The last celebration of Ali and Farhat’s wedding in Bangladesh is called the walima, also known as the reception. Everyone comes in lovely sarees as usual, but this time, the guys wear suits! The food today was exceptionally good, I loved the briyani and the huge prawns that were served to us! Yummy! The walima was held at Ali’s home again. Since it was the final night of our shoot in Bangladesh, we went a little mad towards the end, doing silly things like spinning around with our video cameras (we have really funny footage of Ali doing that too! haha). We took quite a number of ring shots, I don’t know which one is my fav. Here are two of them!
Ali and Farhat getting ready for the event.
It’s amazing how the decorators transformed their outdoor garden area into this lovely ‘hall’.
Photographing kids is just so fun! Isn’t she adorable?
After a night of traditional singing, the DJs put on some dance music!
Our shoot ended at 3am again that night and by the time we had transferred all our photos into our hard drives (2 hard drives, as a measure of back up! This is really important!)… we only had about 1 hour of sleep before we had to wake up to go to the airport. Our flight out of Chittagong to Dhaka went by in a blur! That day, I spent the longest time in ‘transit’. We waited from 9am to 5pm at the airport for our next flight out to Kuala Lumpur. It has been an amazing adventure the past one week. I felt that I’ve made really great friends in Bangladesh. Ali and Farhat rocks as a couple! Hey, you guys are always welcome to stay with us when you come over to Malaysia or Singapore! We look forward to catching up with you soon!
After we ended up at Ali’s place, we spent some time taking portraits of just Ali and Farhat. It was the latest portraiture session I’ve ever done! We started at 2.30am and ended about 3.30am. We had to take lots of lovely detail shots of Farhat.
Finally, our group shot together. Look at the timing! It’s proof to show that we were working till the wee hours of the morning. Ali and Farhat have this cute wink that is their trademark look! So here’s all of us doing the same little thing. :)
The expected guest list: 4000-6000 people. We could not imagine such a magnitude of people coming together in one place for a wedding. The Chittagong Club was the venue of the wedding, and as expected, it was decorated so beautifully on the wedding day. We arrived there at 8pm and the guests had started streaming in. The culture in Bangladesh is slightly different, where the guests arrive and have their dinner even before the bride or groom makes their entrance. One of the things that surprised us when we arrived was that there were 2 stages prepared! They are side by side, but blocked by a vertical cloth. Later we found out that the tradition was that the bride and groom were not supposed to see each other until the wedding day itself (hence the reason for 2 stages). The first time they lay eyes on each other is through a reflection in a mirror on the wedding day.
There is a part where the groom’s men bargain with the bride’s side, and they hand over money in this lovely looking chest. It’s pretty similar to the Chinese chip san leong ceremony. Only difference is that I don’t understand the language!
Halfway through the ceremony, Farhat started crying. It was an emotional time as it symbolized that she is now leaving her family and joining her new found husband’s family.
Farhat was soon whisked to Ali’s place where she was welcomed to her new home.
Part 2 of the Wedding Night to be blogged about soon…
It’s the Groom’s Mehndi day. After Farhat had her party at her place, this is Ali’s turn to host the guests. We were brought to his new home which is still yet to be completed. But on the day of the event, the whole place was transformed! They are really skilled at decorating a space! The lighting on stage was really good for us on this day, since Ali took extra care to make sure that the lighting is good and sufficient for us. The Groom’s Mehndi is similar to the Bride’s version, where they feed relatives and family members sweets/cake. As usual, towards the end of the night, there was a round of partying!
A traditional ceremony that is unique to Bangladesh where they lift this basket up and down a couple of times while the wedding ring is placed against Ali’s forehead. I can’t really remember the significance though!
So cute. I think it’s some kind of betel leaf.
The second event is called the Bride’s Mehndi, where guests go up to her and put tumeric paste on her forehead (which is swiftly wiped away soon after!). This event was held in Farhat’s home, and though Ali was present, he did not make an appearance on stage till the end of the night. We spotted him taking photos from the 2nd floor of the balcony. I guess he couldn’t resist picking up his camera for a few shots! The night was really hot and humid, and we started the event at about 10pm. Interestingly, they were still putting up decorations on the stage at 9.30pm. I admire the calmness of everyone. I would have freaked out if it was my own wedding and things were not in order yet! Well, tonight’s Farhat’s night. The bride was the centre of attention. Farhat is just so beautiful and elegant.
