Our wedding day!

Food and Decor
The one thing I had envisioned for myself on the wedding day was a Nikkah tent. It was important to me that I be at the same location as where the Nikkah took place. But, I also wanted not to sit next to Nouman. I finally settled on the idea of having a tent across the main stage – I would be able to see and hear Nouman and vice versa. I love, love, love my tent!

I also wanted to incorporate Urdu/Arabic into my wedding decor. I asked my sister to write Nouman and my name in Arabic and then had it projected on the wall. Both the tent and names were the highlights of our wedding day decor.

Nouman Getting Ready
I have been hounding Nouman to get you guys the inside scoop on what he did the morning of our wedding. He has the worst memory ever. After pushing him to recall what he did, he finally remembered and it was a stark contrast to my morning. He woke up feeling nervous, had breakfast and went out to run errands. Yes, he went to the bank on his wedding day. According to him, he was mostly excited/nervous all day.

One of my favourite traditions for Pakistani grooms is the Sehra Bandi. Besides Nouman pagri, he also wore a flower sehra. According to him, he loved the sehra portion of the day. Knowing him, he also probably checked himself out hundreds of times that day (I know I sure did!) and loved that he was blinging everywhere.

Shaza Getting Ready
For the wedding day, I knew I wanted to look as traditional as possible. I wanted the red, the nath and the gharara.

My Photoshoot
Once I was ready, my photographer did a mini photoshoot with me at home. Since we were running late, we didn’t spend too much time on it. After I arrived at the venue and made sure no guests had arrived, we did another quick photoshoot outside the venue.

Nouman’s Baraat
The one thing that I had told Nouman that he HAD to do was be on time. Neither one of us wanted the Shaykh to wait and we didn’t want the rukhsati to be at 1am. I think I repeated this to him so many times that I stressed him out. We had planned for the baraat to arrive at 7:30pm but I had my doubts. You can imagine my surprise when I heard the faint beat of a drum just a little before 7:30. I was alone in the bridal room at that moment and my ears perked up slightly. All of a sudden, my younger sister was inside the bridal room telling me that the baraat was here. I was (pleasantly) surprised and did a happy dance that Nouman wasn’t late.

My Entrance
Before the Nikkah, I entered the hall with my parents.

Nikkah
Once the baraat had settled down and appetizers had been served, it was finally time for the most important part of the festivities – the nikkah.

Ring Exchange
After the Nikkah was complete, I made my way to Nouman with my parents and sisters. We then took some family pictures and went straight into the ring ceremony.

Dhoodh Pilai
The rasm of dhoodh pilai. My sisters served us milk but since I don’t like milk, I only pretended to take a sip!

Jootha Chupai
Ofcourse, we had the rasm of stealing the grooms shoes in exchange for money. Nouman’s cousins beat my family to his shoes though – they took his shoes before my side could get there! Luckily, someone on my side came up with the idea of taking Nouman’s pagri… and so began the negotiations!

Rukhsati
Heading off to Nouman’s house

For a more detailed account of our wedding day, check out my behind the scenes posts: Part 1 and Part 2. Don’t forget to have a look at our Mehendi and my sisters’ dance!

Photography: Big Al Studios
Hair & Makeup: Shirley Wu
My Sisters’ Clothes: Mohsin, Tariq Road, Karachi
Jewellery: My in-laws family jeweller in Lahore
My Clothes: PLK, Tariq Road, Karachi