This is part four, the last of a series of blog entries titled The Sari Experience. My good friend, Sabrina had an Indian wedding ceremony and I wore a sari to the event. I’ve written about my sari experiences; shopping for it, the fitting and finally the wedding. I hope you enjoyed reading these entries and come away with a few pointers should you have to get your own sari.

** Related blog entries:

•  The sari experience, part one: the preview 
• The sari experience, part two: shopping and choosing my first sari 
• The sari experience, part three: tailoring and the one minute sari

The final sari look

Ta da! What do you think? I’m quite happy with the entire look. Initially, I was worried that wearing a lot of embellishment – beading on the sari and choli, and jewellery – would be overpowering and I’d be lost in the outfit, but everything turned out really well.

I gave myself a lot of time to get ready for the wedding as I wasn’t quite sure if recreating the one minute sari look would happen in one minute. In actuality it took me 10 minutes to get the sari the way I wanted it; untangling myself once or twice in all the fabric, safety pinning places here and there, wrapping and rewrapping the sari so it would sit just right around my body.

As you look at the pictures, the sari doesn’t appear to consist of five metres of fabric but trust me it does. My mobility was limited and therefore I had to adopt a bit more patience and care than usual getting in and out of a car, walking up and down stairs while holding the sari so you don’t trip and go flying, and making sure the fabric didn’t catch or tear in the entire process.

Sabrina’s wedding was beautiful and I had a culturally enriching experience. It was a Hindu wedding ceremony and many sacred rituals (17 in total) were performed by the bride, groom and their families. The highlight of the night was being asked to participate in the jaimala, a portion of the ceremony where the bride is accompanied by her parents to the altar to meet the groom. Here, a group of Sabrina’s friends (me included) danced behind her and her parents to Indian drumming down the aisle. It was very memorable and a ton of fun, I wish I had my camera with me at that moment. Doh! 

Sari preparation tips on the day of the wedding:

• Putting on the one minute sari is fairly manageable; however, make sure to keep a handful of safety pins at the ready. There’s the likely chance you’ll be making adjustments to the positioning and draping of the fabric.
• Manoeuvring in a five metre piece of cloth isn’t easy, allow yourself plenty of time to get ready, in and out of a car, and the bathroom
• Speaking of the bathroom, be careful with all that fabric when you go to the toilet