18 saris and a temple wedding for VIDYA

Vidya Balan or Siddharth Roy Kapur may choose to stay mum about their wedding plans but the preparations have surely begun. To start with, on his return from London, fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee will be scouring the streets of Chennai for some exquisite Madras silk that will form the base of Vidya's bridal sari.

Vidya, who has already placed an order for 18 hand-crafted saris from the designer, apparently has some specifications about the two she will be wearing on her D-Day. "She has placed an order for 18 saris with us. Out of that, two will be bridal wear and rest can be worn by the bride during the day. Apparently, Vidya will be getting married in the morning according to Tamil traditions. Though most of the saris are ready, the ones that will be based on Madras silk, will be done by Pepsi (Sabyasachi's pet name) himself. We are waiting for him to come back from London. On his way back he is going to stop over in Chennai to source the silk," said one of Sabya's staff members at his Kolkata studio.

Incidentally, Vidya needs quite a few sari changes during the wedding ceremony and has thus ordered a wide range. While most of her saris will be dark hued, she has ordered six that are multi-coloured. "There are some saris for her sister and her mother as well. Plus some that she'll give away as a marriage gift to her relatives.

The deadline that we are working on for delivering the saris is December 1," said the staff member confirming rumours of a December wedding of Vidya and her SRK. To dress his favourite brand ambassador, Sabya has put his best tailors and craftsmen on the job."He has specified very conservative cuts for the cholis.

But we are all waiting for him to return so that we can start working on the bridal saris," the staff member added. In fact, the designer is scheduled to arrive in Mumbai during the second-week of December to help Vidya with a "dress-rehearsal".

Though Vidya hasn't responded to queries about her marriage except for indicating in one of her earlier interviews that she is getting married "soon", sources revealed there is a possibility of the wedding being held in a south Indian temple. This will be followed by a reception in Mumbai.

"Both Vidya and Siddharth want to keep it simple. We only know that she will be available for dress trials during the second-week of December," the source told us.

Interestingly, Vidya has already asked for a fortnight's leave during the second-week of December from the shooting of Ghanchakkar (with Emraan Hashmi in the lead). Considering that the film is being co-produced by Siddharth, we believe the leave has been duly sanctioned.