Bridal Jewellery Checklist for an Indian Wedding

Both are messy, seated, daytime functions. Anything you wear will be photographed close-up and will get turmeric or henna on it.

Wear light pieces you can wipe clean: small studs, one fine chain, and no rings on the mehendi hand. This is the clearest case for demi-fine over gold.

Four hours of dancing decides the brief. Hinged closures rather than wire hooks, prong-set stones rather than glued, and drops short enough that they do not swing into your face.

A cocktail ring works here because your hands are up all evening. A heavy necklace does not.

This is the one look for family gold, the traditional set, and whatever has been kept aside for it. Plan the rest of the wardrobe around it, not the other way round.

If a piece of the set is missing, matching earrings, a second bangle, demi-fine fills the gap far better than a mismatched gold piece will.

You are standing and being photographed, mostly from the front and mostly still. Scale works here: a statement necklace or a pair of long drops.

Choose one focal point. A statement necklace and chandelier earrings together read heavy in every photograph.

Two pairs of everyday studs. One pair of statement earrings. One fine chain and one pendant. One cocktail ring and one slim band. One bracelet with an extender.

That set, in a consistent finish, covers every function except the ceremony, and it travels in a pouch rather than a safe.