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Bridal · Planning

Six months before the wedding: when your lehenga should begin

Every week, a bride calls us eight weeks before her wedding. We can help her — but I want to tell you what the calendar looks like when it’s done properly.

A hand-embroidered bridal lehenga takes our atelier around twelve weeks — and that is after the design is settled. Four hundred hours of zardozi cannot be hurried without showing. So here is the honest timeline, counted backwards from your wedding day.

Six months out — the conversation

This is when the best work happens. Come to the studio, or call us if you're abroad. Bring photographs you love, or bring nothing — some of our best pieces began with a bride saying only "I don't want to look like everyone else." We talk about your functions, your venue, the jewellery you've inherited, and the colours that live well on you.

Five months out — the design

You'll hold sketches in your hands, and — more importantly — embroidery samples. A photograph cannot tell you how gota patti catches light or how heavy real zardozi feels on silk. The samples decide everything.

Four to two months out — the frame

Your lehenga is stretched on the adda frame and the karigars begin. We send progress photographs — many brides tell us these become their favourite part of the whole wedding, watching it grow stitch by stitch.

Six weeks out — first fitting

The garment on your body for the first time, pinned and corrected. Wear the shoes you'll wear at the wedding, and bring your mother — you'll want her there.

Two weeks out — final fitting and delivery

Final adjustments, steaming, and a box that will travel safely to your venue. Done. No panic, no compromises, no "it will be ready, madam" phone calls.

If you have less time: tell us honestly and we'll tell you honestly what's possible. Some techniques can be done beautifully in eight weeks; some cannot. What we won't do is promise four hundred hours of work in a hundred hours.
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