Your best friend’s wedding is almost here, and she’s done something most brides avoid: she’s handed you and your girl gang full fashion liberty as long as you stay aligned with the vibe and theme. That already feels lighter, right? No identical dresses, no last-minute alterations because someone picked a style that makes zero sense for the venue, and no forced smiles in a colour you’d never wear again. It sounds simple, and it is, as long as everyone knows what ‘theme’ means in practice. Because that’s where the chaos usually starts—five people interpreting ‘modern romantic’ in five different ways.
The trick is to ensure that ‘match the vibe’ doesn’t result in five wildly different interpretations of the same brief. Keeping it cohesive starts with the basics: fabric, finish, and shape. If the wedding leans refined, think clean satins, soft organzas, or structured crepe. If the mood is lively, pieces with sharper pleating, shimmered textiles, or crisp tailoring hold the look together. Silhouettes matter too. And this is where designers help. Labels speak in specific styles—minimal, sculpted, fluid, or detailed—so picking from designers who align with the theme keeps you on track without killing personal preference. This is less about uniformity and more about creating a set of outfits that sit comfortably in the same visual world.
One friend can go for a fitted midi, another for a flowing ankle-length cut, but the overall outline should feel related. The Gen Z bollywood girls have given us the cheat sheet. Ananya Panday turned up in an emerald green lehenga with a halter blouse. Navya Naveli Nanda went in a completely different direction with a dreamy white lehenga finished with red and gold brocade. Shanaya Kapoor added to the mix with her rose gold brocaded lehenga set. Three outfits, three moods, yet they all circled back to two common threads. Brocade as the visual texture and green as the grounding colour. While Panday wore it head-to-toe, Naveli Nanda and Kapoor carried it through jewellery. That’s why it worked.
To keep the plan clean—and the group chat calm—here’s how to narrow things down so your bridesmaid moodboard is easier to build and even easier to stick to.
Y2K Bolly takes the mehndi
If your bride’s brief leans playful, the styling cues are already sitting in front of you. Y2K-Bollywood energy is back in circulation for mehndis, and it’s giving you real room to pick pieces that look like the fits you grew up watching on television. Look at the palette that’s resurfacing citrus tones that photograph well under daytime sun and fairy lights. Take the three references you should be bookmarking right now. Still by Tejal & Rhea gives you an emerald two-piece, cropped, clean, and detailed with gold work that reads 'festive' but in a chic mini form. Raji Ramniq brings in a tank-style short kurta and printed sharara that swings with every step, which works for a mehndi where you’re actually moving around instead of standing by the grazing table. (guilty) And Anushka Khanna goes brighter with a yellow-green fringed top and a full printed skirt, finished with a belt that holds the shape together.
