Henna or Mehendi is an indispensable South Asian wedding tradition and celebration. The tradition of Mehendi, where hands and feet of the bride are adorned with beautiful designs, is celebrated with the beats of dholak and festive dancing. Henna Designs look gorgeous on every bride, because of it’s beautiful color and also the intricacy of the patterns used. Paisleys, peacock, shehnai, palki, often feature as bridal henna patterns. These lovely details can be used as inspiration and applied to other elements of your wedding.
There are a number ways to incorporate the art of henna in your wedding, such as your wedding cake, stationary, and even your overlays/linen for the reception tables. You can start with selecting a henna pattern for your feet and hands and applying it to the other elements of your wedding. There are different styles of henna patterns that you can choose from:
The Middle Eastern or Arabic style: This style of Mehendi is inspired by Arabic textiles, paintings and carvings, where floral patterns are used. It is less detailed and intricate, but at the same time open and flowing. Instead of having fill-in designs, the patterns are boldy colored. Many popular Arabic designs are vines and leaves with beautiful flowers. The latest fashion is to incorporate colored glitter with Arabic Mehendi, which looks absolutely stunning.
The North African style: This style is very bold, where the design normally follows the shape of the hands and feet with geometric floral patterns composed of dots and lines. No fine lines or fill-in are used but it’s still very different from Arabic Mehendi. It is very simple, but very pretty.
The Indian and Pakistani style: This style extends beyond the hands and feet and the patterns are usually made up of paisley patterns, peacocks and teardrops. It is the most detailed and intricate, as well as, the most time consuming and exhausting design to produce for the artist. This is the most traditional style of Mehendi that is applied on brides’ hands and feet.
Once you select the style of Mehendi you want, you should browse some Mehendi catalogs and the web to select the appropriate design. To apply Mehendi inspiration to your cake, consult with your cake vendor. An ivory background with dark brown icing on fondant looks absolutely stunning. Alternately you could add sparkles to your cake with a hint of color.
To add a touch of henna to your stationary, scan your design using a scanner and a computer, and use it for your programs and other stationary. Alternately, find a stock photo online, for example, you can use iStockPhoto, to find Mehendi patterns. Look out for my next blog post which will go over an example of creating a Reception Program using a henna pattern.
For henna inspired overlays/linen, you can use table cloths that are rust in color. You can also top it off with gold organza overlays with paisley designs with beautiful trimmings. These overlays can be found at Event Rentals. Alternately, if you go for your wedding shopping to India, you can easily get these made over there. If you want to go overboard, you can get your table cloths made in India. One idea could be to use brocade for your table cloths and get them custom made according to your table measurements. To find the perfect measurements for your tables, look here.
Mehendi is beautiful, no matter which style you choose. The colors and patterns are very intriguing and stunning. Using henna as inspiration can add a touch of tradition, elegancy and beauty to your wedding. If you have more questions, please comment on this post or email me at neha@marigoldevents.com. To end this post, for your entertainment, here is one of the many Bollywood songs about Mehendi, Mehendi Racha Ke Rakhna from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.
