Significance of Wedding Jewellery for a Woman

Significance of Wedding Jewellery for a Woman

A wedding is no doubt one of the most important occasions in the lives of two individuals. The starting of a new life in an unexplored area is something that can be pretty intimidating at first but gradually becomes easier for everyone. This occasion has the most significance in Indian culture, where a bride is dressed in a way to make her look like a goddess.

Whether it’s the dress, the ornaments, the makeup, or the jewellery; every single item used for the bride has its own importance to contribute to the making of this new queen. While selecting the jewellery, utmost care is taken. Many aspects like the bride’s choice, her skin tone, her wedding dress, and much more are taken into consideration when choosing the jewellery.

You can go for a silver mangalsutra or a gold mangalsutra, it all depends on the bride’s choice because she has to wear this significant item for the rest of her life, along with the wedding ring. The other items like necklaces, chains, etc can be changed. However, on the day of marriage, there is certain importance of the jewellery. This jewellery is specially crafted for this bride and can be customised as per her requirements and choices.

The Necklace is heavy and cannot be used for daily wear. It has an elaborate design and studded with gemstones and sometimes diamonds as well. Depending on how religious the family is, it is common and very popular to have a depiction of goddess Lakshmi on this necklace since she is the goddess of prosperity, fertility and marriage.

The jewellery is worn from the head to the toe of the bride. There is a special ritual called Solah Shringar which means 16 ornaments. The bride is dressed in at least 16 jewellery items literally from head to toe. The maang tikka is worn on the head because it is believed that it gives the bride the wisdom, willpower and knowledge to proceed with her new journey in life along with her husband. This also protects her from evil and keeps the negative energy away.

On the feet, the bride wears a customised toe ring design which is made of silver. Gold is not used because it is considered to be the metal of the gods and wearing it below the waist is believed to be disrespectful. The toe ring is worn on the second toe of the feet. This is a symbol of being married and is not removed throughout the lifetime. These are believed to have marvellous social and religious significance as well as health benefits.

All the jewellery worn by the bride makes her a true symbol of beauty. But because traditional jewellery is quite heavy in weight due to the various embellishments like gemstones and ornaments, gradually it is being used less. The latest and modern wedding jewellery are now being developed which are crafted with the same traditional styles but optimised to be lighter than the traditional jewellery. This is done by either creating hollow designs or more intricate designs like meshes, which use less metal but product beautiful designs.

Even young girls have started to wear such designs because they’re highly elegant, and it makes them look more mature and confident individuals. These may be even lighter and with thin chains and small ornaments. The reason for this is that most girls try to experiment with different designs of jewellery, so they don’t want to spend too much money on heavy jewellery designs. This makes the lighter jewellery styles a perfect choice for them.