Brides…always..ALWAYS…look incredibly beautiful. They are not looking back at the life they are leaving…they are looking the life they are entering, and this gives them that wonderful glow.

You can see the “chutti” adorning the parting of her hair, and the “mAttal” from her hair to her ears. (this was for the evening prior to the wedding.)

This bride’s hair-dressing on the morning of the wedding is unusual, and made a lot of sense for the hot, humid June afternoon that she got married.

Instead of the “soorya prabhai” and “chandra prabhai” being put on top of the hair, as is usual, they’ve been put at the back, along with the “rAkOdi”, and her hair has been put up in a “koNdai” or bun, and then adorned with fragrant jasmine.

I do love photographing bride’s feet! They are not usually high-visibility, but these graceful feet were exposed at the “nalangu” ceremony, for the bridegroom to apply sandalwood paste…

Here’s

another “bride’s-foot” photograph

That’s some of the best mehendi work I’ve seen for a while. You can also see the “chitthu” or “metti” ( toe-rings), that signify that this young woman is now married. The anklet (“golusu”) design is also very unusual.

Alas, no young bride wears these things on a regular basis any more (well, I didn’t, either, 30-odd years ago, after my toe-rings tore up a few Kanjeevaram sarees!)