My Big Fat Indian Wedding (part one)

As the big day approaches I thought I would share my experience of preparing for my wedding with you. Luckily I am the anti-bridezilla and have been pretty relaxed about the whole thing (well in comparison to a lot of brides in my experience) which has been useful with our... lets call it "Fluid" guest list ("we have 40 guests, definitely." "Shiiiiit the UK list is down to 10% of the confirmed, we now have less than 30...".) Now apparently we have cousins (his), cousins of in laws (again his), and erm an elephant (claiming that as MINE) so a guest list of about 55, however, there is a week to go so who knows what we'll actually end up with!

So, I hate most weddingy things, never been one to plan my magical day with my prince charming, never really thought about my dress, I absolutely HATE wedding fairs, I find wedding magazines an absolutely obscene waste of money (are you classical? Rockabilly? Shabby chic? Obsessed with VW's? Downton abbey? How about your cake, and have you got your bridesmaids in a lovely shade of dishwater? are you jazz band or ironic dj? Hog roast or buffet? BORE OFF!!!) and i cannot imagine anything more tedious and soul destroying than picking out chair covers, I hadn't even realised that was an actual thing. Next time you're at a wedding please take a moment to appreciate the well used piece of fabric tied round your chair, it probably cost about £5! The wedding industry must be huge, people just seem to go mental and think spending £500+ on flowers is totally normal. For me, it's about making a life long commitment to the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and celebrating the joining together of 2 families with said families and friends.

In spite of all this anti weddingness we are having 3 weddings! A court wedding, a hindu ceremony and a traditional beach wedding. Well, as traditional as you can get with an elephant in the crowd!

When it comes to a colour scheme, I have 3 rules. 1 - there is no colour scheme, 2 - NO PASTEL COLOURS 3 - nothing too matchy matchy.

I had a teensy bride panic when it transpired the only thing I had done traditionally, order stuff to make favours, had gone wrong! We got a load of sweets, some a bit personalised (check out the vast array on ebay) and we ordered some little bags to put them in.... Which never arrived! My parents were due to bring them over with them but they just never turned up! Weirdly these were the only thing I bought based on a recommendation in one of the bridal mags my mum got me. So today I decided, I can sort this, I'll just buy a load of fabric, some ribbon and make my own little pouches - easy!

Yeah, it would have been if there wasn't a strike going on and all the shops are closed! We walked and walked through central Pune, it was extremely hot and a bit weird, what with most of the shops being shut. We found a couple of shops with their doors half open so slipped in and sneakily got a load of brightly coloured fabric, 4 metres for about £3. So far so simple.ish. We then needed ribbon, i could see loads of roadside tailors hunched over their sewing machines so figured they would be able to help... Wrong! All the shops selling ribbon were shut. Amazing HOW many shops in Pune sell ribbon when you look. I was a bride on a mission though and eventually found a man selling sequins and ribbon out of a window, I could have cried. He charged us 60p for 50 metres, I thought I was hallucinating ! I got home and spent the afternoon crafting our little creations with Sushil and his Mum. I am quite proud of our efforts and now feel like we've added a very personal touch to the event, as well as brightening everything up! I'll let you know how the gifts went down in a couple of weeks!

Wish me luck, and if you are a bride to be yourself, save your cash, do your research online rather than through magazines, I could go on but i kind of feel unqualified to dish out advice until my wedding is done!