Kirti Agrawal and Avinash Singh Bagri, both 31, had their pre-engagement ‘Roka’ ceremony in January 2019, but their wedding was postponed until the following year. According to Gurgaon-based Bagri, once they set a date in April 2020, there was no way they could push it out any further. Thebridal lehengathe bride bought was preserved well because of the designers from whom they bough it.
With their parents and a few friends in attendance, the couple had their virtual wedding on April 14, coordinated by Shaadi.com’s Wedding from the Home project, using video conferencing software Zoom and supported by Shaadi.com’s Wedding from Home program. “We lived in Gurgaon, about a kilometer apart. “We got married in my sister and brother-in-house law’s in Ghaziabad, with both of our parents, the panditji, and friends on hand,” Bagri recounted. He confessed that a major celebration was out of the question owing to the coronavirus outbreak, but that “postponing the wedding never entered my mind.”
With no time for shopping or preparations, Agrawal fashioned a wedding lehenga from a skirt with the help of Bagri’s sister, while Bagri donned his engagement kurta pajama. “My weddingbridal gowns and jewelry were kept at my Bareilly house.” So I put together a bridal outfit out of a five-year-old skirt, a shirt from another set, and a chunni. My sister-in-law created the jewelry herself. I went from wanting to be a Sabyasachi bride to becoming a Sarojini (Nagar; a famous street market in Delhi) bride,” Agrawal, a technical program manager, said.
Did Agrawal miss having anyone from her own family physically present while Bagri had his sibling? “Fortunately, I get along swimmingly with everyone in his family.” We had our misgivings at first, but it turned out to be a lovely, laid-back wedding. “We wouldn’t have wanted it any other way since all we wanted was to be together,” she explained.Designer gowns for the bridesmust be from trusted designers such as DollyJ, Manish Malhotra, and many others.
They were able to get all of the havan samagri (wedding ritual objects) they required for the North-Indian style wedding, which lasted an hour and 45 minutes, thanks to the Navratri festival that preceded their wedding.
All of the photographs were taken with a smartphone and a point-and-shoot camera, rather than by a professional photographer.
So, in such extraordinary times of a pandemic, are people opening to such virtual weddings?”
Wedding dates are extremely important to people all across the world, but especially in India. Couples can get allowed to marry on that exact date, irrespective of the lockdown, with Weddings From Home; the only difference is that it will be done virtually. Buy bridal gownsfrom DollyJ and get amazing offers from and-crafted ee,broidered lehengas and gowns.
Couples facing a wedding date have been looking for options to prevent an endless delay while still adhering to social distance conventions as a result of the lockdown.
Agreed T Sasi Mohan, a journalist living in Thiruvananthapuram, married his daughter Mathangi at a residence on April 16, 2020. The wedding invitations had been printed, but the lockdown put a damper on everything. “When our son married in 2011, the bridal hall was too tiny to accommodate many of our relatives and friends. We had hoped for a spectacular wedding and bridal lehengas this time, but that was not to be. So we considered alternatives such as a tiny hall near a temple or just doing a simple ring exchange.
With only five people in attendance, from the bride and groom’s families and including a beautician and two photographers, the typical Kerala-style two-hour wedding was conducted right in their living room.
From the sarees to the decorations and Kerala-style designer gown for the bridefor the wedding, everything was done with help from locals, said the proud parents. “The only disappointment was that our son, who works in Bengaluru, couldn’t be by her side. He, along with his wife, blessed the couple via a video call, which was a moment to cherish,” mentioned Vinodini.
As per the social distancing guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it was underscored to “keep already planned weddings to a limited gathering, postpone all non-essential social and cultural gatherings”.
According to Pranesh Padmanabhan, CEO of Studio31 Weddings, which works in southern states, most couples and their family either have opted to wait forever for the situation to “normalize” or downsize the event by “90% in terms of capability, preparations, food, photography, and people.”
About DollyJ
DollyJ’s ensembles are an unapologetic mix of traditional and modern bridal lehengas and gowns, representing a lifestyle that mirrors today’s India. We believe in upholding the traditions that have formed this history as we go forward into a more brave world. Classic crafts are reimagined in a contemporary setting, making them accessible to women of all ages and sizes.
It’s not only about the garment for us; it’s also about the storey behind it, from using sustainable materials to sharing the stories of our tailors and karigars. We hope you like our pieces not only for their aesthetic value but also for the stories that motivated them. Our goal is to preserve the history that gives our clothing its individuality and authenticity.
Employing Parsi embroidery bridal gowns from thread-work, we pay homage to India’s rich textile heritage that has endured for decades. We treat our procedures and personnel with utmost transparency, and we aim to uphold the unique traditions that define them. Our karigars add their own distinct beauty to each piece by hand stitching it, their stories reverberating in the fabric’s weaves.
