Every one of our lovely brides has her own vision of her wedding. She is sometimes guided and inspired by traditions, religion and nationality. We are so lucky to learn about all those different traditions and it shows how wonderfully diverse our society is.

Your stories always inspire us and that is why our wedding dress designer Sanyukta Shrestha wanted to share one of her traditions with you today.

It is a very special time for me and for my home country Nepal as we celebrate Tihar. This occasion has a truly important place in my country’s heart. It is a wonderful festival to celebrate the positive things in our lives, the world and the future. Tihar is celebrated for five days with each day being dedicated to an important animal or god. During this special time we would admire fireworks, light up candles and oil lamps and decorate our houses with lights. It is magical to walk through the streets and admire how beautifully lightened up the cities are at night. Some people might know this festival of lights under the name ‘Diwali’ which is celebrated in our neighbour country, India.

The whole festival is a big family celebration and one of the five days is dedicated to the special bond between brothers and sisters. One of my absolute favorite days during Tihar is when ‘Diusi Re’ (boys group of singers) and ‘Vailini’ (girls group of singers) fill the streets with their music and go from house to house. We believe that they bring good fortune to the households and in order to thank the singers my dad would present them with money or sweets. When I was between the age of 8 to 10 my aptitude for fashion design came more and more apparent. I would spend weeks to prepare the outfit for me as a ‘Vailini’ singer. I handcrafted my jewellery out of paper and would design every aspect of my dress. From year to year my outfits became more glamorous and the jewellery started to look real. My ultimate goal was of course to look exactly like the goddess Lakshmi because the Vailini girls represent the goddess when going from house to house to sing Tihar songs.

Tihar is always such a wonderful time to come together and celebrate. And it is a time to make memories which would last a lifetime. I hope that my little daughter will also start making her own memories and will carry our tradition of celebrating the festival of lights into the next generation.

My husband, my daughter and I would like to wish everyone a blessed Tihar! – Sanyukta xx

Photography: oshoadventure.com