Karishma Kapoor’s wedding attire was kept a secret.Karisma Kapoor-Kapur challenged every night function to marry in resplendent pink in the morning! And under the strain of creating an unusual wedding outfit in just three weeks, designer Manish Malhotra also had to protect the design from prying eyes. Photographers and TV crews even sneaked into his home, to try and snap up what Karisma would wear on her big day.

Manish recounts the excitement that went into making Karisma look unbelievably gorgeous on the most special day in her life …

"When Karisma was getting married, I was leaving Sheetal Design Studio as I had signed up to become a director. I was working from home because I had not found an office yet. When Karisma came to me, I was busy with my film work and she was already quite hyper.

"We had loads of discussions on the colour she should wear. There were just about three weeks left and I still had to start the embroidery. Then we were stuck on which pink it should be, - since it was a Punjabi-Sardar wedding, held during the day - we decided to agree on a light colour. The question was whether it would be peach or pink!

"First we started to work on- her jewellery - Babitaji, Karisma and I would keep going to the jewellers to check the design. The final set was made of yellow gold and diamonds, it was a very modern design and the outfit was woven around it. Though the jewellery did have a traditional feel, the motifs were quite modern. She was very clear about not wearing too much jewellery: there was just one necklace, one maang tika, kadas that matched the necklace and we also had some colourful diamond bangles made. The reason she didn’t want to go overboard on the jewellery was because she wanted a broad border on her dupatta that would frame her face.

"We thought the outfit should have gold with silver and since it was a day wedding we didn’t want too much gold. She wanted a very heavy outfit so my take on that was that if it was a lighter colour, the outfit could still get away with being worn during the day, a darker colour would have looked too much. I did a special kind of zardozi work and luckily for me, she has a fantastic figure to carry off any design.

"I also did her outfits for the mehendi; for a function in Delhi; Kareena’s outfits and a lehenga for her mother Babitaji - all of that also made it fun.

"It was also stressful! I remember we made this sari for her sangeet and there were TV cameras all over the place. One person even came up to shoot the outfit, since it was lying exposed in my home. Karisma was very keen that nobody should know the colour of the wedding outfit in advance and this created such a stir of- WHAT IS THE COLOUR? I think it was my most hyped - and hyper - wedding!

"On the morning of the wedding when I left home with the outfit, I had the radio on in the car. And there was this guy saying ‘Manish Malhotra nikle hat ghar se, dress ke saath. Kya rang pehnegi Karisma?’ And I was looking all around me to see how they even knew I had left the house! So that was the big question - the colour.

"It was a very interesting pink - we had been through various shades of pink to come up with the right one - not too pale not too bright. I had it specially dyed. Then also the big golus (the roundels on the dupatta) that were to frame her face, I made smaller. We didn’t want to do anything that other designers do. After that, you won’t believe the number of brides that came to my house asking for a similar colour and similar outfit! Karisma has always been a trendsetter.

"The material of the sari and her dupatta was georgette, while the blouse was silk. I gave her a broad border to the dupatta, like she asked. We wanted to do silver zardozi work but again the whole take was that the design matched the jewellery. We didn’t want the usual motif work of mango, paisley or gota. So we kept it to a very Indian thought with a modern interpretation. Since Karisma is very petite and slim, huge motif work would overrule her completely.

"What did we disagree about? It took her a long time to decide on the colour and I was like ‘come on, move fast’, since we had very little time in which to start work. The right shade of pink is what we debated on most. But all of the design element discussions were only between Karisma and me. This involved a lot of sketches of what the outfit would be like, which is a really important element to me. I can’t understand designers who don’t use sketches...

"When she first came to me it was a very exciting moment for both of us because, as she said, ‘It has to be the best; the best that you have done. It must have an ‘Oh wow’ effect. We had several meetings over the samples of colour, embroidery... And she was also winding up her shooting, and I was also designing her film costumes. So any costume discussion turned into us discussing the wedding outfit!

"The outfit Kareena wore on her sister’s wedding also got a lot of appreciation since it was a lime green ghagra. It was an unusual, young, day colour, mixed with magenta. It worked really well on Kareena, and I felt that it matched her vibrant personality. I also designed a peach ghagra for Babitaji since it was a classier colour that really suited her.

"When I saw Karisma in the outfit, it was almost like attending a shoot except that this time, everything was much more real! The outfit was more expensive, opulent, richer; the jewellery was real... Her make-up artist, Jaywant, was there, her hairdresser Hema... and it was like ‘pin this up, do that’... And it was great feeling when we walked alongside her, since I am like a brother to her husband Sanjay Kapur. It also felt very nice to receive so many compliments from Babitaji and Karisma who felt that she looked really good.

"Karisma was my kind of bride - she was traditional, she took from her culture but she gave it something new. It wasn’t something just copied from a Rajasthani or a Mughal book with a Mughal border and Mughal motifs. Rajasthani borders and motifs of 500 years ago were very beautiful but if I were to use a design like that, I would simply draw inspiration from it and then go on to do something very contemporary with it. And by this I don’t mean something abstract or geometric. I’m not trying to be cool here; I’m just trying to give it a nice twist, a bit of a new feel.

"Her hair was done in a bun with packing on the head, since it had to take the weight of the dupatta. Her make-up was very subtle and I was involved in every aspect of dressing, right down to the shoes - a comfortable pair of silver shoes.