Brides of Extreme Down South – South Indian Brides

Brides of extreme down south

Apart from idli dosas, coconuts, the hot summers, the sea coast and the intelligent, intellectual people. Chennai or down south is also know for one more thing, NO, not the gold they exchange in marriages but the “marriages” themselves are a treat to the eyes.

South Indian Bride
South Indian Bride

There nothing as glorious and boisterous as a Tamil bride and her wedding. For the ceremony the bride is extremely pampered. The Tamil people love women with curves and full-fledged body, stop imagining the ladies dancing on heavy tracks of the movies. The brides look healthy and happier during their wedding. The atmosphere for the bride is amazingly cheerful and full of life. There is no start or end to the brides’ joys. The brides of down south follow many rituals and customs during the course of the wedding.

South Indian Bride
South Indian Bride

The Tamil weddings are more pompous and loud. The bride is looked after very well and all her favorite dishes are made.

The bride is flooded with many unique gifts. The shopping for the bride during the wedding is end-less, in every country and in every religion.

The Ceremonies

The various ceremonies for the bride are conducted in series. The last days of the bride at her home are kept in mind and each of her desire and craving is fulfilled. The bride is given top most importance. Each of her aunt, uncle, brother, cousin and almost everybody pampers the bride with lovely saris, her favorite items and sweets and many items.

The Haldi and Mehendi

 

haldi and mehndi

Source

The wedding ceremonies are elaborate and are carefully made for the bride’s benefit. To make the bride flawless for the wedding in series of ceremonies she is smeared with oil and haldi and sandalwood and bathed in rose water and purified water. She is fed with different sweets and savories. Many edible items are made for her to take away to her in-laws house. The bride is well fed with items made up of pure ghee and traditional delicacies

Tamil brides go for basic make-up but wear a great amount of jewelry that decorated every part of her body.

Bridal Jewllery
Bridal Jewllery

Mehendi is also applied according to her desire. Brides’ friends also play a very important role as they help her in every aspect.

The bride appears captivating and pretty on her wedding day, as it is most auspicious and best day of her life, undoubtedly. Tamil brides have the most colorful weddings in silk style.

The 9 yard “Madisar”

There are various styles in which the bride can wear her sari. The Iyengar and iyer brides wear the traditional 9-yard sari the “madisar” style which is customary and makes the brides look cute. The madisar style of draping the sari is a little complicated than draping a 6- yard sari but the 9 yard is extremely comfortable and makes the brides look more gorgeous.

madisar
madisar

Source

The silk saris that the iyengar and iyer brides wear are in magnificent hues of greens, maroons, reds with heavy gold zari and buta work. The heavy zari part comes in the front around below knee-area.

The other Tamil brides may opt for the 6 yard saris that are available in combination with colors such as green and red, maroon and green. Many brides opt for major white color sari with red, maroon or green border that stands out beautifully.

Many young brides go for deep green color with golden thread work on it. And with the designers coming up with lovely combination of colors the brides have a wide range of variety to choose from.

The Jewelry- A whole lot of gold

 

Bridal Jewllery

 

The brides wear extremely heavy saris and adorn themselves with stunning jewels, ancestral pieces of gold and temple jewelry. The neck pieces are huge and heavy made of gold and studded with precious stones like rubes and emeralds and topaz, etc.

ancestral pieces of gold and temple jewelry
ancestral pieces of gold and temple jewelry

The neck wear are also made up of only pure gold with various royal designs that shine on the bride and make her glow.

The bride is decorated with a special kind of neck wear that is made up of small sized gold coins. The bride can also wear huge neck pieces made up of precious stones and pearls. The Tamil brides are extremely fond of gold and wear excessive heavy gold jewelry.

bridal hair accessories
bridal hair accessories

Tamil brides plait their hair to full length and a nice dangling piece made of golden threads is added at the end of the plait. The brides wear various accessories on their plait and on their head they wear “surya” and “Chandra” made up of gorgeous stones. The brides wear “vanki” on their fore arms and mukuthi which shines on their nose, each on the right,left and also centre. The brides are decorated with “oddiyanam” which is the waist band that is made up of gold and many precious stones are bejeweled in it.. Her fore head is adorned wih “nethi” and she wears shining gold bangles in combination with green glass bangles. The bride also wears numerous types of jewelry.

bride
bride

The brides wear their hair differently depending upon which clan they belong to. The iyengar and iyer brides wear “kondu” i.e. they tie a bun on one side their head which is clearly visible from front and it is decorated with flowers and decorated with a special gold accessory.

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37 thoughts on “Brides of Extreme Down South – South Indian Brides

  1. I find South Indian weddings boring….except for a couple of rituals that the brahmins have….. weddings up north are so much fun with the music and dance, n its a lot more lively for almost everyone, even the “duur ke rishtedar” :((sad face cuz I’m a south Indian and I’ve attended more weddings down south than up north)…… but bride pampering would be equal and that feeling of this being your special day, well that cant be compared, D days are always special for the bride!

    1. Not at all Ip!!! The only boring thing is that they’re incredibly early! They’re so traditional and beautiful and intricate! Plus there are singing competitions b/w the two families, lots of teasing, even games b/w the bride and groom! And these days, all southies have pre-wedding mehendi etc.!
      .-= ki.´s last blog ..Quick tips =-.

    2. It depends on how you embrace your culture and your own wedding. I had a typical south Indian Iyer wedding. I enjoyed every moment of it and would never trade it for any other kind/culture’s wedding.

    1. I think the general bit is about all Indian weddings, cause the article reminded me about the Bengali brides post a lot! i mean so many things we do similarly no?
      :)and she was also specific about Tamil weddings!:) i am half Telugu on my fathers side, and there are soooooo many different customs in different sects of the Telugu weddings only.. are the weddings in Kerala exactly like this?? ?:-)

  2. o god just so beautiful
    i feel every bride looks BEAUTIFUL on her special day
    but we indians are just so vivacious and pretty and full of color
    india is just so great and diverse……the bridal posts on IMBB so remind me of our country’s diversity.
    i had a bengali wedding but made it slightly cosmo 😀
    and it was by the sea ….in a naval base so just awesome

  3. This article reminded me of my own wedding 😀 .

    This article is ditto but I want to tell you my side of the wedding 🙂 .

    All I remember is waking up early in the morning as in 3 am 🙁 and being infront of the fire (haven) till 11 am. Lets not forget the dress changes in between. I had 3 saree change and one was the madisar which took 3 women to drape it on me 😀 . And lets not forget the hunger when you are sitting infront of the fire. Of course, the priest wanting to do everything before the muhurtham (good time).

    Finally the best part, the food. We were served very traditional vegetarian food which I absolutely love. Everyone looks forward for the food in the wedding some of the stuffs which you don’t cook in your house.

    I can’t forget how sleepy I was as I felt dazed throughout the wedding. Of course, endless relatives and friends coming up the stage and congratulating you and you don’t remember who came for the wedding 😀

    The best thing is the Reception which is much more relaxed and fun 🙂
    .-= Charan´s last blog ..Goodies… =-.

  4. Nice article zeeba..small correction , the iyers don’t wear a “kondai” (a small bun) on their head..The iyengar bride wears a artificial “kondai” on the side of their head with tassels hanging. It represents the goddess “aandal”. Apart from that they have a normal long plait behind.

    1. thanks Jane///actually most of the info from my iyengar fren…..she helped me in most of the parts of the article… thanks for the info though..

  5. That’s a very nice article Zeeba 🙂 South Indian weddings are really beautiful and enjoyable.The food is awesome too! I had an Iyer wedding myself and I thoroughly enjoyed it…The more the people the better the enjoyment! 🙂

  6. i guess the article is all about Tamil bride or chennai wedding, there are so many other south indian wedding and customs apart from Tamilian wedding or a chennai weddin, Please change the title for this article.

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