Bride Dresses
Wedding day is the big day for all Sri Lanka girls. Their wedding dress, their make up and the hair dressing are their dream for years. They used to memorize all the TV programs that run wedding special, their friends wedding day and their relatives weddings are well observed and they used to plan it in their imagination. They will have already planned who will be their make up artist, what they have to wear on that day for the religious ceremony, for the religious wedding, for the wedding registration and for the home coming function.
One Tamil bride has to select dresses for the following events.
- Saree and blouse for the arrival to the wedding ceremony stage. (Enaik Koorai)
- Bridal sari and blouse for the religious wedding ceremony.( This Bridal saree (Koorai) will be presented by the Groom on the wedding stage, although when he buys it, he used to take the would be bride with him.)
- Saree and blouse for the marriage registration ceremony.
- Saree and blouse for the Home coming ceremony.
Red and Yellow colours are considered as Tamils traditional colors for to express happiness and joy. So, her saree for the "Thaalee" (A married woman's visible identity) wearing moment will be and must be a Red Indian Tanjavoor silk saree which is called as "koorai saree". This used to be a hand woven expensive designer saree with plenty of art work that will make it elegant. This she will keep as her best thing, and will wear in all forthcoming religious days and ceremonial events of heir's and her relatives. In 2011 this sarees start from a price of US$ 500 to US$5,000. In old days Bride washed herself with Scented water and applied turmeric paste to her face and then dried her hair with sandal wood smoke, her friends used to decorate her with all kind of flowers with a long hair dressing, on her back of the head. Wearing all her family Gold jewels, which, when she was young used to ask her mother, whenever mother wears it, Amma, I will wear all these jewels one day, No?
Brides used to wear a 'Inaik koorai"(a secondary silk saree normally yellow color) to go to the wedding stage(manavarai).
Now are modern days and Tamil girls too had changed a lot. For the wedding day they used to ask professional tailors to cut and stitch their blouse with latest design and back cut of it with low, window or band design.
Most of the Indian sarees comes with a piece of the same material for to make blouse for the wearer. Beware some shop keepers used to stitch the blouse piece in the sari. So check it goo whether the blouse piece with or without stitch to the saree.
Many families used to travel to Madras from Colombo to buy their wedding sarees as it is very cheap to get them from there. There are wedding sarrees available from North India , Pakistan, Bangladesh and they are not preferred by the Sri Lanka Tamil people as thay much respect the Tamil traditional Thanjavoor bridal saree as the bride's dress for the occasion.