Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Christine's mehendi





Christine was among the simplest brides I have met. She didn't have any special request, except one: she didn't want any bride and groom pictures on her hands or feet; "it would freak me out to wake up and see eyes on my hands staring back at me!" she said. Although she had intended to get very little done, as I did her mehendi, she opened up to the idea of being a traditional bride and had mehendi done almost uptil her elbows.




All the guests were amazed that Mansi and I had created a unique yet similar pattern for each of them.


A special memory



This picture hold special memories for me because this was among Mansi's first bridal mehendi works. The whole ceremony was held at a beach. That was my first time doing mehendi at the beach. Not only were the guests and bride happy and amazed, but even people passing by were amazed. The bride was generous enough to let a few strangers get mehendi applied.



Dipali's Mehendi


I always make it a point to find out a bride's likes and dislikes, and most importantly, I love incorporating the bride's personality in the mehendi. Dipali came to us with very elaborate and interesting ideas. During our conversation, she mentioned how she would be the among those who sat in the front row seats during a wedding ceremony. Hence, I incorporated a few ceremonies that are involved in a hindu wedding. We incorporated a Ganeshji from her wedding invitation. To make this a really unique pattern, I also incorporated the mang-sindoor ceremony, a ceremony which Dipali was in awe of. For her wrist, I chose to use a pattern from the mehendi party's backdrop! Although not visible, towards the elbows, I drew musical instruments to represent the sangeet ceremony during which we applied mehendi for over a hundred ladies.
Please note we do not use any harmful chemical to enchance the color. We, however, bring fresh mehendi from Udaipur, Rajasthan. As for the amazing color Dipali argues it's because her "husband loves [her] so much!"


Evija's mehendi.

I hadn't met Evija until the day of her mehendi. Her mother-in-law had come over to our hom to pick the designs; however, Evija had more of liking towards traditional patterns unlike her mother-in-law. She also had a few requests of "personalizing" her mehendi.


The bride, Evija, had wanted to incorporate a King and queen picture that looked both grand and subtle at the same time. This is one of my favorite patterns.



In contrast to the mehendi on her hands, she preferred to go simple on her feet. I copied the middle flower pattern from her lehenga. The mehendi was done in a way to look like a sandal.

A little about us.



My daughter Mansi 17, and I, Ruchi operate our mehendi business which grew out of passion and hardwork. Our art is our passion. Literally. My daughter and I have been doing mehendi since our childhood. While I have been professionally trained under Ms. Saroj Oza, Mansi is god gifted with this talent. She has been doing mehendi since before she had begun coloring with crayons as a kid.
We have the greatest joy in coming up with creative and unique patterns for each bride and occasion. We take pride in providing an overly stressed bride with hours of beautiful work and helping make her day special. No request is too big, we like challenges. No occasion is too small, as far as there is curiosity and love for our art, we will be there!
Hope you like the few pieces of our work that we have put up in this blog.