The Glamour and Grunge
Priya gets ‘down and dirty’, in her bridal dress to get some amazing shots.

Priya Kumar and Sundeep Mokha live in Toronto, Ontario. Both work in the tech field, and they also run a boutique wedding consulting business (www.psmokha.com). They got married on April 25th 2009 at the Swaminarayan Temple, Toronto and the reception was at the gorgeous Le Jardin Special Events Centre. Priya tells us about her unique ‘Trash Your Dress’ photo-shoot by Kumari photography.

‘Trash Your Dress’ is a new trend emerging in North America, whereby brides get dressed up in their bridal and take their dresses into dirty, grungy and off the wall locations all in the name of photography! When I saw this concept I was so intrigued. Anyone’s first reaction would be “why spoil your beautiful wedding dress”, but to be honest I was quite sure I would not wear my Bridal Lengha again—so why not have another unforgettable experience with it? I met with the Kumari team and they were dying for an Indian bride to do a shoot like this and instantly we clicked. My look for the shoot was quite different from my wedding day. I wore my hair down in light messy curls, my makeup was sultry and the overall look was edgy! The Kumari creative team scouted out for grungy and urban locations all over downtown Toronto to make our vision come alive. We took pictures under highway bridges, muddy railroads, and dark scary alleyways. Yes my lehenga got dirty, wet and even few stones fell off but in the end it was totally worth it!

My wedding day looked was very traditional, with red lips and accentuated eye makeup. When searching for my wedding lehenga, I was convinced I needed to get something custom made but found it hard to trust someone to carry out my vision, so I looked and looked for months. Finally, I found the perfect lehenga from Zedd's Boutique! It was designed with rich materials like brocade, and antique gold accent work with colored stones that really uplift the outfit. It had two tones—red and mustard and the dupatta was much lighter than most bridal dupattas. I wanted a timeless look, so I opted for antique gold jewellery, and classic gold Manolo Blahnik heels that were the icing on the cake!!! I wanted to be able to look back at my pictures, 5, 10, 50 years from now and still really love the way I looked! My hair and makeup was done by Toronto makeup artist Sherry Vanstone.

Pictures courtesy: Kumari Photography www.kumariblog.com