The demure indian bride? The cliche has been turned on its head. It’s not just Liz Hurley getting into a tizzy about the colour of the sherwani her guests will wear, or instructing them to pack mosquito repellants for the honour of being invited to her nuptials. While observers have declared her behaviour befitting a drill-commander rather than a bride-to-be, the bridezilla syndrome is not just restricted to celeb attention-seekers like Hurley, or even Victoria Beckham and Katie Holmes who have been anointed bridezillas in their time.
The term bridezilla was coined by Gail Dunson in her book: Bridezilla: True Tales From Etiquette Hell. A popular US reality show, Bridezillas, profiles brides who have breakdowns over the dream wedding dress and the martini to be served. In their quest for the perfect wedding, bridezillas start to believe they are the single most important person on the planet, sometimes becoming selfish and controlling. They are aesthetic-compulsive and in some cases even ask wedding guests to go on a diet before the wedding, so that they don’t spoil the photo-ops.
Though the traditional Indian bride supposedly sits by and lets mummy and daddy take over the planning—-some customs even call for the bride-to-be not stepping out of the house a few weeks before the D-day — this is increasingly far from the real scene. The hem of her lehenga has to be just that many inches long. She’s specific about the diameter of the bindi and the Banarasi sari crafted by a master weaver of the city, just like Aishwarya Rai. And the groom better stand by and complement the settings, or he’s had it.
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