From Goddess to Princess- A Tamil Bride

Halloween weekend was an exciting one for Studio Sila. While we didn't get to play dress up, we did have a fantastic time offering services of photography and makeup at a very grand wedding in Houston.

The exciting part was that hours before i left for Houston i had to have emergency dental surgery to extract 4 wisdom teeth! Cannot thank my compassionate dentists enough for giving me enough medicine to numb the pain for the travel and work.

So starting at 6 a.m on Saturday morning, the look my bride wanted was natural glamor and with her lush thick hair in curls. We worked with old gold, rich gold, bronze, maroon and olive green for the eyes with black kohl, defined cheeks with a subtle hint of color and copper based lips. The hair was half up with a poof and down with huge soft curls. By the time we were done, she looked nothing less than an Indian Goddess! The oohs and wows were echoing through the ballroom as she made her entrance carried by uncles and cousins in a lotus shaped basket!


For the reception, it was all out glitz and shimmer. A splendid silvery pink outfit loaded with crystals and custom re-designed with a crinoline petticoat created a Cinderella ball gown effect. My bride opted for side swept large curls accented with pink orchids and crystals. The eyes were steel gray, silver and pink, loads of kohl, sculpted cheeks and soft pink lips- A princess indeed!

Photo-credits: Tk@studiosila.com

A Tamil Affair!

This weekend was a fantastic one indeed, though i was up at 4:00 a.m both days to start work pre-dawn, the results were just perfect.

In the overcast balmy weather of friday i went to the bride's parents home to get her ready for the Pooja followed by the Mehndi night. Welcomed with such warmth by her family was a great start and to top it off, her mother made a fantastic cup of south indian filter coffee for me :)

Her Kanjiveeram sari was a pink with mauve undertones with a gold and green weave. So we worked on the following look that could transition from a day time pooja to an evening event. Oh by the time the session was over it was pouring with menacing thunder so i got drenched on my way out, but my bride was able to enjoy her look all day!

Saturday Morning i was at the Driskill with a winter coat on cause the weather had turned to freezing! I met up with the family and as the bride hopped in for a quick shower i enjoyed the lovely decor of the mandap that had been set up already. Her father was so generous and arranged for my caffine intake with a warm cup of coffee and we got started with the wedding ceremony look. Half waythrough the session i did the makeup of her mom, such a lovely lady indeed!

The bride wore a sari that was a family heirloom almost a 100 years old in a rich magenta and gold. Her hair was bejwelled with orchids flown in from Hawaii, a long braid, gold tassels and ruby encrusted discs! This is the hindu ceremony look-

After a quick lunch we started working on the second look for the american ceremony, we had just about an hour to get it all together but it looked splendid!

Now came the main challenge, with two sessions of product overload on the hair, the bride had to take another shower and shampoo her hair so i had to get her ready for the grand reception look in under 2 hours!!!

I had my assistant join me as we blow dried her silky hair, added huge curlers for volume, then curled individual sections with a curling iron for big bouncy curls and finally added tons of extensions for the ultimate glamorous look! I worked on her mother's evening look again and she was so delighted with the false eyelashes :)

The reception look was a red and bright blue and on my bride's cinnamon skin, it looked simply divine- Hugs and thankyou's were the culmination of the day with her bride's maids and guests appreciating how lovely she looked for each event, now that is true satisfaction! After 14 hours of non stop work, i came home delighted and yearning for a massage.

XOXO

Saman