

It was also my mom and dad's anniversary that day!

TINY TIP : We have to give Bhaji to our relatives at the end of the wedding. Bhaji contains matri, gur, namak padey,etc. Since the wedding day would be so hectic we decided to give this on the mehendi day instead. 

Most of your family members will be present and your mom and dad, specialy your dad ;) would be quite free on this day so why not hand out any gifts or anything that you have to give to your relatives on this day.

We sat down for dinner at around 12, my Mehendi had dried out and pretty much fallen off while dancing, but I was quite happy. Had rajma chawal for dinner, my brother said I could have anything I fancied it was my function, so I asked for Gol gappey ka paani and the caterer was more than happy to supply! After my 2nd glass my sister scolded me to not have another "Gala kharab ho jaye ga" she said....so I had ice cream instead ;P

We went back home and the first thing my recently married friend did was to heat some laung on the tawa once the smoke started I put my hands on top to darken my mehendi and she rubbed a white rumal on the tawa and then rubbed it on the mehendi of my legs the effect : There is still a pattern on my leg that hasn't gone!! its been more than a month!

There is a small function that happens just before sunrise, your bhabi is suppose to get you water from the mandir while the stars are still out and you have to take bath in this water only on your wedding day.

 The mehendi function ended at around 1am, we argued that since the day has changed and nobody was in a state to get up in the morning at 4 we did this function before sleeping. 1'o clock at night my bhabhi could be seen singing out in the streets bringing water from the handpump!

I had an early night that day (compared to the 3-4 am that the brides usually sleep at) and for the first time in 24years me and my childhood friend had our first slumber party....