Cricket bride Natasa Stankovic's wedding gown was as astounding as a five-wicket haul and has a place reserved among the most iconic bridal gowns of 2023.
She may not have beaten Priyanka Chopra's 75-foot veil created by Ralph Lauren, but the wife of India's T20 captain gobsmacked the janta in a veil that stretched nearly as long as the Wankhede stadium cricket pitch at 15 feet, a 'lustrous glory of the elaborate craftmanship of 40 artisans over the course of 50 days'.
Designers Shantanu and Nikhil effusively explained that the veil 'exhibited an ornate play of pearls, leather sequin and beads'.
It certainly celebrated the romantic bride in her and hit a century for Hardik.
With a deep back and a sheer lace skirt peeping out from underneath the gown, Natasa might have blurred the lines between the runway and the aisle. But who cares? She has our T20 raja's heart.
The fitted gown came along with a corset-style bodice speckled with natural pearls and was inspired by the 'fierce romanticism the bride embodied'. The inner skirt was 'encased in a drape of Parisian satin', and precious stones, pearls beads added an unforgettable touch to the contemporary gown.
That's a lot of technicalities there -- looks like no pearl or stone was left unturned -- and all we know is she became the most stellar Serb after Novak Djokovic.
Here's a sweet little secret: The bride requested her designers to inscribe the couple's initials with the symbol of a heart in between -- N heart H -- in a corner of her long tulle sleeves, as an ode to Hardik and her long-standing relationship. Wah, wah. Badhu saru che!
The celestial gown was draped by Dolly Jain and styled by Nikita Jaisinghani. Dolly said on Instagram: 'Much as I love to drape saris, it's excitement of another kind to receive a call with a white wedding brief.
'The gorgeous bride balancing the weight of a three-layered head veil with the most cascading fall... The idea was to give her a weightless drape, so that she could prance around, feeling her most comfortable'.
She certainly pranced in and captured our collective imaginations with her happy and robust fairytale take on shaadi, love and being a bride.
