I've finally finished writing this post - I started it just after the honeymoon but got so angry again and just left it, but I want to finish my planning story and this was a major and super stressful part of it!
So as I have mentioned before, we planned for Nik to wear a grey Sherwani suit (which had also been the original plan for his brother until that went belly up!) We even had mice made for the cheese table as a custom order via Etsy with the same design in mind...
So as I have mentioned before, we planned for Nik to wear a grey Sherwani suit (which had also been the original plan for his brother until that went belly up!) We even had mice made for the cheese table as a custom order via Etsy with the same design in mind...
Unfortunately Nik's Sherwani suit ended up causing us even more stress that Ishan's. When the first one arrived from India, the design was correct but the fabric was black with a silvery shimmer overlay rather than grey, despite choosing a dark grey from a colour chart. Luckily the woman in the shop was immediately aware that it wasn't what we had wanted and said she could re-order it in the correct colour. She also told us that she was planning a trip to India herself shortly and would be able to check on the progress while she was out there.
It was while she was away that the incident with Ishan's outfit happened and we had contacted the shop to see if we could get another one made in time. We were told no, but managed to find an alternative grey outfit in stock. It was only a few days until her return from India so we looked forward to seeing Nik's outfit when she got back. We had to call them to find out what was happening about 3 days after we expected to hear from them to be told that everything was in hand but it hadn't been finished yet. We were told to expect it to arrive the Wednesday before the wedding which panicked me slightly as it was leaving it so late but we had no choice but to wait at this stage! We did try looking into alternatives as a back up plan but couldn't find anything suitable locally with just 2 weeks to go to it was a case of fingers crossed!
Unfortunately it didn't work!! Not only did it not arrive until the FRIDAY!!! (Wedding on Sunday) but when we went to collect it with Nik, his Dad and Brother it was atrocious! We were expecting something the same as this only in the grey raw silk (similar to the mouse version!) which we chose from the colour chart....
We actually ordered the first version on 5th April thinking we had plenty of time as it should arrive in 4-6 weeks from India, made to measure. We asked for the same kind of fabric but in grey rather than black and bronze but with the same black beading and embroidery. As I said, when it arrived it was actually still black but with an awful shiny silver shimmer over the top! Even before showing us she admitted that she thought it wasn't what we wanted (although she still thought it was dark grey fabric and not black) and said it wasn't a problem, she would just sell that one and we could re-order it, suggesting the plain raw silk herself to ensure we got the right colour. We decided that would be best and changed the colour to No.34 to make sure it wasn't too dark or black again, just to be on the safe side!
Version 2 was actually the SAME again only even MORE shiny silver over the top of the black. This time - with just 2 days to go, the service we received was terrible! We ended up being in the shop for over and hour trying to figure out what to do! She still insisted that it was grey and not black and didn't seem at all concerned that we would be left with nothing for Nik to wear to his own wedding in 2 days time! We explained (calmly!) that we hated it more than the last one, it wasn't raw silk and Vikram pointed out that he would look like Michael Jackson or a circus performer up on stage with the silvery shiny jacket! She just wanted to give us our money back and said simply that if we didn't like it, we didn't have to take it and we could have a full refund. She didn't quite seem to understand that didn't solve our predicament or make up for the fact that she had let us down so badly. We now realise that it most likely hadn't even been started when she was in India and supposedly checking the progress as she had understood exactly what we wanted and just kept blaming 'India' for the mix up and claimed they just do what they think is right. Really not an excuse when her business deals with India on a daily basis! Surely if they can't produce what she orders then she shouldn't tell us she can do it in the first place, never mind twice!!
I just sat there with my head in my hands trying to to cry during the debate about what we should do - Vikram suggested we just hire it from the shop for a much lower price as we didn't want to pay £400 for an outfit we didn't like and Nik would never wear again (to which she responded he wouldn't wear it again anyway (nonsense and not for her to say!) and absolutely no because she couldn't re-sell it after it was worn - which I do think is fair enough. We looked at all the other sherwanis in the shop but they were all black or ivory and either had red in them (red and green not a good combo) or were super shiny and embellished - not Nik's thing at all and I didn't want to be outshone either! At one point of us saying that she had left us with no option to take the awful outfit, she kept insisting that she wasn't in any way leaving us stuck as we could have a refund instead and sort ourselves out!! We said what are we supposed to do and she said we should just get and 'English' suit. This was when I lost it and Vikram thought I might be about to hit her! I said if we wanted an 'English' suit we would have ordered and English suit and we had been planning an Indian/Scottish fusion wedding for 11 months and if Nik just wore an ordinary suit it would ruin the whole look. Nik pointed out it was HIS WEDDING, something he does ONCE IN HIS LIFE not just once a year for some celebration or other.
In the end we left terribly stressed and unhappy, with a vague solution of Nik wearing the same, more casual version as Ishan's back up (she luckily had one in stock that just fit and it was grey). We weren't convinced as Nik had really wanted to wear something special like me with my dress for our once in a lifetime special day, not just any casual Indian outfit or a suit that he might wear for work. It was almost like if I had ordered my dress from there (and I had tried on some of the really ornate Indian wedding dresses in there) and it came all wrong and she just suggested going to Monsoon for an evening dress instead - not that I have anything against Monsoon dresses (actually really like them and based the BM dress design on one!) but in comparison to a really ornate Indian style dress it doesn't compare!
As a back-up back-up plan, Vikram thought to ask Nik's cousin in London if he had any Sherwani suits he could bring up with him the next day. He did have a couple and Nik sent me some pictures from the hotel the night before the wedding as he wanted to wear one of these slightly more ornate outfits than the grey one we had. He felt that if he wore the grey one he would be a lot more under-dressed than most of the male guests and would feel uncomfortable. I was worried as the one he wanted to wear had a long green waistcoat which looked a very different green to everything else which I thought would look like we had tried to match it but failed, when we hadn't even wanted to match him with the bridesmaids anyway! I wanted him to stand out like me, but equally didn't want him in just the cream which would look yellowy next to my oysterish dress!
As it turned out, my brother brought it over the next morning for me and my girls to ultimately decide which he should wear and in real life the green actually matched perfectly! It ended up that people thought we had specially ordered it. So cousin Samir saved the day and Nik was happy (despite having to use my emergency pack of safety pins on some last minute brown sandals as they were torn) but his patent black Kurt Geieger shoes that would have looked nice and swish with his smart grey Sherwani suit didn't quite go with the green and cream outfit! It actually does look really good in the photos and I love this one of him looking all handsome and matching the tree outside our venue... ;)
Unfortunately it didn't work!! Not only did it not arrive until the FRIDAY!!! (Wedding on Sunday) but when we went to collect it with Nik, his Dad and Brother it was atrocious! We were expecting something the same as this only in the grey raw silk (similar to the mouse version!) which we chose from the colour chart....
 |
| The original version we asked to be made in grey |
 |
| Back view - the fabric was black with a bronzey overlay which had a slight shimmer |
 |
| We initially chose colour 36, but then 34. |
Version 2 was actually the SAME again only even MORE shiny silver over the top of the black. This time - with just 2 days to go, the service we received was terrible! We ended up being in the shop for over and hour trying to figure out what to do! She still insisted that it was grey and not black and didn't seem at all concerned that we would be left with nothing for Nik to wear to his own wedding in 2 days time! We explained (calmly!) that we hated it more than the last one, it wasn't raw silk and Vikram pointed out that he would look like Michael Jackson or a circus performer up on stage with the silvery shiny jacket! She just wanted to give us our money back and said simply that if we didn't like it, we didn't have to take it and we could have a full refund. She didn't quite seem to understand that didn't solve our predicament or make up for the fact that she had let us down so badly. We now realise that it most likely hadn't even been started when she was in India and supposedly checking the progress as she had understood exactly what we wanted and just kept blaming 'India' for the mix up and claimed they just do what they think is right. Really not an excuse when her business deals with India on a daily basis! Surely if they can't produce what she orders then she shouldn't tell us she can do it in the first place, never mind twice!!
I just sat there with my head in my hands trying to to cry during the debate about what we should do - Vikram suggested we just hire it from the shop for a much lower price as we didn't want to pay £400 for an outfit we didn't like and Nik would never wear again (to which she responded he wouldn't wear it again anyway (nonsense and not for her to say!) and absolutely no because she couldn't re-sell it after it was worn - which I do think is fair enough. We looked at all the other sherwanis in the shop but they were all black or ivory and either had red in them (red and green not a good combo) or were super shiny and embellished - not Nik's thing at all and I didn't want to be outshone either! At one point of us saying that she had left us with no option to take the awful outfit, she kept insisting that she wasn't in any way leaving us stuck as we could have a refund instead and sort ourselves out!! We said what are we supposed to do and she said we should just get and 'English' suit. This was when I lost it and Vikram thought I might be about to hit her! I said if we wanted an 'English' suit we would have ordered and English suit and we had been planning an Indian/Scottish fusion wedding for 11 months and if Nik just wore an ordinary suit it would ruin the whole look. Nik pointed out it was HIS WEDDING, something he does ONCE IN HIS LIFE not just once a year for some celebration or other.
In the end we left terribly stressed and unhappy, with a vague solution of Nik wearing the same, more casual version as Ishan's back up (she luckily had one in stock that just fit and it was grey). We weren't convinced as Nik had really wanted to wear something special like me with my dress for our once in a lifetime special day, not just any casual Indian outfit or a suit that he might wear for work. It was almost like if I had ordered my dress from there (and I had tried on some of the really ornate Indian wedding dresses in there) and it came all wrong and she just suggested going to Monsoon for an evening dress instead - not that I have anything against Monsoon dresses (actually really like them and based the BM dress design on one!) but in comparison to a really ornate Indian style dress it doesn't compare!
As a back-up back-up plan, Vikram thought to ask Nik's cousin in London if he had any Sherwani suits he could bring up with him the next day. He did have a couple and Nik sent me some pictures from the hotel the night before the wedding as he wanted to wear one of these slightly more ornate outfits than the grey one we had. He felt that if he wore the grey one he would be a lot more under-dressed than most of the male guests and would feel uncomfortable. I was worried as the one he wanted to wear had a long green waistcoat which looked a very different green to everything else which I thought would look like we had tried to match it but failed, when we hadn't even wanted to match him with the bridesmaids anyway! I wanted him to stand out like me, but equally didn't want him in just the cream which would look yellowy next to my oysterish dress!
As it turned out, my brother brought it over the next morning for me and my girls to ultimately decide which he should wear and in real life the green actually matched perfectly! It ended up that people thought we had specially ordered it. So cousin Samir saved the day and Nik was happy (despite having to use my emergency pack of safety pins on some last minute brown sandals as they were torn) but his patent black Kurt Geieger shoes that would have looked nice and swish with his smart grey Sherwani suit didn't quite go with the green and cream outfit! It actually does look really good in the photos and I love this one of him looking all handsome and matching the tree outside our venue... ;)
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