Beauty is Truth » wedding posts

saba and ahad’s shaadi: new jersey wedding photography

beautyis — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:46:34 +0000

ever since saba first got in touch with me about her wedding, i had been absurdly excited about shooting it – a desi wedding outdoors! in a garden! with butterflies! there were so many personal, thoughtful details in saba and ahad’s planning that promised to make this one of the most beautiful weddings i’d ever seen, and it certainly fulfilled that promise. golden afternoon light, gardens abloom and sunglitter on the water, an absolutely stunning bride and groom surrounded by loving family and friends…
i met saba at her family’s beautiful home in ringwood, where she proved to be one of the most relaxed brides i’d ever encountered not to mention jaw-droppingly gorgeous! my amazingly talented second shooter, vida carson, met ahad and his family at a hotel near the wedding venue to capture their pre-ceremony moments. and we came together at garden falls, a lush garden venue with a decorated platform over a pond for the wedding ceremony, and an enormous tent to host the reception. we took some portraits of the couple and their families before all the guests started to arrive; ahad and saba entered separately onto the petal-strewn platform for the wedding ceremony, at the end of which a box of butterflies were released into the evening air.
saba and ahad chose butterflies to symbolize the transformation of their lives through their wedding celebration – the start of a new stage, the first steps of a new journey, the union of two persons and two families into one. saba and ahad, i thank you both again for giving me the honor and pleasure of capturing your memories of this celebration, and for allowing me into your lives for this brief moment; i pray that God blesses your marriage and your lives together with health, happiness and love that grows stronger each year.

saba and ahad’s mehndi: new jersey wedding photography

beautyis — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:46:33 +0000

what an incredible weekend! saw more of new jersey than i’ve ever planned to and while i have to say – it’s not a u-turn, new jersey, if it’s shaped like a pretzel instead of a “u” – when you drive up north a little ways, and the land starts to roll and curve and show its bones – it’s actually quite beautiful. there, i said it!
it certainly helped, of course, being there to photograph something as beautiful as saba and ahad’s wedding! i have so much to share, but i’m starting with the mehndi, which was held at the rasoi banquet hall in monmouth junction, just south of new brunswick. saba and ahad’s mehndi was a gorgeous celebration of everything their families cherish about them – plenty of memories and laughs shared through performances, dances and one hysterical slideshow. saba and ahad, thanks so much to both of you and your families for welcoming me into your midst to capture these memories! and many thanks, also, to fred of access video, whose video light made my photographic life so much easier!!

saba and ahad: teaser

beautyis — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:17:53 +0000

…aren’t they gorgeous, mashallah??? gotta get home before i can do a full blog post, but i wanted to share one of my favorites as soon as i could! much, much more to come…

tawab and laila: baltimore wedding photography

beautyis — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:13:13 +0000

one of the joys of becoming a photographer based in a local community is discovering new connections: although i’d never met the bride and groom, laila and tawab, i had known tawab’s lovely sister mashel back in my grad school days… come to find out, tawab’s bride is from north carolina, like me, and we have just a degree or two of separation there. it was such a pleasure meeting both of them (and meeting tawab’s adorable nieces!); laila was every inch the princess bride, just stunning, and their families arranged a gorgeous reception at baltimore’s martin’s west that i’m sure will be remembered by all the guests for years to come.
this was my first time shooting an afghan wedding, and though i’m familiar with the culture and similar traditions in other muslim cultures, i truly enjoyed experiencing (and photographing) this party: from the renowned talents of expatriate afghan phenomenon ehsan aman to the hauntingly beautiful traditional dancing performed by laila’s cousins – and the mouthwatering afghan dinner. tawab, laila, mashel, and the rest of your families, i thank you so much for the honor of capturing your wedding, and pray that God blesses your marriage and your new journey together.

Protected: mahvish and omar: virginia wedding photography

beautyis — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:08:47 +0000

omar and alia: durham wedding photography

beautyis — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:54:53 +0000

i have so much to blog all of a sudden! and i know i haven’t been doing so well! so i do apologize… but first, i’m truly excited to share some images from omar and alia’s wedding, which took place may 30 at the beautiful millennium hotel in durham.
i’ve said before, i love shooting in the raleigh muslim community, because it’s where i grew up; i actually came to this wedding through an old friend who is now a cake decorator and baker extraordinaire – whose wedding was, incidentally, one of the VERY first i ever shot, years ago! but i also knew the groom’s family from childhood; omar’s sister, reem, was one of my good friends growing up, and i knew her parents pretty well, too, from the local masjid. and i’m pretty sure i have seen alia’s family over the years… years ago!
anyway. whether i remembered them or not, it was an absolute joy to see how truly happy omar and alia were with each other: there is usually something about every wedding that stays with me long after i’ve finished processing the pictures, and what i will always remember from this one are the smiles on each of their faces when they looked at each other. they’d get LOST in the middle of all the music, lights and people – subhanallah! i pray that your marriage always grows in the light of that love, omar and alia, and that God blesses both you and your families.
since alia – and many of the women who attended this wedding – wear hijab, i won’t be sharing many of the pictures from the earlier part of the day, or the women’s section after the men left and they got down and partied! but here are some of the moments i CAN share, including the fantastic groom’s cake alia had made as a surprise for omar, as well as some of the general fun and horsing around that went on as the evening progressed.

yasmin & tyseer: walima | minneapolis wedding photography

beautyis — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:44:00 +0000

i think these two have set a record for the number of events held to celebrate their union – six or seven over the course of two years, mashallah! but this was the very last of them, and now the partying is over and married life truly begins
the walima is the reception traditionally given by the groom’s side of the family, so this event took place in minneapolis, where tyseer grew up with his two brothers. downtown minneapolis was busy, warm and bright on this weekend – the radisson plaza hotel was the perfect place to host the last of “tysmin’s” wedding celebrations, and extended family and friends gathered from across the country to join in. yasmin – who wore a white dress and a dark blue and red lehnga at her wedding, to honor the arab and pakistani aspects of her heritage – this time donned a stunning red-and-gold sari, wrapped expertly by her mother-in-law, to honor the new bengali side of her family.
what with the speeches, dancing and antics of the bride and groom’s friends, i don’t think anyone missed out on a good time – not even the photographer. but even more than that, i am profoundly grateful for how welcome i was made by tyseer’s family in minneapolis and how kindly i was taken care of. thank you SO MUCH, auntie taslima and the rest of your family, for making me feel like part of your family, too – and yasmin and tyseer, thank you both for trusting me to capture your wedding and allowing me into your lives. i can’t wait to see more of you guys when you move closer to my neck of the woods!

yasmin & tyseer: wedding | raleigh wedding photography

beautyis — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:48:51 +0000

so, as promised, here are yasmin and tyseer’s wedding pictures! well, a few of them… still plenty more i’m working through! but i wanted to share these as soon as possible. as i said in the mehndi post, it was such a joy for me to be involved in this wedding as i was – my family was invited anyway, as guests, but i had the honor and pleasure of capturing it as photographer.
i also met tyseer and his family before this wedding; tyseer’s wonderful mother got in touch with me after she met me at the wedding of her best friend’s daughter, sanjana, which i blogged about in january. so amidst the friends i grew up with – yasmin is part of the generation a few years younger than me who are going through the “wedding phase” now – it was honestly one of the best times i’ve had photographing a wedding. i was especially excited because yasmin is one of those AWESOME brides who actually schedules enough time to allow for more creative bridal portraits; i also enjoyed being able to photograph two different bridal gowns, as yasmin – with her mixed heritage of syrian and pakistani – donned both a white wedding gown with hijab and a traditional pakistani lehnga (though in a unique dark blue and red combination!) during the course of the evening. in two weeks i’ll get to picture yasmin in yet another bridal dress – a sari, at her walima celebration in minnesota which will be rooted in tyseer’s bangladeshi culture.
yasmin’s shaadi, or wedding celebration, was held at the beautiful, classy brier creek country club in raleigh, so we got to take advantage of a sweet little courtyard designed for weddings and portraits, as well as the gently rolling golf course right next door. we had been worried that the sun might be too glaring for our late afternoon portraits, and then that it might rain, but we ended up with the softest, cloud-filtered, golden sunset light one could imagine. after portraits, everything took place indoors, and the families had a series of wedding traditions and rituals – a shared drink, a cake-cutting, the traditional desi shoe-stealing (which ended up in yasmin’s shoes being stolen, too – very untraditional! – some punjabi dancing from the men, and the bride’s friends blocking the couple’s way out at the end for payment from the groom’s brother and friends (that shot at the bottom with the ladies lined up in front of the door? yeah… that’s not a pose )
hope you all enjoy this – please leave a comment if you do! at the end of the pictures there’s a slideshow with about twice as many images, if you want to see more of the wedding story
EDIT: meant to add i COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT MY AMAZING SECOND SHOOTER, sara haddad, with whom i’ve shot two weddings before this. sara took a few of the shots you see below, including the AWESOME capture of tyseer dancing. she captured some great moments from angles and places where i couldn’t be, and definitely made this wedding story complete.

and here, if you have the time and want to sit back and relax with it, is a somewhat longer slideshow with a fuller story of the wedding day – hope you all enjoy it!

yasmin & tyseer: mehndi | raleigh wedding photography

beautyis — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:25:02 +0000

yasmin and tyseer are finally married! well… technically they’ve been married for a while. but this past weekend they sealed the deal with a somewhat-traditional shaadi, or wedding celebration – as traditional as an event rooted in at least four different cultures (punjabi, syrian, bengali and american) could be!! yasmin had the interesting situation of finding her wedding photographer literally just around the corner – my parents live in the same neighborhood as she and her family do, so let’s just say i didn’t have far to go when visiting my parents for a week around the time of her wedding. i also had the pleasure of designing and applying yasmin’s wedding mehndi (henna) on her hands and feet, two nights before the wedding – staying up till 3 a.m., enjoying the stories, the music, the visiting friends and the delicious food truly made me feel like part of the family!
with all the weddings i’ve attended growing up in raleigh, i was pleasantly surprised by the elegance of the royal banquet & conference center on hillsborough street – must have driven by this place a million times over the years, and i never knew it was there! it was the perfect site for yasmin’s mehndi celebration – the traditional, all-women’s dance and song extravaganza held the night before the wedding, as the women and girls in a desi bride’s life celebrate their love for her and their joy at her new journey. i only took pictures for the first part of the evening; when the men left the room, and the women took off their headscarves… well, so did i, and i put down my camera and joined the party.
i’ll say this again in yasmin’s wedding post, but words cannot express what a wonderful experience it was for me to both capture the start of this journey AND participate in it as a part of yasmin’s life. yasmin, i know you’re anxiously awaiting the wedding pictures, and i’m totally on it – in the meantime, i hope you enjoy these few shots from your mehndi night – as i said on facebook, the most fun i’ve had at a mehndi in years! love you!

a little bit more…

beautyis — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:30:11 +0000

i’ve been finishing up the processing for sam and sanjana’s two events and just wanted to share a random selection of a few more favorites from both events!
one of these images – the horizontal of the chandelier, was taken by my assistant-for-the-day, fasiha khan – loved the image, thought i would share it here too! thanks so much, fasiha, for all your help