What to Wear to an Indian Muslim Wedding

Being a guest to a South Asian wedding is really exciting. Untill you realize you have no idea what to wear. That is is tricky and overwhelming to say the least.

Previously I covered what to wear to an Indian wedding in general, but recently I received a question from one of our readers about what to wear to an Indian Muslim wedding.

Here’s her question:
Hi Preeti,

Can you help me with a wedding guest question? I just found your beautiful website while searching for “what to wear to an Indian Muslim wedding.” I loved your post on white people at Indian weddings!

I’m a white woman in the US, and my husband and I are going to an Indian Muslim wedding in London in June. The groom is my husband’s friend from work. We really want to be appropriate and festive, and the groom said that I can wear western “evening dress,” but I haven’t been able to find anything that is flattering and modest enough.

While searching on ebay I found an vintage peacock style skirt. Do you think it would be inappropriate for me to wear it with a simple western-style blouse or top, and fun jewelry? I think this is the type of skirt that is worn with a saree, but is it wrong to wear it by itself? Is the color appropriate? I am in awe of Indian textiles and I would be so honored to wear Indian clothing but I’m a little lost! The groom has enough on his plate right now and my husband is as clueless as I am.

Thank you so much! I am really enjoying all the eye candy on your blog!
Meg

PS – I happened to be at Nordstrom Rack and I found this dress: http://www.lyst.com/clothing/diane-von-furstenberg-deep-cove-julieta-dress/ The hem comes to my knees, like the middle of my knee, do you think that’s long enough? I had to go with a darker color because unfortunately the really fun bright colors were washing me out!

Meg asks a lot of great questions above. First, go over and read my article on the differences and similarities between Hindu and Muslim weddings.

I’ll wait right here…

…
…

Okay, read the article and have some insight now? Great! Now, let me get to Meg’s questions.

Do you think it would be inappropriate for me to wear it (an Indian lengha skirt) with a simple western-style blouse or top?
Instead of being inappropriate, it would look mismatched. And at worst, you could end up looking like a hippie remnant with an Indian skirt and western top. Leave that to summer days when you at the beach hanging out, but not at a wedding.

And what about wearing some fun jewelry?
YES! Wear Indian jewelry. Buy bangles and a necklace set. You cannot go wrong with a necklace set. If you wear a dress, pick a jewelry set in pearls with a pendant in filigree.

If you have an Indian outfit, then the sky is the limit.

I like Amrita Singh’s collection. If you are on Facebook, join her fanpage. She has a lot of flash sales so you could end up with a fab deal!

Here are two moodboards based on the DVF dress.

The hem of the dress comes to my knees, like the middle of my knee, do you think that’s long enough?
I like the dress and if it comes to your knees then I think it’s fine to wear. But do try to wear stockings/leggings so when that afternoon British breeze hits, your dress doesn’t show your undies!

If this dress was above your knees, like in the model photo, then I would skip it.

My mom started to worry that I was also going to need one of those enormous royal-wedding style hats because the wedding is in the UK…I kept trying to explain to her that I’m pretty sure this can’t all happen in the same outfit!

I agree. I love those big, crazy wedding hats the Brits wear. But it maybe too hard to pull it all off in one outfit!

You can also accessorize the dress with a nice shawl.

My last comment would be, what you would wear to an Indian Muslim wedding is just about the same as attending a Pakistani Muslim wedding. If you were in Pakistan itself, the trends would of course be different than in India, but in the diaspora, we are hand in hand.

Thanks Meg for asking your question. Do email us a photo from the wedding!