Social media—with Instagram being the main culprit of this—would have us convinced that we live in a prospering country with a thriving economy where Pakistanis are happily spending millions on extravagant weddings. The bombardment of extravagant wedding content that is uploaded and shared by dozens of makeup artists, fashion designers, wedding photographers, and fashion bloggers seemingly every day is a representation of merely a tiny sliver of the country’s population. But this visual culture is what drives trends. From lavishly decked out wedding venues, sprawling tables of catered food, to luxury designer bridal wear, everything is extravagant and appears to be the best that the family of the bride or groom can buy. And of course, jewelry is no exception when it comes to this culture of opulence and excessive spending on the occasion of a family wedding.

Grams upon grams of gold, polki diamonds, cut diamonds, other precious stones, and semi-precious gems can be seen adorning the necks, wrists, and hands of brides on almost every wedding content related account you’ll browse through on Instagram. In recent years, the archetypal regal bridal look has come to consist of the classic red designer jora accompanied by extremely heavy, statement jewelry pieces either made entirely in gold or crafted from gold and then encrusted with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and cut or uncut diamonds. This archetype most likely emerged from the Bollywood wedding aesthetic, as well as the collective public documentation of celebrity and elite weddings on social media. This is what has become the aspirational bridal look.

However, there is a significant roadblock to achieving this aesthetic: the rising and ever-increasing prices of gold in Pakistan, that make it prohibitively expensive for most Pakistanis. While gold prices tend to vary depending upon the purity of the gold alloy used, bridal jewelry sets in Pakistan are mostly crafted from the purest gold available in the market, that is, either 21 karat or 22 karat gold. The price of gold has more than doubled in the last three years, owing to a number of factors including inflation and market volatility.