A Blissful and Memorable Day

 ‘Planning a wedding is too stressful!’ They say, with all of the preparations, the do’s and don’ts, hope for the perfect weather and other numerous things to plan and prepare! Well, though I loved the planning part of it, I too turned out to be somewhat of a grumpy bridezilla for a few hours on my big day when some things did not go according to plan. However, by the end of the day I was too darn happy about how things finally turned out with the help of awesome friends and family members that made me realize that you don’t really have to become a stressed – out stereotype on your big day when you know you can count on them. J So a big hug and a thank you to them!

So let me first begin with the colours that popped straight in to my mind the moment I started to plan my wedding. Chartreuse being one of the favourite colours and a colour that you don’t see all of the time had to be my most important colour in my colour palette in a somewhat neonish way with yellow and gold to follow and blue as a complimentary colour which I thought would provide the greatest colour contrast to my colour palette. I thought the colours looked beautiful when paired together and had a way of coming across especially easy on the eyes. They were bright and vibrant and definitely had a celebratory feeling!

My wedding mood/ Colour inspirations

 

Wedding deco

 

Although we had plans of having my poruwa ceremony near the poolside garden area we had to carry it in last minute due to bad weather. This was the reason that got me really upset and worried about. I wasn’t really sure how things were going to run according to our back up plan which was, to have the poruwa inside the reception hall if it rains which wasn’t really given much thought to, as I was very serious about having it outside even with a little drizzle. lol However, plans had to change and they did bring it in and it looked amazing alright! with the rest of the deco complimenting the whole look…the flowers, the lanterns etc etc. I was literally amazed by how my friends had basically improvised the arrangement of the lanterns that were supposed to be up on the ceiling and on stands that were to be prepared for the outdoor deco, beautifully arranged down the corridor and on the platform of the band. Job well done guys! :D 

Wedding Invitations and cake boxes

 

Custom made wedding cards and boxes can be a toughy when you have to stick to a budget. Especially when you have to deal with offset printers considering the number of colours, types of boards for the card, cutters for required sizes and shapes, foiled or embossed lettering etc. The more elaborated the design is the more expensive it gets! Obviously! 

Initially, I wanted to do a round shaped card with a round shaped cake box but it was way over my budget to get a high quality round shaped card done considering all of the requirements so, I decided to ditch that idea and try incorporating a round inside a square shaped card with a pretty design around it using my colours. 

Round cake box for a round shaped piece of cake

 

I made round visits to pettah and so many other places to get a good bargain for the cake box I had in mind. Well of course, finally the initial design idea always gets simplified in to something that is both practical yet presentable considering the cost like I mentioned before. Pettah was definitely the cheapest place to get them done.

Wedding cake structure

 

Wedding cake structures today have become so intimidating because of its intricate and delicate icing carvings on the cake and flowers with other elaborated icing decorations that’s usually the reason for its expensiveness. It’s elegant and beautiful alright, but I personally did not want to spend so much on a cake that is not even edible in the first place. (Well, most of it atleast!) So I thought I’d get my cake structure decorated with fresh flowers instead, to at least add colour and a vibrant feeling to the cake and it sure saves a fortune from your pocket! 

 

My wedding sari 

 

We brides always struggle to find the perfect bridal at first! So we go to many places, confuse ourselves a bit and eventually end up wanting to buy a sari that is quite similar to those that we disliked at first! Because, you are so tired going around draping saris having to deal with pushy salesmen that always give you fake comments on how rich and beautiful and how much in trend their saris are, when they are obviously not and is all over! You eventually figure that out when you visit one shop to another. It’s always best to keep in mind what you really want your bridal to look like before you visit these shops so that they have an idea of what your requirement is and pull out the suitable saris for you before they make a mess with your head and theirs.

As for me I was looking for a very simple, not too fancy, less elaborated but elegant sari with no heavy work what so ever... and after many shop visits I managed to find what I really liked from Srimathi’s, a shop located down Saranankara road Dehiwala. It was a shimmery pale gold net, with a slight champagne tinge with stone work. I thought they had a unique collection of saris. So if you’re out on the look for sari’s, you ought to have a look there!

Designing the jacket

 

These were some of the initial simple design ideas I had in mind for my jacket that I thought would suit my upper body.

 ...and this is what it turned out to look like 

 

Bridal veil

 

I wanted to make my own veil than renting out one. That too, a scalloped 6 yard long veil accented with beading. I did the work on the edge of the scallops with beads and stones to match the work on the sari. Same with my face veil. We used a card board block to draw and cut the scallops of the veil. It was quite simple! All we needed for my veil was tulle, sharp scissors and the beads..

Bridesmaids 

For the bridesmaids I designed dresses that had a sari appearance which was literally a dress that needed to be pulled over from their heads and zip up which I thought was convenient and saved a lot of time. My bridesmaids were three different sizes and it seemed cohesive to perhaps have different styles for the dresses in the same colours and fabric to suit their body types maybe. It was really difficult to find the type of chartreuse fabric I was looking for…but in the end I did find an Italian silk which I thought was a little too shiny but it was alright. So I mixed the yellow and chartreuse in their dresses and got chunky dark blue stone accessories with a gold tone finish to add contrast and compliment the whole look. The flower girls wore a no sleeve version of the same dresses as the bridesmaids. J

Groom and the bestmen

 

For the boys we went and purchased suit material from Brilliant textiles in Pettah and got them tailored to our specifications at Hercules. Possibly less expensive than buying ready made suits and most importantly we needed to get the fit right! They looked very dapper! :D

More pics

 I enjoyed every bit of planning my wedding. Actually it doesn't really get too stressful like it’s supposed to be or like most people say it does, as long as you give yourself plenty of time to decide what you want, and plenty of time to enjoy the planning. Trust me! You will come across all kinds of people (difficult to funny) and after years when you think about all that drama that took place on your wedding day, I’m sure it’ll be something to have a good laugh at. :D The teeny details we give so much thought to really doesn't matter by the end of the day, because you’re getting married to the person you love, and your family and friends are always there and will always be there to support you no matter what, and that’s basically all that matters in the end! Because, it's just a matter of a few hours and Boom! It's all over! Just like that! *Finger snap!*The 365 days of planning! So here's a big THANK YOU to everyone who took their precious time to help us throughout the last year and who actually made it possible to make our wedding happen! Big hug to all! xoxo

Reception venue: Cinnamon Lakeside

Wedding sari: Srimathis

Styling and Outfits: Ayodhya Ratnayake

Groom’s attire : Hercules

Dressed by : Enoka Wijetunge

Flower deco : Arty weddings and Blooms

Bouquets : Lucien

Photography : Prabath Premaratne

Video : Editing table

Await blog post of the home coming. Till then! Tchao! X