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CLOTHING CULTURE
In India, the wedding rituals and clothes make the wedding as much as that of the bride
and her groom. Both look their splendid best in gorgeous clothes. Not just the couple,
but the guests attending the family and the relatives are often seen dressed to the teeth.
The bride is dressed up in auspicious colours, whereas the bridegroom is dressed to
exude a regal aura. The bridesmaids and best men are often dressed on a par with the
bride and the groom, but not as elaborately as the bride and groom. All the folks
attending the marriage are decked out with gold jewellery including the bride and
sometimes the groom. The ladies are additionally adorned with henna patterns all over
their palms, hand, forearms, legs and feet (Indian wedding henna and dress examples.
Sometimes henna patterns are replaced with designs which are short lived and easily
removable.

The groom also sports henna, although it is less elaborate or muted. Indian weddings
generally tend to continue for several days and new attire is worn each day. All these
dresses and the colour symbolise the meaning of marriage and the period that follows it.
An Indian wedding is one that gives more importance to details like different rituals and
the various attires one wears to attend them.

HINDU WEDDING

Indian Hindu weddings continue for several days. India is a country that defines diversity
and this is visible even in the wedding and its different styles. The ceremonies, the rituals,
the formalities are all different between each region and culture. Unlike the Christians,
Hindus wedding ceremony does not resemble the western marriages and are quite

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elaborate. In the North, Starting from the Tilak ceremony, each function has significance
in the marriage. Tilak, Sangeet, Haldi, Baraat and the Shaadi, all necessitate the Bride
and the bridegroom to wear new attire at each occasion.All these above ceremonies are
known by different names in the other parts,e.g.Simant puja in the west,
or Mangalasnanam in the south and so on.

BRIDEGROOM'S CLOTHES

Many communities of South, West, and Eastern India still adhere to the traditional
costumes, i.e. Dhoti, or sometimes Lungi, and Mundu by some communities of the
South. Kurta or a shirt may be worn or sometimes just a Angavastram may be used to
cover the chest.

On the other hand, in the Northern parts, the bridegroom usually wears
a Sherwani, Jodhpuri suit, or a western suit. The groom’s face is covered with
a veiled with a curtain of flowers which is called Sehra in the North, which is not the
custom elsewhere. It is also customary to wear a Taqiyah all through the ceremony in
Muslim marriages.

The ensemble for bridegrooms include majestic sherwani, blended Indo-western suit and
ethnic Jodhpuri suit. The exquisite shirts, coats, and jackets are designed with extra
care and touch to bring out the magnanimity out of the bridegroom on the marriage day.
Precious embellishments are studded into the collars and the cuffs of the bridegroom’s

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dress. Available both in simple cotton and splendid, royal raw silk, these kurta are
preferred mostly by the bridegrooms.

BRIDE'S CLOTHES

The bride wears a wedding sari or a lehenga according to the region. Red is considered
to be the most auspicious color among Hindus. While the saree is preferred as the bridal
dress in South India, West, East India, most brides of other parts of India prefer Lehenga,
Gagra Choli and Odni as bridal dresses.

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LEHENGA-STYLE SAREE

A lehenga-style saree is a modern garment introduced in India that blends elements of

the traditional saree and lehenga choli. A lehenga-style saree is normally 4.5 metres (5
yards) to 5.5 metres (6 yards) long. To wear one, unlike a sari, one does not have to form
pleats but may simply tuck and drape.

Like that of a traditional saree, the lehenga-style saree is worn over

a petticoat (inskirt; pavadai in the south, and shaya in eastern India, Lehenga in
western India), along with a blouse called the choli, which is the upper garment. The
style[1] of choli mostly resembles that of the choli of a conventional lehenga or ghagra
choli. Sometimes conventional blouses are also matched with lehenga-style saree. The
choli is mostly of a halter neck style, deep neck, or backless style. As with choli worn
with the saree, these cholis are also embellished with kundan, beads, mirrors, etc.

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LEHENGA

Lehenga or lehnga or langa (Hindi: लहं गा Urdu: ‫ لہنگا‬lahangā, Punjabi:

ਲਹ ਿੰਗਾ lēhēṅgā, Gujarati: લેહગા lēhagā, Bengali: লেহেঙ্গা lehengā, Telugu: లంగా Kannada:
ಲಂಗ laṅgā), Ghagra or gagra (Hindi: घाघरा Gujarati: ઘાઘરા Urdu:
‫ گھاگھرا‬ghāghrā, Punjabi: ਘਾਗਰਾ ghāgrā), also Chaniya (Gujarati: ચણિયા) Pavadai (Tamil:
பாவாடை) and Lacha (Malayalam: ലഹങ്ക)[1] is a form of full ankle-length skirt worn by
women[2] from the Indian subcontinent which is long, embroidered and pleated. It is worn
as the bottom portion of a Gagra choli or Langa Voni. It is secured at the waist and leaves
the lower back and midriff bare. In the Indian subcontinent, various types of traditional
embroidery work are done on lehenga, with Gota patti embroidery being one of popular
types for the festivals and weddings.