Brides of the Maasai tribe (spread throughout Kenya and Tanzania) paint their faces and bodies with red ochre pigment. They also rub a bit of butchered animal fat on their shaved heads.
Photo: Philip Lee Harvey
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A Wearable Bouquet
In Bali, a stunning bride wears strands of jasmine trailing from her bun per Javanese tradition. (Jasmine symbolizes life and growth.)
This West Sumatran bride wears the hair accessory to end all hair accessories. The traditional golden crown, called a suntiang, can weigh up to eight pounds.
Like Pakistani and Indian brides, Berber women (their tribe lives in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco) have a henna party before their wedding. Another woman carefully applies the bride's makeup, which she doesn't get to show off until her groom takes off a thick veil covering her entire face.
It's tradition within the Nigerian Tuareg tribe that a blacksmith's wife does a bride's hair, coating it with pomade and black sand before braiding it. It's also a Tuareg custom that if a man is interested in a woman, he sneaks into her tent and tickles her ear. OK, then.
When you imagine a bride getting ready for her wedding day, you probably envision a mother-daughter trip to Kleinfeld to pick out the perfect white gown, or an inspiration board of bridal updos that she tries out weeks in advance. But if you're a bride in West Sumatra, Bulgaria or Morocco, that routine might look a little different -- like an eight-pound-crown, face-paint, tinsel-veil kind of situation. One thing's for sure: Beyond the Western world, bridal beauty has a million definitions. Here are some of the world's most amazing bridal 'dos, makeup and accessories we've ever seen.