Trendiest Bridal Mehndi Designs for 2024

Imagine an Indian wedding without mehendi. You can’t, can you? It’s like trying to see a rainbow without colours! A desi marriage can never be completed without mehendi and it is practically woven into the fabric of our celebrations! Starting from the extravagant décors, bridal lehengas, delicious foods, and music, mehendi marks an important beginning on a bride’s wedding day. Bridal mehendi is typically done during the mehndi party, which is a pre-wedding event in the Hindu and Sikh cultures. Bridal mehendi generally involves unique and intricate art designs done on the hands and feet of the bride in reddish-orange colour. 

Since bridal mehendi plays an important part in the life of a new bride and Indian weddings in general, it is crucial to select trendy mehendi designs. Based on one’s style, taste, and preferences, a bride’s choice for her mehendi design can vary. If you are one of the soon-to-be brides, and you haven’t found a bridal mehendi design for yourself yet, you can rely on us. From beautiful floral patterns to unique royal architectural designs and trendy bridal mehendi designs like raja and rani motifs to something personal and intimate, these are some of the best bridal mehendi designs for you to showcase on your big day!

Trendy Mehendi Designs

Lotus Bridal Mehndi Design

As we all know, the Lotus flower has a significant influence on our Indian culture, especially in the Hindu tradition. The flower typically signifies purity, fertility, prosperity, beauty, and eternity, and these are something every new bride would wish to attain as she starts a new life with her new family. Getting a lotus bridal mehendi design is a very traditional style to opt for at your mehendi party. To make the design more appealing, you can add more colour shading and patterns to the lotus design, for example, use a crisscross pattern and lines to enrich the design. This design is common yet meaningful for all brides, and you can also apply this design for any special occasion. You can add the lotus design inside a dome and chakra to create a perfect bridal mehendi look.

Radha Krishna Bridal Mehndi Design

Radha Krishna designs are trending now and people love to show eternal love through their Mehndi designs. When we think about pure love in mythical stories, the first pair we know well are Radha and Krishna. Now, this is one of the trending bridal designs where brides want to draw the image of Radha and Krishna in the wedding costumes. It can be created using leaves, flowers, elephant safari, and pallakku (in Tamil). You can add multiple filling designs to create a perfect bridal Mehndi design. 

Storyteller Bridal Mehndi Design

This is one of the favourite customised designs for brides doing both love and an arranged marriage to tell the story about their first meet and important days in their life. It creates lovely memories on the bride’s hand. Though this could be difficult one for artists, it would be worth the effort.

Paisley Bridal Mehndi Design

This is more like the oldest leaf-like designs that decorate the whole hand by connecting all the designs together. It is one of the most beautiful bridal designs that you can wear on your big day. You can connect the designs using teardrops, vines and swirls to get a handful of designs. These paisley leaf designs are also called mango shape designs. This paisley pattern also symbolises fertility, prosperity, and good fortune. 

Tips to draw Paisley 

1. Draw a small circle

2. Draw a curved line like shown in the picture.

3. And finish it like shown in the picture.

4. Make the line bold and fill the small circle 

5. Fill the inside with spirals

Arabic Fusion Bridal Mehndi Design

Arabic Fusion Bridal Mehendi comes with twin flowers, a rose in bloom, a bed of roses, some botanical prints, lace and lattice patterns, net and flowers, twinkle toes, forms and structures, domes, paisley and arches. You can also add a few additional designs like shading, lotus patterns, mirror blooms, jewellery patterns and many more.

Floral Mehndi Design

Floral Mehndi would be the perfect call for someone who wants a feminine touch for their Mehendis. The major components of the design are the petals. This is opted mostly when people wants the Mehendi to match their costumes, while the inside of the petals are coloured matching the dress. To make it look more attractive, you can also add leaves, buds, and branches to connect the floral designs. Floral design symbolises the beauty of nature or the person’s inner beauty.  

Tips to draw a floral design 

1. Draw a spiral

2. Outline the spiral

3. Draw a line of scallops on the outline

4. Draw another line of scallops on the first scallop line

5. Draw the petals

6. Make the top part of the petals thick

7. Draw commas inside the petals

Check Bridal Mehndi Design

Check design would be the best choice when you want to fill the huge spaces. Mostly when you have a design in the centre and you want to cover the space surrounding it, check pattern would be your goto design. Further you can add this check design on the back side of the hand or else on your feet to get the best results. The best way to do a check design is to fill one box and leave the next. You can use alternative grid lines like shaky lines, triangle lines, wavy lines and many more. For this, you should focus on creating the perfect box to fill the designs. 

Bangle Bridal Mehndi Design

Bangle designs, these two strokes of line are not just confined to your palm but can extend till your elbows. Even though this could be one of the easiest one for the artists, you will be surprised to see this in many grand weddings. 

Half and Half Bridal Mehndi Design

As the name suggests, a replica on both the hands is what half-and-half design is made of. This design demands a high accuracy and would require precision to deliver the best results. If done properly, the joining palms would deliver an extremely beautiful output.

One of the best ideas to execute while doing a half-and-half bridal design is to grooms figure in one and brides in another.

The Elephant Bridal Mehndi Design

With curly and swirly patterns around the Elephant Bridal Mehendi Design is one of the most favourite Mehandi Designs in India. Even though the core element is an elephant you can extend the design with peacocks and floral design if you would want the elephant not to be highlighted. 

If you would like to have a royal look, this design would be a perfect fit for the bride’s leg. You can further add floral veils to the elephant’s body to make it grand.

Back Hand Bridal Mehndi Design

What is the use of applying the Bridal Mehndi designs just on the palm of your hand? Right? It is your special day and you have to show the rest of the world who the prettiest dulhan is in the house! And by that, we mean decorating bridal mehendi designs on the back side of the hand as well! Whether you like to match the same design on your backhand as your front or choose a totally different motif, the choice is yours. After all, it is going to enhance your overall bridal look for the entire big fat wedding week.

Decorating the backhand with bridal mehendi generally gives a ring chain-like illusion on the bride’s hand, depending on the henna designs, creating a stunning desi bridal look. It is one of the best choices while getting your bridal mehendi for your special day, and we have some of the most elegant and stunning backhand bridal mehendi designs for you to make your memorable day even more significant.

Pakistani Bridal Mehndi Design

Pakistani bridal mehendi designs are one of the most challenging henna designs to create, as it needs more focus and dedication to create miniature patterns and floral designs of all sizes and shapes to complete the stunning bridal look. Despite the fact is not simple to make the designs on the bride’s palms and fingers, it creates more significance than that. The Pakistani bridal mehendi design is typically blended with flowers and other unique designs. This is one of the fanciest and most elegant mehendi designs with intricate narrow lines and designs. These Pakistani bridal mehendi designs incorporate designs like flowers, leaves, and dome patterns to get the original output. These types of designs offer a blend of Arabic, Hindu, and of course, Pakistani cultures.  

Mandala Bridal Mehndi Design

The Mandala bridal mehndi design is one of the simpler backhand henna designs, as it looks pretty and complete. The mandala designs typically come in a circle, square, or diamond pattern. You can fill it with intricate motifs like dots, lines, curves, petals, leaves, or boxes. This Mandala Bridal Mehndi symbolises harmony and balance in a newly wedded life, and desi brides love to use this design on the back side of their palms, baby bumps, and legs. This is one of the minimalist mehendi designs to choose from, and you can select the design layout in various sizes and shapes. It is a base motif for the overall mehndi design and is completed with a variety of intricate patterns.   

Ornamental Indian Bridal Mehndi Design

This is one of the perfect designs for brides who like to keep the design minimal and not hand-filled designs. You can add bangles, bracelets, rings, and hath panja designs to create a unique ornamental mehendi design. For a modern trendy Indian bridal look, certain brides also incorporate entire jewel sets using mehndi to fill the neck area. It appears like a simple mehndi design but it presents a royal appeal on the overall appearance in comparison to other regular mehndi designs. Decorating your hands with this ornamental bridal mehendi design without any additional ornaments would still look stunning to complete your bridal look at your wedding.

White Henna Bridal Mehndi Design

In recent years, many desi brides have been opting for the white henna bridal mehendi design for their special day. It is a viral trend nowadays as it gives an aesthetic appeal to modern love stories. Moreover, wearing white henna helps to avoid staining on the clothes, making it one of the best alternative ways for brides who like to escape the unpleasant smell of mehndi and smudges. This style of mehndi designs is influenced by the Middle Eastern regions and it is currently taking over the trends in Indian culture as well. Not only at weddings, but the white henna also looks fantastic to don at night parties, so, everyone takes note of it! It is easy to stand out among the crowds with this unique henna design at parties and festivals. This look would complement well in Christian weddings as well, as it matches with the bride’s white gown. The white henna does not stick to your dress if you let it dry completely for 20 minutes.  

Lace Mehndi Design

The lace mehendi design is one of the most gorgeous mehendi patterns you can adorn on your back hand, fingers, wrists, arms, or feet, giving a glamorous and sophisticated appearance on your special day. It mirrors the delicate patterns of lace fabric with detailed designs like floral, leaves, paisley, or net-like patterns. It is an ideal bridal mehendi look to balance with heavy costumes and accessories for brides. 

Dulha Dulhan Mehndi Design

The Dulha and Dulhan Mehndi design is one of the best designs to create on your wedding day for a royal style, which focuses completely on the dulha and dulhan figures on both hands. Here, you can complete the remaining gaps on your hands and legs with other sophisticated designs like curves, dots, flowers, leaves, boxes or customised motifs like your initials and the groom’s name. This design looks unique on brides and gives a complete bridal look. For this mehndi design to come out masterfully, it is crucial to focus mainly on the bride and groom figure. It looks stunning for brides who want a simple yet impactful design. 

The Name Bridal Mehndi Design

In the olden days, in traditional Indian weddings, the bride would usually hide the name of the groom somewhere on her palms with mehndi designs and have a fun activity like searching for the groom’s name or initials within the mehndi design.  But in the current generation, most of the young brides prefer to display their groom’s name on the centre of the design to express their deep love and affection to their partner. This is an easy mehndi design where you can doodle any shape like a heart, leaf, flower, or box and fill the groom’s name on the inner part. For the empty areas, you can fill in with minimal and elegant designs to make them look more stunning. Overall, this design represents the loyalty and care of the bride towards the groom.

Mirror Bridal Mehndi Design 

The mirror design in the bridal mehendi look is one of the most beautiful designs that you can sport on your wedding day. Unlike the name, the mirror design is quite the opposite of what you would expect. Mirror bridal mehendi design is a challenging task to deliver without any extra fillings. Like the meaning ‘mirror’, this mehndi design reveals an exact copy of the design on one hand when you bring both hands forward together. You can leave a little space around the big flower and paisley design to make it extra bold. Further, you can incorporate additional patterns on your fingers to make it a complete filling, creating a majestic final look. 

Colourful Bridal Mehndi Design

I mean, who doesn’t want things to be colourful on the big day? Indian wedding is the time to be happy and cheerful and adding a little more colour wouldn’t hurt! It adds a little bit of spice to your already celebratory day. The colourful bridal mehendi design is perfect for brides who want to decorate their hands differently or to match the exact colour of their wedding attire. There are several colour options available to create this mehndi design and it is mixed with chemicals. You can apply and leave the colour for several hours or even overnight to get the best pigment on your skin for your wedding day. Otherwise, for a change, you can even apply the colour mehndi in between the regular design to create a unique style. The best part about these colour mehndis is that it is available with glitters as well! 

Peacock Bridal Mehndi Design

The peacock motif would be a significant mehndi design to flaunt on the back of your hand as it signifies immunity to evil, wealth, strength, and power in Hinduism. This is one of the most popular henna designs among young brides, where the feather design covers the entire palm area, including a few other motifs. Apart from the space for peacocks, the empty gaps on the palms and arms can be filled with floral designs to bring out the overall elegance of the handcrafted design. The peacock bridal mehendi design can also be applied to the foot of the bride while adding a geometric mehendi design to fill the gaps of the body and feathers of the peacock making it more appealing.

Foot Bridal Mehndi Design

If you are someone who does not like heavy mehendi detailings on your hands, these foot bridal mehendi patterns are something you can incorporate for your bridal look. While keeping it simple and clean on your hands, you can decorate your feet with more intricate designs, by covering the toe area with net patterns and some floral motifs. You can also enhance the shading of the mehendi outline by having a broad open on the cone, making the design more attractive. 

Heavy Floral Mehndi Design

The heavy floral design creates a noble look on your overall bridal presentation for the main wedding day as the design flows from the entire palm to elbows with multiple floral designs, leaves, and many more. This bridal mehendi looks gorgeous when it is filled with large floral patterns. You can apply the designs on the back of your hand till the elbow, which completes the bridal design.

Mughal Bridal Mehndi Design

If your wedding theme is based on the Mughal Empire, this bridal mehendi design is one of the best choices to go for, on your big day, which is inspired by timeless Mughal architecture. You can create the mehndi designs with Mughal king and queen, doms, archways and many more things to add. This mehendi design will showcase the influence of the ancient royal Mughal architecture on the hand. You can also add further designs like floral, swirls, dots, petals and other designs to cover the leftover area. 

Royal Feet Mehndi Design

Every bride wants to look royal and majestic on her big day, but some people miss out on decorating their feet with mehendi. This can ruin the accurate royal influence one may be looking for in a bridal look. Even for bridal shoots, the photographer generally focuses on the foot Mehndi designs also and this will make the appearance of your foot more beautiful. You can add small leaf veins, chains, diamond patterns, and many more designs. 

Meknessi Bridal Mehndi Design

This Meknessi Bridal Mehndi Design comes from the Middle East and contains a diamond shape and symmetrical designs. It contains small flowers and intricate lines with dots and designs. It typically has the shape of a diamond, which is filled with motifs, while the main part of this design is to sharpen the patterns. It looks effortless and is not a complex design. This design suits any desi brides for an engagement party while wearing gowns.

Arabic Roses Bridal Mehndi Design

This feminine design is a perfect addition to your bridal mehendi look, exuding a wonderfully romantic vibe. This is a simple design with a variety of blooming ornate roses all over the hands and arms. You can add a few hearts on the fingers to finish the bridal mehendi design perfectly. 

Khafif Bridal Mehndi Design

The Khafif design represents ‘intricate’ or ‘detailed’ in Arabic, and it is an Arabic-style bridal mehndi design that many young brides opt for on their big day. For this style, you have to concentrate more on the designs to have the best result, like adding more patterns, such as boxes, flowers, leaves, commas, swirls, and so on. It exudes a royal look and it suits both hands and feet. 

Travel Buddies Bridal Mehndi Design

For this bridal mehendi design, if you and your partner have a common interest in travelling, you can customise and draw your favourite place and display your love towards the destination through the Mehndi design. This style looks unique and pretty to show your friends and families. In this design, you can create a half-and-half pattern, connecting the destination that you plan to travel to with your groom after the marriage. And in the empty gaps you can fill them with your favourite flowers, dots, hearts, etc.  

Wedding Ritual Mehndi Design

This wedding ritual mehendi design depicts some common rituals in an Indian wedding. This style typically showcases the bride and groom figurine adorned in wedding attire, either tying the Mangala knots or holding a garland of flowers in both their hands. You can add names, dates, events, portraits or any other personalised design to get the best look. You can also draw any performing rituals in the mehndi design. 

Importance of Mehndi Design in Indian Weddings

Mehendi has been considered one of the significant aspects of Indian culture for more than a thousand years. Decorating the bride’s hands, arms, and feet with mehendi is treated as an auspicious ritual, and the event commonly takes place during the wedding week. The mehendi party is hosted for the bride as we believe this will bring good luck to the newly wedded couple. However, mehendi is not only used for decorating the hands and feet of the bride, but it also has medicinal benefits on our body, such as cooling down the heat of our body and calming our nerves, which, in turn, reduces our stress. 

The Significance of the Bridal Mehndi Design

Mehendi for new brides is not only a traditional form of art, but it is also a way of expressing her love and affection towards her husband. It highlights the admirable qualities of the bride towards the groom’s family. The designs that the brides choose for their bridal mehendi to decorate their hands and feet can be customized into multiple personalised designs in the modern days. 

What to Expect from This Guide

The following guide will give you a detailed process for getting the perfect bridal mehendi designs for your wedding day. This guide is aimed to offer you a manual about the essential stages of a typical Indian wedding, including preparation, choosing the best mehendi designs, and tips to follow after the mehendi gets dried completely. Curious to know? Continue to read below to find out!

Preparation

How to Choose the Right Mehndi Artist

We get that everything needs to be perfect to the tip while preparing for your wedding, and this includes your bridal mehendi design. To achieve the most flawless and immaculate mehendi art on your body, it is crucial to hire the best Mehendi artist. For that, the first step you can do is request them to show you their previous Mehndi art. This will give you an idea about the style and skills of the mehendi artist and whether they can fulfil all your requirements like designs, patterns, and portraits. Refer someone whom you know well and get information through your friends and families. 

Preparing the Hands and Feet

Many people forget to prepare their hands before their mehndi, you need to clean your hands and feet or else do a pedicure and manicure before the mehndi function. You can have better results if you apply some moisturiser or essential oils. 

Choosing the Right Kind of Mehndi

There are a plethora of mehendi brands available in the Indian market today, both offline and online, and it is important to take a stain test and check whether it leads to any skin irritation, itching or burning sensation. Don’t forget to check the level of pigmentation of the mehendi as well. All in all, it is a safer option for your skin and health to opt for an organic mehndi, which is free from harmful chemicals. 

Techniques for Applying Mehndi

Using a Cone

Making a bridal mehendi design using a cone is the best method to create the style you want without any leakage of the henna paste. The cone design is easy to hold, especially while putting on narrow and intricate designs. 

Applying with a Brush

One of the best methods to apply mehendi is by using a brush. This application method is gaining popularity among henna beginners because it is easy to apply at the fingertip. Don’t forget to use a brush with good quality for the best results!

Using Stencils

Stencils is another fantastic application method for henna beginners to create mehendi designs as this allows you to bring out the design easily and quickly. It is a time–saving method and also delivers excellent results without much complex process!

Combining Techniques for a Unique Look

If you want to be unique and stand out from the rest, you can try personalised designs by combining a variety of bridal mehendi designs on your hands and feet. You can opt for a design that is meaningful to you or something of interest and fun, such as your wedding hashtag, hubby’s hobbies, initials, portraits, horoscope symbols, portraits of your pets, and so on.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Applying Too Much or Too Little Mehndi

When you apply too much mehendi on one side and too little amount on the other side, it will spoil the overall appearance of the mehendi. It is crucial to balance the application of the henna to achieve the perfect staining. 

Not Letting the Mehndi Dry Completely

We know waiting patiently is not easy, but to achieve the best outcome, patience is necessary! When it comes to achieving the best pigmentation of bridal mehendis,  the best way is to leave the mehendi to dry completely. This way, you don’t have to worry about the henna paste smudging on your clothes and the pigment looks best when left for a longer time. This is one of the best ways to get the henna designs to last longer for more than 3 weeks.   

Choosing a Design that is Too Complex

When you try a new mehendi design for the first time, go for something simple and easy to fill your hands. Opting for grand and complex designs may seem ethereal but they are not the most ideal designs to deliver or achieve. It can take a lot of time, patience, high maintenance, restricted movement, and risk of smudging.

Not Giving Enough Time for the Mehndi Design to Develop

If you remove the mehendi paste before it dries it will probably result in a faded design, meaning, less pigment on your skin, which can look super dull on your big day. It is necessary to let your skin absorb the pigment of the henna paste completely to achieve the best stain result and that is one of the huge respects for mehendi artists who spend a lot of time creating the best design for your special day.

Mehndi Removal

Tips for Removing Mehndi at Home

Now coming to the removal technique of mehendi art,  rinsing off the henna paste is one of the most challenging tasks, and the stain could fade early if you keep your hands in the water for a long time. You can try exfoliating products to remove the mehendi paste quicker instead.

Tips To Make The Henna Darker:

1. Opt for fresh natural henna – To avoid skin allergies and irritations, choose an organic henna powder that has no chemical ingredients. Then, prepare a smooth paste by mixing the henna powder, lemon juice and a small amount of melted sugar. This will balance the thickness of the henna paste. Apply the mehendi design on your hand as per your preference. Leave it for a few hours or overnight to get the best result. 

2. Clean your hands – Make sure that your hands are clean before you make the henna paste, and exfoliating before applying will give the best results. 

3. Apply essential oils – Most brides and Indians in general like to apply essential oils like lavender oil, eucalyptus oil, and other natural oils over the mehendi design. Following this step is proven to enhance the stain pigment faster on the skin.

4. Wrap it with a cover – Keeping the mehendi design warm and moist will naturally induce a dye. After letting it dry for an hour, wrap it with a plastic cover, such as the kitchen film rolls. 

5. Sugar and Lemon juice – After applying the complete mehendi design, take a cotton ball and dip it in the mixture of lemon juice and sugar. Then, place the soaked cotton ball on the henna design and apply the mixture over it to increase the pigment of the henna stain. 

6. Heat Therapy – This is one of the most popular techniques used by mehendi users to make the henna stain darker. Here, you have to place a griddle or tawa and simply heat it. Then, place your mehendi-decorated hands over the tawa or griddle and let the steam heat the mehendi design to create a darker stain. 

7. Keep it moisturised –  Drink plenty of water to keep your body hydrated and apply coconut oil or almond oil frequently over the mehendi design to enhance the colour of the henna.  This step is typically done after washing off the mehndi paste to get better results. 

8. Scrape it off gently – After getting the henna paste dried, scrape off the mehendi gently and clean the sticky particles without using water. We recommend using a gentle cleanser to remove the tiny leftover particles. 

9. Avoid contact with water – As mentioned before, when you soak the mehendi design in water for too long, the colour will fade away soon! So, remember to avoid using water as much as possible until your big day comes to an end. 

10. Wait for a few hours – Usually, the best henna pigments show up after keeping the paste on your hands and feet for at least 24 hours to 48 hours. So, be patient and wait for a day to get a darker tint.