Dress up or Mess up?

When it comes to finding clothes for attending a Pakistani wedding, most Paki girls in America have the option of either going to Pakistan or having clothes sent from Pakistan by their relatives. These clothes need to be measured/tailored for the girl to look really good. Now, since neither I nor my relatives ever go to Pakistan and send me clothes, my option is usually to go buy "ready made" outfits and then have them altered. Now, this is usually a tiresome task that requires having to haggle the price down to something reasonable, which I usually don't want to do. So now since none of the several outfits I got after marriage fit me anymore, and since starting to do hijab I have tried to put together my own outfits for the few wedding events I have attended since. Looking back on those outfits now, I wish I had had Pakistani style clothes instead because although I got several positive comments about them, they were sort of...eccentric. Luckily I am known to be "eccentric" so it wasn't so odd, but I've seen many wedding photos recently of my friends and family that make me envy their Pakistani clothes so much. Here is a picture of my cousins at a wedding:

So gorgeous with the vivid colors and detailing on the lovely fabrics. Now since I can't wear clothes like this for the reasons mentioned above, I carefully study these pictures to try to figure out how I could possibly look as nice with the limitations/boundaries I have. That's not to say that hijab puts limits on looking nice when dressing up. Just look at this picture of my friends wearing Indian style saris with hijab:

So beautiful! Wearing a sari is the ultimate challenge. It's so elegant and stylish. I think one has to be a bit taller to pull it off with flair, but it still remains the ultimate style statment for most desi females. But I have bigger fish to fry first! What to wear? What to wear? SO. I guess the point of this post is the struggle of trying to dress-up while maintaining both hijab as well as a sort of ethnic style without having the resources to get those authentic Pakistani outfits. It takes some creativity and some...gumpshin...nerve...disregard for conformity...luckily I have most of that. But I do wish I could work a sari like my friends did. Hmm. I think I will go get a ready-made Paki outfit next time (and possibly end up paying more than I have to) so I can fit in better with the other beautiful outfits...

So what do you wear to fancy wedding parties? Let me know.....