Attending an Indian Wedding as a guest – What to wear

I was recently invited to the Indian /Western fusion wedding of Mo and Nicky. I first met Nicky through a good friend, Kamal. Nicky is such a sweet, kind soul I am so happy she found an equal in her partner Mo and glad I was able to take part in her fairytale wedding.

What to Wear: My search started looking for second hand outfits. I assumed there were others like me who bought a dress for a single wedding and didn’t need it again. I was browsing craigslist looking for sari’s and there was a lot that were in great shape, but they weren’t very modern and were still very expensive. Ideally, if I was going to buy something, I wanted to be able to wear it again. I really liked Jasmin Walia’s look with her cool Dhoti pants and had visions of wearing something similar, but couldn’t find anything in Vancouver. If you can’t find something modern and don’t want to buy a brand new sari, borrow one!

A friend’s sister lent me an beautiful outfit for the temple, and the rest of the events I wore maxi skirts and a western outfit to the western part of the events. From what I learned at this wedding, a different outfit was worn at each event, and generally each outfit is more elaborate than the previous, leading up to the formal gowns for the banquet reception at the end. Below are the events and each outfit in detail.

Sari Inspiration:Here is an inspiration board for some modern Sari’s!  https://www.pinterest.com/carolineross/modern-sari/

Food

So, there are LOTS of food at Sikh weddings. What I thought was the main meal was actually just the appetizers. Basically, just drink water the rest of the day to make room for all the food. 🙂

Event One: Mayian (or ‘when they put yellow stuff on the groom-to-be’)

Mayian is an evening festival the day before the wedding. This event is a bit more casual, you’ll see guests dressed in everything from gowns to jeans and plaid.  I suggest dressing as you would go to a cocktail party, and if you want, bring some fun Indian influenced patterns and jewellery into the  outfit.

Outfits: A few people had western clothes on, but majority were in sari’s and as I only had one sari for the temple, I wore a floor length blue maxi skirt I made myself, with some bangles. In hindsight, I wish I wore something more festive, or a skirt with a more colourful print. A few others had short cocktail dresses on, but for the majority the guests were in Indian style dresses.

  

Day Two – Sikh Wedding Ceremony

The second day we took part in is the sikh ceremony at the temple. We started off with breakfast (so delicious) and we got a chance to see the beautiful Nicky in the bridal room where she waits until the ceremony starts. She looked stunning in her traditional red dress!

Outfits: Kamal was my date for the wedding and she helped me out with outfits for all the different days – this green outfit was her sisters. At the Sikh Temple women and men are required to cover their heads, and dress appropriately so that you can sit on the floor comfortably (if you’re in a western outfit, loose pants or leggings under a skirt are best). After the relatively short ceremony, we all ate lunch together at the temple.

 Day 3 – Western Ceremony at UBC Rose Garden

The next day was the Western wedding held at the UBC rose garden. It was raining most of the morning and opened up to beautiful sunshine and views just as we were arriving. Luckily the wedding was delayed a bit so Kamal and I were able to find matching rose bushes to match our outfits – her with yellow and me with red.

Outfits:  As the ceremony was a garden wedding I wore a pretty floral print dress. This ceremony was really unique…the guests on the groom’s side wore indian clothes and the guests on the brides side has western clothes. For the evening I had a pink pencil dress for the banquet. We headed to the Westin Bayshore for the banquet for an amazing dinner and dance. For this part of the evening there was no traditional dress to wear, it was a beautiful mixture of wester and Indian outfits.

Day 3- Western and Indian Banquet at Westin Bayshore