Weddings in Bangladesh, as we’ve discovered, are usually very elaborate affairs with beautiful details, decorations and emotions. After the bride & groom holudh and the mehndi, comes the main highlight – the actual wedding day itself. It was a spectacular event with hundreds of guests. We enjoyed photographing every single element in this wedding.
After Azrin and Samiul’s holudh, we photographed their mehndi event. It was another colourful event with lots of beautiful fairy lights, which made it really dreamy.
Featured at the wedding was this Bumble Bee car… we couldn’t stop taking portraits with the car.
Prior to the wedding of Azrin & Samiul, I had a foretaste of what a Bangladeshi wedding was like. I had a little insight on Bangladeshi weddings when I did the image editing for Nabil & Maisha back in 2011. With great anticipation and excitement, I was given the honour and privilege to cover the wonderful wedding of Azrin & Samiul in Dhaka Bangladesh together with Eric Ooi.
It was indeed an eye-opener for us to be able to witness the sights and sounds of a cultural Bangladeshi wedding. It’s a real life experience & nothing beats the “real deal”.
Azrin and her family greeted us with such warmth. We even got the chance to try out some delicious Bangladeshi cuisine at her home. They were so yummy and we had a hard time controlling ourselves! I was greedily trying all of them but Azrin warned us not to overeat or else we might get an upset stomach, which did happen to Grace during her last trip to Bangladesh (She claims it was the delicious biryani that tempted her).
Azrin and Samiul’s wedding started off with 2 individual events, called the holudh. They were held on different nights, each day to celebrate bride and groom separately. I was amazed at the detailed decorations and the vibrant colours. It was really eye-catching and beautiful! Here are some images from Azrin’s holudh.
Photographers: Mark & Andrew
The final post from Nabil & Maisha’s wedding – the walima. It’s the event where the men come dressed in their best suits, guests dine and enjoy each other’s company.
When you have such beautiful weather (I love the cool weather!) and out in the open, the entire place decked with gorgeous decoration and my absolute favourite, fairy lights, a seemingly normal venue is turned into one that is just beautiful and magical. Nabil and Maisha did such a great job with the wedding. I did say that the weather was cold, because Andrew was really freezing through the night. But me, I just love the weather and the idea of having little pits of fire burning where guests could just go and stand by them to keep warm.
So much attention was paid to the little details, the decorations for each place setting for guests, the cut out pieces of butterflies, the colour scheme of the tents, the waterfall behind the bride and the groom and all down to the choices of flowers and stage decorations. It was truly a sight to behold.
Check out the customized tag on the Giorgio Armani suit.
Photographers: Mark & Andrew
Bride’s Wedding Outfit: Ritu Kumar
Make Up: Lopa, Farzana Shakil and Dreams
Location: Shenakunjo, Dhaka, Bangladesh
They’ve been childhood sweethearts since the 5th grade. Nabil used to walk past Maisha’s class just to look at her. She knew. Whenever he came by, she would glance his way. Phone conversations after phone conversations led to the start of a deep friendship. A friendship that lasted through the years. Their love blossomed which eventually led to a surprise midnight proposal to Maisha at the Bashundhara lakeside. Nabil presented her a carton full of love letters, gifts and memoirs from their childhood. It’s like a fairy tale come true.
And on the 8th of January 2011, Nabil and Maisha sealed their love for each other in a grand wedding ceremony.
