Is it tea time?

If ever the rare occasion arises where more than two of your childhood friends are in town at the same time, and one happens to be getting married -make sure you don’t let the opportunity slip . Plan a pre-wedding, tea party in the park because you never know when you will all be in the same place next.

How to plan a pre-wedding tea party in under 24 hours-

1. Start planning weeks in advance but don’t do anything till the morning of.

2. Choose a theme- mad hatters tea party? Jungle safari tea party?

3. Find the closest location to your house to have this tea party (preferably a park).

4. Bring the bride-to-be to the park and carry out traditions we see happening at weddings all the time,but have no idea about the significance of them.

5. Dress the bride up as a hippie/ masai warrior/ aboriginal bride.

6. Don’t forget the pretty floral tea cups (that the bride will claim as her own,after.)

7. Bring some plastic animals that play along with the theme of ‘jungle safari tea party’.

8. Don’t forget the friends! What’s a party with just some plastic animals and balloons?

9. Flowers are a necessity!

10. Don’t forget it IS a tea party so you need the essentials like a tea-pot ,some cookies, fruit, raw vegetables and maybe some hot water to make tea with. (Extra points for a nice bright green tea pot with Frankenstein and his wife drawn on it)

10. Balloons are always a nice addition.

11. Embrace the party crashers even if they come on a tractor or a motorcycle in the middle of the park (anything is possible in India!). Take some photos with them! (Remembered I had posted this on Instagram a few months ago. A little bit of baby doll never hurt anyone .)

                      All photos are property of Kismet Jewell Nakai. No using them without permission!

12. Last, but not least- take plenty of photos because like I said-days like these are rare. It’s even more fun when you see the photographs a year and a half later. (Party tip: Bring along a fuji instax !)

And, THAT my friends is the way to organise a fun day in the park before all the wedding madness begins . I have never really attended a ‘bachelorette’ party , but I don’t think any will be able to top this one.

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A 1000 questions about your wedding, 1 answer to your wedding design : Devika Narain

Sensory Overload. This is what I experience most days when I surf the web/open my email/ go shopping/attend a wedding. There is just too much going on everywhere! At least too much for me to handle. It doesn’t help that I am really bad at filtering out the excess stuff.When there is too much stimuli , you will probably find me sitting in a corner- eyes shut,ears covered ,gently rocking myself back in to some state of normalcy. Don’t believe me? Come shopping with me. You will know then.

Boy,am I glad that I got married three years ago (!!) and don’t have to go through the process of what shall I wear, who shall we call, what will the place look like, who will take our photos….. the list is endless my to-be brides. Yes, it is fun and the ‘process’ is what you will remember but I am happy that I am done with that. The number of blogs out there with an ‘A-Z’ listing of every possible kind of vendor you can think of is incredible! Where do you start looking for a good florist? More importantly, where (and HOW) do you stop?!

The question arises- are we spoilt for choice or are we spoiling our choice ?

Perhaps this is a reason why TUB (The Unreal Bride, guys! Get with the program.) never got down to making a vendors section. Too many people, too many choices, bad filtering system. And yeah, maybe we are picky.

Suddenly , amongst the chaos something comes to your attention! Something as simple as a photograph of a flower arrangement like you have never seen before, or the most unique mandap and you dig deeper and what do you find?Beauty! The person behind this beauty I speak of is Devika Narain . From stalking her pretty posts of different destinations-gold deserts, blue beaches, white mountains,  she transformed them in to table settings, tents, vases filled with lemons, and fairy lights everywhere!

The Unreal Bride really desperately requires a dose of gorgeousness and inspiration to start this year off so thank god for Devika !

What does Devika have to say? “I love all things happy and have found a way to corral my background in literature and an ability to put pretty things together into one big party of a business. I grew up inspired by whatever sparked my imagination – from Paris to Sabyasachi to a deep-rooted love of bold, bright colors and vintage flea market finds. With an enticing and recognizable aesthetic I now create beautiful, fun weddings and parties with lots of little details.’

If you are planning your wedding, look no further, block out the noise-start and stop your search right here because I have no doubt in my mind that Devika won’t take your dreams and make them in to the most gorgeous reality. I can prove it too! Here are  photos from some of the weddings she has designed.

Rose petals and fairy lights 

This mehendi in Jaisalmer is one of my favourites- so blue, big patterns and the most amazing attention to detail.My mehendi would have looked like this (if I had had one!) .

This is a wedding in a STADIUM. Ever seen a stadium look so good? 

All photos are property of Devika Narain. No stealing without permission, please. 

If you want to join me in stalking Devika, you can find her on her website , her blog, her instagram (definitely need to follow her here) and facebook.

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone! ❤

The Unreal Bride meets The Wedding Filmer

After talking about this for nearly four years, I FINALLY got the chance to work with Vishal of the Wedding Filmer. I’m pretty sure they need no introduction because I have been going on about their videos forever and now they are literally world famous but if you don’t know them yet, you better go take a look ASAP because I am already feeling sorry for your loss!! (Out of breath after that long sentence!)

This month I got to go work with the superbly talented crew from The Wedding Filmer and I am still buzzing from the excitement. I figured I had to share that with all of you (lots who are are fans of theirs as well!) . There is only one way I know of sharing and that is with photos -so here are some of the photos from the few days we spent in Thailand.  I will post the video once the trailer is up but till now you can just imagine how beautiful it will be!

All photos shot on the iphone.

Thing is though, thanks to facebook and all the clutter there, it’s easy to not see the quality stuff . I mean, my timeline is full of all sorts of weird stuff and I have to really DIG for the good stuff. So, I won’t blame you entirely if you haven’t seen any of the videos yet. Let me help you out by posting one here and then will leave you to spend a couple of hours going through all the videos! In true Chandigarh spirit , it only makes sense to post a video shot in Chandigarh! (If you remember -we had set up a photobooth at the same wedding too. Connections connections!)

Design Recipes: Keeping your memories fresh and delicious!

Do you ever get the urge to sit down and flip through photos from your latest holiday or from your wedding ? But alas, you only have the option to scroll through some images on your iPad or computer or phone or whatever? We know the feeling. Printing photos has become such a thing of the past and actually sitting down to design an album is no easy business. Ask me . Almost three years since we got married and I STILL don’t have a wedding album!

This is where I get to introduce Gurleen , the star behind Design Recipes- she takes your photos and ideas and creates the loveliest photo books for you. Just so simple! They are classy, good quality and you know a lot of time and effort has gone in to making them.

If you are in Chandigarh on the 18th & 19th of October , you can find Design Recipes stall at the awesome Vanity Fair in Whispering Willows, Zirakpur. (You can also find all sorts of other goodies there so maybe you just need to make a trip here that weekend! )
Thank you Gurleen for the two sample albums you made for me using photographs taken by me ! 

Giveaway Win a seat at The Wedding Filmer’s Workshop!!!

It’s the weekend! This could mean one of two things: time to sit back and chill out and/or sit on the edge of your seat to see if you are going to be the lucky winner of the one seat we have going for the Wedding Filmer’s workshop!! Which one is it going to be ???

I don’t think there is any need to introduce the Wedding Filmer because if there is-then you shouldn’t be here. Many moons ago when we started the Unreal Bride, we struggled to find a good Indian wedding cinematographer- what a challenge it was! Trust me, there was NO ONE. Then,one fine day- a video by the Wedding Filmer popped up on my twitter feed or somewhere and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Wedding Filmer and his crew have organised their very first workshop in Delhi this Monday. And we got a pass (or maybe two) worth INR 4,500/- to  give-away on our blog to all you  aspiring photographers and videographers for free!!!

So what do you have to do? It’s pretty simple! 

• Take this image (the one above this line) and post it on your facebook page- tagging both the Unreal Bride and The Wedding Filmer in it.
• Go take a wander around The Wedding Filmer’s work and tell us which is your favourite video in the comment section below. Extra points if you tell us why you want to be at that workshop SO BAD.

That’s all you have to do! How easy is that? Remember you have to leave your comment in the section below because that is what counts as an entry. You have till tomorrow afternoon (this competition is closed) to enter this contest so don’t waste any time. Good luck!!! 

 

Good luck to all of you! 🙂

GUESS WHAT? We actually have TWO passes to give away! Surprise! Surprise….So who are these two? The lucky winners of this competition after a very fair selection of chits ( normally we use randompicker.com like in our previous giveaways but because of the low number of participants we used the chit-system 😛 )…anyway where was I? yes- the winners…. They are- Abhishek Bali and Shumaila! The last and the first entrants to have entered ! Congratulations guys!! Keep us posted on the wonderful stuff you learn at the workshop .
P.S. ‘Tis the season for workshops and this is only the first one… I will be teaching at a Wedding Workshop in October (I can hardly believe it!!) but I will be in great company- so if you are a photographer who wants to wander in to the world of wedding photography- you should really take a look at what is going to be happening at The Destination Wedding Workshop here and here.