Colorful & Contemporary Nikah with a Beautiful Backdrop

 We love how Zahra made for a contemporary bride, taking a lehenga silhouette and making it super modern to almost look like a white wedding gown , that too for a nikah. With Chomu Palace in Jaipur as the backdrop - Zahra and Yusuf's wedding had all the trappings of a wedding blockbuster. Right from the fun Mehendi with carrom boards to the wedding ceremony decked out in mogra strings. Photography by Avnish Dhoundiyal Photography.

"My husband and I had our first encounter on 14th February 2007 - our interview for dental school was 11am on Valentines day! He remembers me - I can't say I remember him though which he still reminds me about! We officially met in Hyde Park during freshers week in 2007 when we both starting studying at King's College London. Our connection was instant and we became the best of friends straight away. Since we were from slightly different communities, we found ourselves fighting our feelings for the sake of our families, which was very hard. After graduating, we decided to try and breakdown the barriers between our families, and soon enough our families gave us their full blessings! It was a whirlwind romance, and well worth the fight. We tied the knot on Valentines Day exactly 9 years later," says Zahra. 

 

 

"I first visited Jaipur in July 2007 just before I met my husband. When I entered the city, it felt romantic and special, and I vowed when I get married it would be in this special place. The vision for the wedding was to get my guests to experience all the wonderful things that I love about India to the wedding.  I had to get creative and this was much more cost effective because I put a lot of things together myself, and designed many elements. Lots of things I brought from the UK which meant I had the specific stuff I wanted, for example in each room we left a guest pack filled with lots of useful items such has food snacks , plasters, hair grips, hand sanitizer, mints, and a booklet we made with all the info for the wedding as well as local information and some useful hindi words! This was a thoughtful way to add a personal touch to the weekend. For all three days we had a chaiwalla throughout each event so people could enjoy a proper cuppa!"  For the Mehendi, In terms of the decor, I decided to do it as a fun colourful fair like area with pops of neon - some of my best memories of India are being  on Juhu or Chowpatti beach in Mumbai eating delicious streetfood and drinking crazy neon coloured sugary drinks,   buying random cute things from market stalls - this inspired my idea to have little stalls with gifts for the guests including little Rajasthani mirrors, bandhni dupattas, snacks and bindis, as well as a tarot card reader. My Mehendi look was simple - I wanted something with a pop of colour but a unique piece - I found the outfit I wore randomly when I stopped by in Ranas, Jaipur for a 20 min stop in! It was gota patti which is traditionally Rajasthani. For the Nikah I had different plans in mind. To start the day in the most zen way possible, the morning of my wedding I organised a yoga teacher to come and do a class for me and all my guests!  I wanted the decor to be simple, elegant and beautiful with white , green and touches of pink/peach as my colour theme. I wore white, my bridesmaids wore peach. My favourite thing about India is the abundance of gorgeous fresh flowers available, something we don't have the luxury of in England, so my request to my wedding planners was that there were fresh flowers everywhere! Getting married in a mandap as a muslim couple was rather untraditional, so the white and green across the mandap made it perfect for our unique ceremony.  Whenever I go to India, my mum and I always stop for fresh coconuts and street chai, so on the wedding we had a fresh coconut stall where guests could grab a fresh drink prior to the ceremony.  My brother, sister and myself and my husband did the ceremony ourselves, and it was followed by a fairylit banquet listening to a Qawali live band (called Kaafila). It was magical.  I found that using Pinterest to show my wedding planners the vision I had was the most effective way to communicate long distance - and in the end my wedding definitely looked like my Pinterest board!" adds Zahra.  For the Nikah, we usually wear white traditionally, and my size is fairly standard so I bought this one off piece off the shelf from Aza, designed by Kartikeya India. For the reception, I had seen a picture of Chomu Palace on Instagram lit up highlighting its beauty in the courtyard - so I asked my wedding planners to recreate this. Our centrepieces were little rajasthani dolls. We entered on a floral draped auto rickshaw (because who doesn't love a rickshaw!)  to 1942 love story with all the guests lined up with sparklers on. Our rickshaw doubled up as our photobooth. This was a good way to keep our costs down by not having a separate photobooth and the guests loved it! At the back we had a guest book, sweet stall and our favours. For the favours we had ordered copper cups from Mumbai (with an engraving on the bottom) and had chai put into linen tea bags and tagged for our guests. We wanted to give our guests the copper cup because of all the health benefits, and the pouches of chai for our guests to remember us over. The end to our magical weekend was our first dance to Pee Loon, and fireworks to end. For the Reception, I wore a gown because it was flattering, and felt luxurious. It had a touch of indian in the work but the style was western which suited the occasion," says Zahra. 

Venue: Chomu Palace Hotel★ 4.8 Decor: Back 2 Culture Weddings Bride's Outfits: White lehenga by Aza★ 3.6 - designer Kartikeya★ 4.5 India; Mehendi outfit by Ranas★ 4.7 ; Reception outfit by Kimaya★ 5 Mumbai Groom's Outfits: Wedding outfit by Jinaam; Mehendi outfit by Southall; Reception outfit Tux shirt by Bombay Shirt Company, Tux by French Connection Jewellery: Sonas Wembley (earrings), hand jewellery Magic Mirror Mumbai; Mehendi & Reception jewellery by Sia Art Jewellery★ 5  Makeup Artist:  Bianca Louzado Creative Make-up and Hair Design★ 5 Hair and Makeup Photography: Avnish Dhoundiyal Photography★ 5