The Wedding Guest Dressing Guide

Indian weddings run for days, each with a different light, a different floor and a different amount of sitting on it. Dressing well across them is mostly about matching the fabric to the event rather than the outfit to the theme.

Mehendi — daytime, outdoors, hands occupied

Light fabrics in strong colour. Mul mul cotton, linen, a printed georgette. You will be sitting for a long time with henna drying on your hands, so nothing that needs adjusting and nothing pale enough to show a smudge.

Haldi — expect to be stained

Wear something you are genuinely willing to lose. Turmeric does not come out of silk. Yellow is traditional and also practical for exactly this reason.

Sangeet — evening, moving

This is the one where you will be on your feet. A georgette or a soft silk drapes well and moves with you; a heavy Kanjivaram will be a burden by the second hour. Pin the pallu.

The ceremony — the most conservative hour of the week

Cover the shoulders, keep the drape traditional, and this is where a heavy silk earns its place: you will mostly be seated, the light is usually flattering, and the photographs from this hour are the ones that get framed.

Reception — the only formal one

Indoor lighting flattens colour and flattens zari with it, so this is the event where a deeper shade and a heavier weave read best. A Kanjivaram or a heavy silk in a saturated colour photographs far better under banquet lighting than a pastel does.

Two things to avoid, at every event

• White or black as the dominant colour, unless the family has said otherwise — both carry associations at Indian weddings that are worth not testing.
• Red at the ceremony. It is the bride’s, and standing beside her in it is a specific kind of mistake.

A practical note

Whatever you wear, try the full drape at home first, with the blouse and the petticoat you intend to use. A saree that has never been worn behaves differently from one that has, and the morning of a wedding is a bad time to find out.