Bridal jewellery: real, imitation, and knowing which is which
Jewellery is where the largest sums get spent fastest and with the least information. It's also where the gap between what something costs and what it looks like is widest — which is good news, if you use it deliberately.
The vocabulary
Polki Uncut, unfaceted natural diamond set in gold. Expensive, with a soft, cloudy glow rather than sparkle. Frequently imitated with glass — and the imitation is often beautiful.
Kundan Strictly a setting technique — stones set with refined gold foil. The word is used loosely in the market for a whole look, so ask what the stones actually are.
Meenakari Coloured enamel work, usually on the reverse of a polki or kundan piece. Good meena is a sign of a well-made piece; look at the back.
Jadau Stones embedded in gold without prongs — a traditional, labour-heavy technique.
Temple jewellery South Indian in origin, motifs of deities and goddesses, usually in gold or gold-plated silver. Distinct and increasingly worn across regions.
Imitation / fashion Base metal, plating, glass or CZ stones. Under photography lights, good imitation is genuinely hard to tell from real.
How the bill is built
For real gold, your bill is metal weight at the day's rate, plus making charges, plus stone value, plus wastage, plus tax. Only one of those is fixed. Making charges vary enormously between shops for the same work, and that's where the real negotiation lives.
- Ask for hallmarking and look at the mark yourself.
- Ask for making charges and stone value shown separately on the bill.
- Ask the wastage percentage.
- Ask the buy-back and exchange policy in writing, and whether it differs for stones.
- If it's sold as polki, ask plainly whether it is uncut diamond or glass, and have the answer written on the bill.
Where not to buy real
A quick, honest consultation in your timezone — and we map all this to your own wedding, together.
Book a consultation →This is the advice that saves my brides the most money. For the pieces worn once, briefly, under lights — a heavy haar for the sangeet, a statement set for the cocktail, matha patti and hathphool — good imitation is a sensible decision, not a compromise. Nobody can tell in a photograph, and you keep the money.
Buy real for what you'll keep and rewear: a good pair of earrings, a bangle set, something with meaning. Buy imitation for the rest. A bride in brilliant imitation who kept her budget intact is in a far better position than one who bought real for every function.
A note on rental
Rental for heavy bridal sets is now completely normal in Delhi and genuinely worth considering for one-wear pieces. Check the security deposit, what counts as damage, and the return window before you sign — those three terms are where rental goes wrong.
Neha's shortlist
I keep my own shortlist of the shops I actually send brides to here — the ones whose work, pricing and after-sales I've tested myself. I don't publish that list publicly, because a shop that was brilliant last season isn't automatically brilliant this one, and I'd rather give you a current answer than an old one. Ask me on a call and you'll get the names, the lane, and who to ask for.
Bring me your function list and your budget, and we'll decide piece by piece what's worth buying real and what absolutely isn't.
Book a consultation