Ashraful & Sofia - Virginia Wedding Photography

One of the things I love the most about this job is being welcomed into groups of friends as individuals in the group get married over the years. I first met Ashraful back in 2010 at my friend Yasmin's wedding - only my second year of business, and he was a friend of Yasmin's husband Tyseer. A year later, I saw him again in California, at Osman and Lubna's beautiful Bay Area wedding in the summer of 2011. Aaaand then again in the summer of 2013, I met Ashraful at Omar and Muneeba's walima in Baltimore. And then one more time! That same year in late fall, at Anjum and Amaan's walima in Baltimore. I have documented these meetings below, in the last four images of this blog post! But you can imagine by that time we'd had the conversation. "So, when are YOU going to get married, Ashraful??" "I don't know, but when I do, you'll be my photographer!"

So folks, this one is special. Because it sounds like a sitcom, but it actually happened. Ashraful called me up in 2014 after four years of not getting married :D and told me he was finally getting married, and I got to meet him and his beautiful bride Sofia to plan everything out, and I did get to be their photographer. I could not be happier for this guy, Alhamdulillah. I've seen him be a true friend to all the newlyweds pictured below, and now I've been blessed to be a part of his and Sofia's wedding, and to see how loved they both are, to each other and to their families. It was such a joy just going through these pictures and remembering the good times - so. much. laughter! Below I've posted some of the highlights of the mehndi night, followed by the wedding the next day, and at the end - the story of how we got here. good times, as you can tell by all the huge smiles! Sofia and Ashraful, I pray you two will always look back on these moments as the beginning of all the best times. Thank you so very much for having me there :)