5 Interesting Books A Bride-To-Be Can Read Before The Big Day

Sep 02, 2022

We know how hectic and stressful planning a wedding can be, especially a South Asian Wedding. They are known to take place for a maximum of 3-4 days including pre-wedding and post-wedding events.

For any couple, a wedding is a life-changing event, but for a bride, it is more than that, she faces a lot of emotions all at once. Whether it is about being elated to start a new life with the love of her life, creating new bonds with the in-laws, worrying about the smallest details of her big day, or just making sure that nothing goes south.

Interesting Books To Read Before The Big Day

One of the ways a bride-to-be can reduce her stress is by reading books. According to research, reading reduces stress and anxiety and improves brain connectivity. Reading a book for 30 minutes is also beneficial for your health and given that wedding planning is already keeping you on your toes the whole day, how about a little read before going to bed? 

Pyaari Weddings in collaboration with Brown Girl Bookshelf made a list of the Top 5 books that are perfect for a bride who is neck-deep in organizing and planning her wedding. 

1. The Dating Plan By Sara Desai

The Dating Plan is a fun breezy romantic novel that will make your mood joyful. It is an enemy-turned-lover kind of story but other than that the mention of Indian culture, food, and movies makes it more interesting to read. The story is about Daisy Patel, a software engineer, and Liam Murphy, a venture capitalist. Daisy is a woman who believes and understands logic better than her peers and has no interest in love. But her overly chaotic desi family is not gonna leave without getting her married to a good Indian boy. Liam on the other hand is a guy who learns that if he has to inherit his property, he has to get married. The interesting part is, that Liam is the best friend of Daisy’s brother, he is also her childhood crush who broke her heart 10 years ago by standing her up at her prom. After all these years, they met each other at a tech convention, where Daisy was in a rush and she stumbled upon Liam. Somehow, both of them decided to become fake fiances to solve each other’s problems. This way Daisy’s family will stop hovering over her with marriage conversations and will stop asking her to meet 'a potential someone' and Liam will get through his grandfather’s will. A marriage of convenience will get both of their jobs done. To make it look real, both of them start going on dates and spend a lot of time together, during which sparks fly and both of them realize that this fake arrangement is not fake anymore.

This hilarious step-by-step planned fake engagement in this novel is what makes it worth reading. It also shows the dynamics of an interfering loud desi family who actually loves each other to death. The whole fake fiancee and falling in love, giving a second chance thing will make you, as a bride, wanna fall in love with your husband-to-be once again and definitely might make you crave eating some Indian delicacies too. 

2. Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words By Annika Sharma

A bride who loves to read romantic novels and believes in the supremacy of ‘Opposites Attracts’, would hate to miss this love story. The novel is not just about a girl meets boy and boy meets girl, it goes deeper than that. It shows an Indian family, where Kiran vows to become a good daughter and never go down her sister’s path of disobeying the family. As a hardworking girl, she went to New York - the city that never sleeps and there she formed a close group of friends that call themselves the Chai Masala Club (CMC). This close group of friends are all Indian and meet up once a week where they have chai i.e., tea, and talk about the things they want to accomplish after graduating. During one of these meet-ups, they were discussing an old list they made when they were new to New York. It was a bucket list or one can say things to do when you are in New York. Kiran realized she had not even completed half the items mentioned in her list as she was busy fulfilling her family duties. So, with determination, Kiran was sure that she is going to fulfill her wishes before she turns 30. As the story unfolds she meets her new neighbor, Nash, who is a complete opposite of what Kiran is.

Kiran looks after her family and wants to be in their good books, where as, on the other hand, Nash's his father left when he was young and his mother spiraled into addiction. As he has grown up, somewhere he runs away from the idea of family and love. Nash is a psychologist who helps kids dealing with similar situations as he did in his childhood, hoping to make a difference. While running away from having a meaningful relationship, Nash realizes something is missing in his life when he starts hanging out with Kiran. 

The novel shows the love story of two opposite personalities with different ideologies and understanding levels. It shows that love can happen anytime, with anybody, at any given place or situation. It is not going to announce itself! 

3. Love Marriage by Monica Ali

Love Marriage by Monica Ali is a perfect read where you discover that Love Marriage is not what you think it is. The story is about a young girl Yasmin who is on her way to becoming a successful doctor like her father. Yasmin thinks that her parents have an ideal love story. Her mother belonged to the upper-class section of society and she chose to marry her father, who made his own way in this world with his hard work. On the other hand, her brother Asif is not as ambitious as his father and is often criticized and taunted for the same. 

Joe, Monica’s fiancee is her fellow resident, who has a great relationship with his mother. Joe’s mother is a feminist, activist, and writer, and his father abandoned them when he was a few months old. This book shows two different families coming from two different worlds. Monica Ali beautifully shows how two individuals function in their own way, similarly, the families' ideologies and ways of bonding can be different too.  

A bride getting married with someone with a completely different outlook on life, with different ethics and culture will relate to this story. Apart from all this, the book will be relatable to any South Asian person who grew up in a family with an unspoken don't-ask-don't-tell policy. The writer shows the difference between two parenting styles and how every individual goes through their own journey and has certain characteristics that make them different from the other. 

4. Sari, Not Sari By Sonya Singh

For the brides, who want something light-hearted to feel the wedding vibes - Sari, Not Sari By Sonya Singh is a great read. It is a rom-com story that shows the adventures of an Indian woman, Manny Dogra who is born and brought up in America. She is a young, successful CEO of a company named - Breakup, which manages relationship problems for people. Even with a busy schedule, she is planning on getting married to a handsome architect, Adam Jamieson and at the same time, she is also dealing with the loss of her parents. Manny never got to learn and understand her Indian roots and culture, except one day a magazine photoshopped her skin to appear fairer on their cover. The following day, she got an annoying client named Sammy Patel who asks for a very different kind of help regarding his breakup. To find a solution, both Sammy and Manny made a deal in which Sammy will give her a crash course on how to behave like an Indian at his brother’s wedding. From here on, both of their adventures begin and they end up falling in love with each other. 

A perfect couple never exists and Sonya Singh’s book reflects that. Apart from all this, a bride-to-be would love to read about how the uncles and aunties typically behave at an Indian wedding. 

5. Marriage Of A Thousand Lies By S.J.Sindhu

A book that beautifully explores the love and emotions involved between the same-sex gender and how at times you have to tie the knot unwantedly because that is kind of an easy way out. 

Marriage of a Thousand Lies by S.J.Sindhu tells the story of Lucky, a gay Sri Lankan woman who is married to Krishna, a gay Sri Lankan man. Their marriage is of convenience and their immigrant South Asian American parents do not know about their sexual identities. They present an illusion of a happy marriage but in reality, they date other people outside. The situation is absolutely suitable for both of them and everything is going fine but one day, Lucky’s grandmother has a nasty fall. The incident brings Lucky back to her childhood home and unexpectedly she reconnects with her best friend or we can say her first love, Nisha. Lucky learns that Nisha is planning to get married to a man who she has never met. Love is rekindled, but Nisha is not ready to give up on getting married. In all of this chaos, Lucky also realizes that after a decade of lying about her marriage, it is not that easy to walk away, leave everything and lead a free life with her own sexual identity. No matter what choice she chooses, it will push everything to a breaking point.

Sindhu shows the inner turmoil a person goes through when they have to go through a situation they did not want in the first place. It also shows that nobody is perfect and not everybody can make difficult decisions. The book shows how women are dealing with cultural misogyny and patriarchal oppression, but choosing a completely different path. While reading this, you might feel the urge of pushing Lucky to do the right thing, but then as a reader, one realizes that they have also done something or the other to cover their mistake or went AWOL from a situation just because it was suitable for them. The last thing that we learn from this book is, no matter what you do, or where you are, the question is - do you have the strength and the courage to be who you are and to be loved as you are?

Also Read: 9 Yoga Asanas For Brides To Deal With Pre-Wedding Jitters

Conclusion

Brides are not supposed to go through so much stress while planning the wedding, so much so that they might feel exhausted. We hope the above-mentioned books will help you relax and make you feel the perks of being in love and understanding some things about culture and heritage too. 

Photo Credits: Brown Girl Bookshelf

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Pyaari Weddings

Pyaari Weddings is an Elegant, Easy, and Effortless South Asian Wedding Planning Platform who does all the hard work so couples can have fun planning their wedding.

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