Shefaali Hegde, a designer runs a studio in Bandra, Mumbai specialising in heavily embroidered bridal wear. When Shefaali marriage to Siddharth Rai was fixed for 10th May, 2007 all her friends and clients were very curious to know what the pretty designer would design for herself. Says Shefaali: “Since I am from the Bunt community, I wanted to wear clothes and accessories which my community brides typically wear, yet I wanted to innovate a bit. Back then, brocade as a fabric was popular—so I designed all my creations—in brocade. Bunt brides typically wear kanjeevaram sarees for the main wedding function—I chose to wear a pre-stitched brocade saree with pearls, emeralds and Swarovski stones. They also wear lots of gold chains and necklaces—instead of that I chose to wear two big necklaces instead—uncut jewellery from Jaipur. The gold belt and white flower gajra completed the South Indian bride look.”

For the pre-wedding pooja, Shefaali wore a rust color brocade saree with a blue border, blue blouse and antique embroidery. For the Mehendi and Reception she wore heavily embroidered Lehengas. Shefaali’s makeup was done by Bollywood’s makeup maestro Ram Gosalkar.

Sheefali is now based in Bangalore where her husband Siddharth Rai works as the Marketing Head in his family’s logistics business. She continues to run her Mumbai studio and is working on opening another studio in Bangalore shortly.