My Best Friend's Wedding: Fashion Show

Ladies, if you think you have trouble figuring out what to wear to a friend's wedding, just think that you could have bigger fashion problems. Just consider what my friend Surabhi said when we talked about Indian weddings: "It's so hard because you have to think of four different outfits for every wedding!" It's tough work but the result is a visual feast.

With the bride and groom (in matching turquoise), the bride's mom,
and our friend K

For the Sangeet, the outfit required was "traditional." For girls, this meant a sari. For boys, this meant my husband wore this for the first time...

So cute! And he matched the bride and groom! Mads insisted on providing us with outfits. She made me this cute dress, with a very heavy, coral-like neckpiece; she also made pants to go with it, to make the outfit more Indian. Hamil's outfit, fresh from India, came with matching pants, but the fit was a bit awkward so he wore his own. He kind of looked like he was a member of the groom's family...

I would have wanted to wear my gorgeous sari, but Mads said, "No! Save the best for last!" Meanwhile, our other Pinay friends wore their saris, also courtesy of Mads...

K and Pam and their Indian poses on the dance floor. Pam was quite the headturner that night!

She reserved an animal-print fabric for Pam--an edgy fabric that suited this super fashion stylist (and which caught the attention of every table she passed). It was too loose on her, so we spent twenty minutes in her room trying to secure everything so she wouldn't give everyone a free show. I think it pretty much held up during all the dancing we did that night.

For the beach barbecue, we were encouraged to wear "floral." I just wore a black eyelet dress and my famous floral wedges...

You already saw a sampling of the costumes at the Youngsters' Party in my previous post, so let's skip to the actual wedding. I LOVED my sari--and so did K! When Mads asked her to choose a fabric prior to the wedding, K eyed mine. But sweet Mads had already reserved it for me. "It's your color," she told me, gently prodding me to choose the fabric among the multitude that she showed me. (BFFs naturally get first dibs. Haha.)

With my dapper husband

It's a mustard yellow with intricate gold embroidery. The aunties were stopping me and telling me that I looked "very nice." When I mentioned this to Mads, she remarked, "Wow, even the aunties were impressed!"--normally a tough bunch to please!

Luckily, I didn't have to figure out the draping much--all I had to figure out was how to suck in my stomach for several hours. Mads had the sari sewn so that all I had to do was wrap it around once and place it over my shoulder. Sari veterans (like Mads's mom) could artfully drape a plain piece of fabric (albeit one that's six yards long) around their bodies.

A little bit of skin

While I adored my sari, it didn't come close to Mads's and Muks's breathtaking outfits...

Now take all the pinks and blues and yellows and bling, and multiply them by 500, and you'll get an idea of just how dazzling an Indian wedding is--a wonderful reflection of their colorful, beautiful culture.

Photos from Heidi Valencia and Jamie Lihan of Imagine Nation, K, and my own cam