Leave a comment with your thoughts!
Feast your eyes upon Asifa and Nabeel’s collection.
My overall verdict: I thought some pieces were stunning while others were too over the top for my taste.
I will be posting alot more pictures on my Instagram and Twitter – search for #SSBCW2013 for pictures! I would love to hear your opinion on the pieces I post.
Images via Ahmed W Khan Photography
My sisters did a gorgeous dance at our mehendi and I just have to share it with you guys. A little background information:
*Note: I would suggest that you watch the video at its highest quality. I like the setting at 1080p HD*
To get details on their clothes, click here.
Have a great weekend!
Several of you have asked me to send pictures of my sisters’ outfits from the mehendi. Instead of replying to each one individually, I am sharing pictures on the blog. This post highlights their outfits, hair, makeup and jewellery.
Outfits
Since my outfit was emerald-green with hints of magenta and navy blue, I wanted my sisters to wear the reverse of me: mainly magenta with accents of emerald-green and navy blue. My purpose in making them wear the reverse of me was so that we all stood out from one another but also looked cohesive.
My sisters and I wanted flowy gowns for their mehendi look so I used chiffon. The fabric was dyed to match the magenta in my outfit and I had “chun” added to their entire outfits. I added one strip of green and one strip of blue banarsi to the bottom of their shirts to tie all the colours together. I totally love chooridar sleeves so I took a risk and used jamawar for their sleeves. To slightly differentiate the sisters looks, I added blue and green stripes to the sides of one of the outfits. The kaam around their neck was also slightly different.

As you can see, my sister on the left has green and blue stripes on the sides of her outfit. They both have green and blue borders on the bottom of their shirts
Hair, Makeup and Jewellery
For my sisters’ jewellery, we decided to keep everything mainly gold with a little bit of green for a pop of colour. The green would also stand out better against their magenta shirts. The older sister wore drop earrings and the younger sister wore more traditional, circular earrings.
I love, love, love, messy braids so I knew that I was going to ask them to get that done for the mehendi. Both of them had messy side braids with side bangs. For their makeup, we wanted something modern and funky. That’s literally what we told the makeup artist and she worked her magic!
And lastly, My Parents:
My dad wore a navy blue kurta from with a turquoise dupatta and white shalwar. I can’t remember the name of the store we purchased his kurta from but it was at Kurta Gali on Tariq Road. My brother-in-law also wore the same ensemble.
I made a navy blue gharara for my mom with a magenta shirt. Her shirt was made of raw silk and had gold chun with some gold embroidery on it. The gharara and dupatta were navy blue jamawar (dupatta was chiffon jamawar) with gold detailing. To offset the darkness of the navy blue, we had magenta borders around the dupatta and the gharara.
Outfits: Mohsin & Sons, Karachi
My Makeup: DIY
Hair & Makeup of Sisters: Fero GlamourStudio
Photography: Big Al Studios
p.s. Check out their dance on the mehendi!
Finally, it’s time! I am so happy to be able to share these pictures with all of you. It has been hard selecting pictures since there are so many but I finally sat down to do it. Our mehendi was so much fun – I wish I could go back! Without further ado, check out the pictures below that were taken by our photographer, Big Al Studios.
Details:
For the decor, I wanted to keep everything simple. I am in love with tents so that is all that I had wanted for the stage.
My outfit was mainly emerald green with accents of magenta and navy blue. My parents and sisters wore the reverse colours of me – mainly magenta or navy blue. Both the males and females on my side wore navy blue – the men were provided with turquoise dupatta’s. Nouman’s family gave beige kurta’s to all the boys and turquoise dupatta’s aswell. Nouman’s male cousins all wore white. Nouman wore a brown kurta with a beige shalwar and dupatta.
Therefore, the decor matched the above colours. The tent was mainly green with panels of navy blue, turquoise and magenta. I did not want an overtly pink look – I preferred to have the blue’s and greens more prominent. The tablecloth and chair covers were gold with turquoise overlays for the tables and navy/royal blue napkins.
Mehendi Thaals:
Nouman’s family had cute trays and candles that they had decorated with flowers and pearl necklaces. I bought most of my stuff from the dollar store – with the exception of a few pieces from Pakistan. My side had: flower baskets, lanterns, colourful candleholders, a tray with small bowls filled with mehendi, ubtan and toothpicks (from Pakistan), a decorated mehendi plate from Pakistan with 2 paans (leaves) that my mom had attached gota to, velvet paisley and glitter trays, 2 trays of chooriyan covered with velvet fabric, a green coloured platter from Pakistan full of fruits, a basket full of nuts from the Middle East and a tray with Nouman’s flower haar (garland).

With the exception of the candleholders (top right), everything is from Nouman’s side. I bought the candleholders from the Dollar Store

My mom, sisters and I (mainly my mom) made the velvet paisley trays. I couldn’t find fans when I went to Pakistan. My mom’s mami saved the day and bought the fans for me. The 2 green trays (bottom left) are full of chooriyan – my moms friend made the velvet covers. The tray in the middle has Nouman’s haar.
Nouman’s Entrance:
As he entered behind the girls, the music cut to Brooklyn Go Hard by Jay-Z ft. Santogold. Nouman donned a “NY” hat at the entrance of the hall and then walked to the stage.
My Entrance:
The doors opened to the first beat of Peer Manava (Black and White). As I walked, I was nervous and excited.
Rasms:
I had learned from my baat pakki and kept fruits instead of mithai for our feeding. As a result, even though we had a long lineup of people feeding us, I didn’t feel sick.

Top to Bottom: Nouman’s mom tying gajray (flower bracelets) on my hands, Mehendi (henna) on our leaf, the fruit tray that we were fed from
Our Photoshoot:
Most of the pictures below were taken separately before we saw each other. The photoshoot we had of us during dinner was mainly a couples shoot (duh!). The last two pictures in this section are from out photoshoot together.
Dholki and Dances:
The most enteratining portion of the night – everybody did a fantastic job. We had seven dances in total – each roughly around 4-5 minutes. My sisters dance was 9 minutes long! Dances were done by: My family friends – Shahab Brothers, Family Friend Girls, Family Friend Boys, My Sisters, Nouman’s brother and sister-in-law, Nouman’s cousin and Nouman and the boys. With the exception of the last dance, all of them used a medley of songs – surprisingly, not a single song overlapped!
The end.
*All the images used in this post are courtesy of Big Al Studios.*
To read about the Mehendi Day, check out my posts: Mehendi Day – Part 1 and Mehendi Day – Part 2. For information on my makeup, check out my tips for a DIY Mehendi Look.
p.s. If you have not been following me on Facebook or Twitter, you might have been surprised at the blog’s new look. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think – I want to hear your feedback!
This past weekend, Nouman and I went to our final wedding of 2012 – yup, final wedding on the final weekend of 2012. If anyone is keeping count, this was our 12th wedding of the year – most with multiple events. It was Nouman’s friends wedding and we had a great time. This wedding was where we met the subject of today’s feature – an up and coming photographer, Iftekhar Alam aka I Alam Photography.
While the bride and groom were doing their photoshoot, Nouman and I (okay, I dragged him into it) started taking pictures in the lobby too. We were travelling back in time to our wedding day since we were at the same hall as our shaadi. Anyway, Nouman and I were watching the photographer (creepers, yes) and we loved his energy and the style of pictures he was taking. At one point during the night, I was standing next to the photographer while taking pictures of people on stage. As you know, I am pretty outgoing so I struck up a conversation with him. Turns out, he is a very sweet person; I think I saw him smiling the entire time through all three events. He was easy to talk to and sounded genuinely enthusiastic about his work.
On the reception day, we viewed the pictures he took on the wedding day and I LOVED everything. The few teasers I have seen from the reception day seem to be even better.
*All the below images belong to I Alam Photography*

Love the rawness of this picture – 2 friends acting all demure and then pushing each other for the bouquet.

This picture perfectly captures the anticipation of everyone as the bride makes her entrance. I also love the expression on the bride
And now, on to my favourite pictures:
If I were a competitor, I’d keep an eye out.
Have a great weekend!
I don’t know about you but I can’t get enough of photographers. There is something about pictures that speaks volumes to me – it’s a glimpse into another persons life from the eyes of someone else.
I recently came across a photographer that made me want to stare at their work – not in a creepy way guys, geez. Nadia D Photography caught my attention because the work is unique and oh-so-captivating. I love everything about these pictures. The darkness, the softness and the perfect lighting – I’m in love!
*All the above images are via Nadia D Photography*
Have a great weekend!
Remember my post on brooch bouquets? Today, I bring you pretty bouquets with dressed up stems.
The trend I’m referring to isn’t just about pretty bouquets – it’s about incorporating your wedding dress into the stem of the bouquet. More and more, brides are going for a completely cohesive look; I love how the bouquet pulls together different colours and elements of the wedding.
Examples of what I mean:
Check out some pretty bouquets below!

Heirlooms are all the rage these days. How about incorporating your mother’s or grandmother’s wedding dress into your bouquet? Yes, that’s a sleeve!
Image via Bridal Guide. Photography by Nadia D
I love the idea of dress replica bouquets or dress inspired bouquets. How about you?
p.s. I have a few more bouquet ideas coming up so stay tuned!
When I first started cooking after Nouman’s mom left, I had a hard time figuring out quantities. I still sometimes do. I would often make so much food that it could feed a family of 4 for 2 days. Regardless of the quantity, I think we all sometimes have leftover foods that nobody wants to eat by the end of the week. Right?
Well, one day, I had made so much keemay and aloo walay chawal (rice with ground meat and potatoes) that it seemed like it would never end. Out of desperation, I decided to make a casserole. It turned out really yummy so now I do this every few weeks.
This past weekend, we had numerous odd leftovers: aloo ki tarkari (potato curry), refried beans (I had made these 1 week ago hoping to make nachos but we didn’t get time), ground chicken, plain white rice (we had been eating this batch for 6 days) and 1 pack of mushrooms that would have gone bad if I didn’t use it asap. In order to somehow finish everything before the end of the weekend, I shoved everything into a casserole!
So what do I normally do?

I took this picture at the halfway point – the cheese has started to melt but hasn’t fully melted nor has it browned

I took this picture after I put it in my plate. Notice the cheese browned and melted in the back? Oooh yeah, everything tastes better with cheese.
What do you do with your leftovers?
Today’s feature is a cute and endearing video by Desi Vibe Studios. I love how sweet the couple is with each other – somebody say AWWWW already!
Alineh and Rafi – Highlights from DesiVibe Studios on Vimeo.
Have a good weekend