If you’re Asian you know that an invitation to someone’s wedding means one thing:
PREPARATION.
And that is exactly what my family and myself have been doing these last few weekends is preparing everything from travel arrangements to what we would be wearing. I had gone to Birmingham to get my outfit – this style is called a Churidar (usually a long dress accompanied with skinny trousers). I had purchased my outfit from a shop on Soho Road called Jia Creations Designer Wear and though it was a tad expensive, I really loved the colour and the design of the embroidery and jewels. What you see here is how it came in the shop – unfitted and minus some sleeves.
The actual wedding was at Fennes Manor House, Essex and I have just noticed that I did not take a single picture of the front of the Manor as parking was situated at the back by the barns. Being that there were twenty-seven of us (kids included) from Cardiff, we had booked nine rooms at the closest Holiday Inn Express that had availability. I was one of the drivers and my poor little Nisssan Micra had to deal with the extra weight and I often found myself whispering to it and willing it to move up hills! I wouldn’t say that I am normally a nervous driver, I just have this thing where if I haven’t been to a certain place before I need all the help and concentration I can muster – having an integrated satnav helps but being able to hear the satnav lady also helps! I was a bit of a grumpy driver on the way I’ll admit but we made it there in one piece!
I love that feeling when you finally arrive at your destination after such a long journey and you see something cosy that you want to fall face down onto. After collection ALL the stuff from our cars (clothes, food bags, rubbish, handbags) and checked in, stuff was then dumped into the rooms and I face-planted a pillow.
The rest of the evening consisted of sorting out everything that was needed for the next day as we had to check out as well. Of course everyone also did a quick job of painting their nails to match their clothes, I didn’t have quite the right colour gold but I was knackered and it was close enough!.
The next morning, after (little, on my part) sleep there was the usual scramble to use the shower/hairdryer/straighteners/mirrors – you can imagine how long it takes the average girl to get ready but when you have at least 3+ sharing a room you can imagine the madness. Myself and N2 had been nominated to do what seemed like everybody’s makeup. I had a queue of the younger girls who wanted sparkly eyes and little cat flicks and N2 had a queue of the mothers. I brought my Urban Decay Naked 2 and 3 palettes as I do more nude looks and N1 and N2 brought their Urban Decay Book of Shadows palette which consists of a lot more intense colours. I think I was one of the last ones to finish getting ready after all that!
The wedding itself was a segregated wedding, which I have to say I haven’t actually been to before so it was an interesting experience. The manor was quaint and had that old vintage charm to it and the two halls were cordoned off with a separate walkway for the ladies to get to their hall. I am a sucker for fairy lights and candles and this wedding wasn’t short of any! The best thing about coming to the wedding was seeing my sister and nephews and seeing how much they’ve grown and seeing them in their adorable clothes – how can you not love a kid in a little suit?
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| The Three Musketeers |
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| Dad and Isa |
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| Isa – AKA “00 Dangerous” |
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| Mum and Myself |
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| My Niece and Me |
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| Baby Nuh and his chubbly cheeks |
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| Farah, Myself and Isa |
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| Zara, Granny and Myself |
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| Nina and Myself |
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| The Bride and Myself |
As you can see, there were a fair amount of selfies taken at this wedding – but what I found is that when a wedding is segregated there’s not an awful lot to see in what I’ve become used to at other Asian weddings I’ve been to. I have another wedding to attend in May which I am quite excited about because it will be the first non-Asian wedding I have ever been to (ok so it’s just the reception, but still!) and I need to start finding a nice non-Asian dress to wear (YAY!).
What has been the most interesting wedding you have been to and why?
Sam Siddique 