Recently, there has been a trend of wearing silver or gold plated jewellery sets for bridals. The imitations are so perfect that the difference cannot be told. Instead, brides normally make 2-3 lighter weight gold sets that are everyday wear and can be used as compared to the big set that hardly gets worn again.
Have you seen any one doing that?
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
literally every bride i know from the past 2-3 years has done that. it just makes more sense given how expensive gold is these days. and like you said, if you get yours made or buy it as "made in silver/plated with gold" from a reputable, high end jeweller, you will not be able to tell the difference. also, sometimes brides will get the necklace/earrings and ring as real gold, but go gold-plated for teeka, jhoomar and any karas/chooriyan that they might not wear again afterwards. that is also a good compromise.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
Most ppl I know have their wedding sets locked up and only wear the dainty ones on a day to day basis. Some ppl I know in Pak also buy from their family jewellers and sell back their sets and get them converted into smaller sets.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
I feel 
when i see some bride wearing soooooooo heavy a set that nobody would even dare to consider it of Gold…The set should be elegant, not too heavy.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
i've mine made of Silver " chandi" but not too heavy, as my lehnga has mix of gold silver kaam on it so i went for more silvery one...will be getting it in few days. im too not going for big gold set, rather ordered small 4 sets which i can easily wear after wedding. my suggestion is not to go with gold one on your wedding, my mom told me if u want to wear gold one, u hve to keep it with u rather thn converting it into smaller sets later on..so i preferred tht.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
For the marriage ceremony, I will be wearing simple gold set that my dad bought me few years ago. For my reception, I choose a lehenga that has 0 gold in it. My set for the reception is silver with white stones.
My mom wanted to buy me gold for the wedding but I told her flat out that it's outright stupidity to buy gold at current prices (my dad and fiance agreed). I told her she can buy me gold once the prices come down.
Most of the weddings I've been to the last 2-3 years.....the brides have either worn light sets or artificial ones. Honestly, if I saw a bride wearing a super heavy set...I'd think it was fake either way simply b/c of the current gold price (unless I knew that the family were like a multi-millionaires!). I'm all about celebrating a wedding and making the bride feel special....but I'm also about being smart when it comes to spending money.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
I received my set from my in-laws before the spike in gold prices, so they were able to afford something very ornate at a relatively affordable price. Still, it was so big and heavy, that I can't wear it, ever. There's like, no occassion where I feel comfortable to wear it, which is so sad. Who wants to spend all that money on something only worn once and then put in a safe "for the grandchildren."
I have considered having my jewellery remade into lighter sets that I can wear everyday, or jhumka earrings, or angooti or stuff I like, like bracelets, but then I'd have to give up some of my gold for the cost of labour, or pay for it up front. The first is obviously a scandalous idea in a desi family, and the second I don't feel like forking up the money for.
I think the idea of lighter sets is nice, because it can be worn again, to other weddings or functions with my asian clothes. Besides, with artificial sets, I feel like there's so much more variety in design in colour, so it can be really personalized to the bride. Also, here in Canada at least, jewellers are starting to pay good price for silver, so gold-plated silver jewellery is not such a bad idea.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
I will be weating white gold iA, but my jewellery is very, very light and elegant. It can be worn in the future as well. I cannot wear those heavy necklaces and earrings and jhoomar. I don't really get how being covered in huge amounts of jewellery is supposed to make one feel special. It's never the quantity.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
I got my wedding jewellery way before the huge spike in prices :)
I got it at a time when a tola was less than 10K PKR
So it is insanely heavy and gorgeous.
There are enough family functions to wear jewellery to even afterwards. You can rewear it at siblings' functions, marriages in the extended family both your own and inlaws. I don't think it's a bad investment at all!
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
When I got married (1998), gold was around $236/oz!!! (I think here in the US, we paid maybe $12 a gram!!) You can see in the thread below, I had two heavy, gold sets..the rani haar was about 125 grams I believe, without the earrings & tikka! After my wedding, I probably only wore those sets once. They just sat in the bank locker. So when I went back to Khi in 2008, I took those two sets and traded them in for some more modern designs and got 3 lighter sets, a set of 2 bangles, a karra, a chain, and some tops/pendants! Now THAT stuff I wear all the time! My wedding chooriyan, another very heavy gold karra, and some other sentimental pieces I would never dream of trading, but these two sets, I have no regrets
For my cousins wedding, she is going to do artificial set for the main shaadi, wear whatever her inlaws bring her with the valima jora (they are pretty traditional folks, so it will most likely be a heavy gold set), and then my khala is getting her mostly western style diamond stuff (pendent & earring sets), white gold chains, and maybe one or two halka gemstone designs…
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
Even though its a real big trend right now, I havn't been to any weddings yet where I have seen the bride wear imitation. But WHEN I do get married,Ill probably go for a rani haar and a choker, both pieces come together to create a heavier traditional look, but can be worn apart( or together)over and over and over again. Ive, never been a fan of ONE heavy gold set anyways. But If done right gold jewelry isn't a bad investment at all IMO. But gold is cheap these days I think compared to the last month or so...Maybe itll come down a bit more?(fingers crossed).
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
Gold is about to rise again. I am about to invest in some gold at the price it is at right now. I'm pretty sure it will rise.
Even though its a real big trend right now, I havn't been to any weddings yet where I have seen the bride wear imitation. But WHEN I do get married,Ill probably go for a rani haar and a choker, both pieces come together to create a heavier traditional look, but can be worn apart( or together)over and over and over again. Ive, never been a fan of ONE heavy gold set anyways. But If done right gold jewelry isn't a bad investment at all IMO. But gold is cheap these days I think compared to the last month or so...Maybe itll come down a bit more?(fingers crossed).
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
I know my mom is saying the same too :( SIGHHH...she is about to place an order for some stuff soon too
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
I say, wear whatever enhances your "look" best and suits your pocket as well.
If I didn't already preempt this issue way back in 1996-1997 by going out and choosing stuff with my mom when gold was super low priced, I would've gone for a kundan set with more "spread".
Wedding jewellery is not supposed to be simple/casual. You can go for the elegant look on the walima ie slim small sets, but I don't think the bridal dresses etc are done justice to otherwise.
Then again, some people are very silly with their money. They don't know how to get the best bang for buck.
Recently, there has been a trend of wearing silver or gold plated jewellery sets for bridals. The imitations are so perfect that the difference cannot be told. Instead, brides normally make 2-3 lighter weight gold sets that are everyday wear and can be used as compared to the big set that hardly gets worn again.
Have you seen any one doing that?
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
^ not every bride wears a red jora though or a very heavy one that calls for a heavy set. and then some brides opt to wear heirloom pieces- i wore my nani's choker and earrings and picked up a "silver with gold pani" teeka to go with it. i think the key is, as you said, go with what works for your pocketbook both in bridal jora and jewellery. if your budget will only stretch to allow a very expensive designer jora plus an imitation set, personally, i'd go with a less expensive jora and get a real gold set to go with it. if your family isn't big (like mine) or if you live abroad (like i do) you might not have a lot of other shadi's to attend, or they might be happening on the other side of the world and its not always possible to attend them, to justify the cost of a very pricey dress or a heavy expensive set that you'll only wear once.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
Any recomendation for a good jeweller in lahore or karachi for the silver set with which are goldplated? i only know Sonar... what is ur opinion on that one? Im actually looking for a polki kindof set, since i cant afford actual polki. :S
@SGC: could you tell me where u got ur teeka made, and mayb a picture? tx.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
Haan in that case you can go simpler. It varies person to person honestly. I wore a lot of heirloom pieces on my Nikah, even had a borrowed jhomar from my friend’s dadi because that piece was made in the same era my great grandmother’s teeka was made and it completed my “look” 
But Daffyduck (the OP) is in Pakland you see
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
You could try this jeweller - he does gold plated designs…
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/wedding/445504-ahmad-haroon-khan-jewellery.html
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
Any recomendation for a good jeweller in lahore or karachi for the silver set with which are goldplated? i only know Sonar... what is ur opinion on that one? Im actually looking for a polki kindof set, since i cant afford actual polki. :S
@SGC: could you tell me where u got ur teeka made, and mayb a picture? tx.
i picked it up from an imitation jewellery place in toronto.
Re: Artificial Wedding Sets
can u post a pic of it ? and details of the set?? :)