all of a sudden i have so much photography to post! last week was eid-ul-fitr, the celebration of the end of the holy month of fasting, ramadan; we had a wonderful celebration with family and friends-like-family. and this weekend my husband and i took our son and our niece to shenandoah national park - one of our favorite day trips - and i took the opportunity to practice shooting entirely in manual... for the most part!BUT, those will have to wait, because i did promise to post next the pictures from saadia's wedding... which was back in july 2007, at masjid al-rahmah in baltimore. saadia is a hijabi, so there are very few pictures of her as a bride i would post here! i've added just a couple in which you can barely see her face :)... i did experiment with black and white shots here, and tinted, but mostly this wedding was full of gorgeous color, as many desi weddings are, and i hope that comes across here! since there aren't many bridal/people shots i can share, i've chosen to show a few more detail shots than i normally would in a wedding post... so, here they are!!

this is the jhoomar, a very desi piece of jewelry that ornaments the top side of the bride's head, peeking out from under the heavy dupatta and just draping over the side of the forehead:

here is more of the gold, and then the flower arrangements on the long tables in the masjid's multi-purpose gym:

and this was the bride's stage setup:

vividly clad guests arriving at the masjid:

placement of some jewelry on the bride:

formal shot of the groom; the bride making duaa (praying) during the ceremony:

desi brides have the best feet on their wedding days!!

and, often, hands too...

finally, this is the "rukhsathi", or bride's leavetaking, when everyone walks the new couple out of the wedding to begin their new life together...:

alright, so if i can get my act together, between writing a review of one of the best local bakeries ever, traveling to north carolina for my dad's 75th birthday and working on my main site, i'll try to put together a post in the next week or so about at least the shenandoah trip! otherwise, i've still got four weddings to post about before i'm all caught up! peace out for now...