excellent thread, miss sahar! **
What are the styles and colors?*
its a very pale tan, almost ivory-coloured lehenga. the bottom is heavily embroidered in shades of brown, ivory, khaki green and very little bits of maroon. the kameez is a darker shade of tan/brown. the dupatta is tan on the edges with similar kaam to the lehenga and ivory net in the center with booties.
*Who got and designed it?
i saw the design for the bottom on benzerworld.com and then i saw the fabric with the perfect embroidery/colours i was looking for in an upholstery shop, of all places, and i put the two together. the lady i had it made from had a different lehenga with a dupatta style that i loved so i requested the same. it was a very heavy dupatta though! since then, i’ve learned dupattas really need to be lighter with thinner borders so they drape well and don’t end up pulling down your hairstyle entirely.
*What year was it made?
2007
*What was your reaction when you first saw it? How did you feel in it on your wedding day? How do you feel about it now?
i cried when i saw it because it was gorgeous. up until then, i’d seen some badly taken phone pictures and i’m sure some of the guppans remember that stress lol. i cried because it was nothing like the photos and i was SO relieved. the kaam was heavy and intricate and beautifully done and the colours were exactly what i had envisioned and asked for (yay, karachi dyers!). i felt excellent on my wedding day AH. in the dress, the day, the weather, my hair and makeup, my nani’s jewellery… all of it. i was just SO HAPPY to be marrying my husband and with all my family around me that it could have rained frogs and toads and i don’t think it would have ruined my day. the photographers have this amazing shot of when i walked into where my mom was getting dressed and her expression when she saw me and it makes me tear up, without fail, every single time. it makes me so happy that i could make her so happy! despite marrying outside our culture, when she saw me, she still saw her little girl all dolled up as a dulhan should be and as she had envisioned (see? getting all sentimental now!)
the only thing i would change from the original outfit now is the kameez. it could have been made of a slightly different silk- something heavier. it was very lightweight silk and on the short side so it needed some work in the dupatta setting and doing it in such a way that it weighed it down from the front, but i found that on the day of, i didn’t really care. its only since then when you sit down and review things with family that it occurred to me that possibly something different could have been done. i’m planning on wearing it again at my cousin’s shaadi this summer iA with a slightly longer, plain rawsilk shirt-- of course thatl depends on where i am with the baby weight! 
*What does it say about you, your family, etc?
its just perfectly me and our wedding. we were having a fusion desi/gora affair, it was going to be outdoors in the gardens of this lovely private estate, it was a long weekend in the summertime and everything came together so perfectly AH.
also that i’m completely anal when it comes to kaam, colours, etc. i wrote out a 2-page Word document with very specific instructions for the lady making the lehenga in karachi. on the upside, she found it super helpful because she didn’t have to guess at anything. on the downside, i was a complete wreck until it arrived because i had given her such specific instructions.
*Where is it now?
at mum and dad’s, all nicely packed up in plastic and tissue and preserved for its next outing.
pictures!
