What's more eye-catching than a palm full of mehndi art? A whole forearm, of course!

This week, the beautiful Maharani Shilpa of Sacramento, California stopped us dead in our tracks with her beautiful henna artwork. The intricate mehndi begins at the bride's fingertips and delicately trails up to her elbow like a wild vine. From a distance, the mehndi resembles lace gloves -- and we just LOVE it! Stick around to view more from Shilpa's wedding, which will be featured on our site tomorrow. Photography by Adit Studio.


We are also super excited for our Mehndi Maharani Contest, where celebrity mehndi artiste and dear friend Ash Kumar will help MaharaniWeddings.com readers crown the BEST Henna Artist in the U.S. If you have the skills that will blow us away, please fill out our Mehndi Maharani Submissions form and send us 8-15 images of your best stuff by 11:59 p.m. PDT TONIGHT.


Grand Prizes include:



  • The complete Ash Kumar Henna Hamper

  • An autographed copy of Ash Kumar's "AK Inspires Henna Book, Volume 1"

  • All-you-can-brag rights as the BEST Henna Artist in America!

    • To vote for YOUR favorite contestants, visit MaharaniWeddings.com next week when we host "Mehndi Week" (Monday, July 23 to Thursday, July 26). Ash Kumar will be on hand to help determine the winner, but his opinion only counts for half the votes. The rest is up to YOU! The following Monday, July 30, Ash will help us announce the winner of our Mehndi Maharani Contest!
    Photography: Adit Studio