June 27, 2007
Aliyah & Sameer | Wedding and E-Session, again!
Look at me go, I’m totally keeping up on blogging weddings!
This past weekend was our time to hang out with Aliyah and Sameer. Once again, they were from out of town so we had to do their e-session the week of their wedding! Sameer also managed to break his arm right about a week before the wedding, which muddled things up a bit, but we always just go with the flow, and trust me, that’s the very best way to approach a wedding 
Let’s start with the e-session, shall we? Location: Royal Alberta Museum Grounds
The nice thing about doing the e-session the week of the wedding is that it gives these guys an hour to actually relax, settle, and just enjoy being around each other, instead of running around!
Now to the wedding!
Day 1: Mendhi
Now this was our very first Ismaili wedding (I seem to be writing some form of that sentence every week, which is awesome! We are LOVING all this variety, we’re learning so much) and there were definitely some really cool ceremonies.
This is a crazy picture Rob took! In this ceremony, the bride’s brothers go to the mosque to get water, and then carry it back to the home without smiling or looking behind them. As her brother came up to the house, Rob took a shot through the glass of the door, which made it look all funky!
Her brother’s were then greeted at the door with smarties to eat, and flower petals to throw on them
Then they had a pithi ceremony, which is somewhat similar to a haldi ceremony. Aliyah had it way easy though, instead of stinging turmeric paste, they used Victoria’s Secret body lotion.
I was really excited because they asked me if I wanted to have my mendhi done. Um, ALWAYS! Lol. I love having it done, although it does make shooting kind of tricky, but I manage! Here I am showing it off, along with my new ShootSac (which, for the photographers out there, is beyond amazing, and totally worth every penny. As Rob said, it is made out of pure awesomeness)
Day 2: Mini-Reception Type Thing
On Saturday they had basically a mini-reception where Aliyah’s family welcomed Sameer’s. Sameer’s family brought gifts
Aliyah’s mom greated them all as they came in the door
They were definitely having fun
Aliyah came in and they performed a similar little ceremony to the pithi, feeding her Smarties and throwing rose petals on her
Then it was time for Sameer to come in, and, well, he had quite the entrance
The night finished up with a dance performance by some cousins!
Day 3: The Wedding!
So an Ismaili wedding is so very very different from a Hindu one, we were pretty surprised! Basically the bridal party sits at the front of the room with the 4 priests.
They talk very quietly, the priests exchange the rings for the couple, and the priests put the rings on for them (that is, the bride and groom don’t do it!)
They sign a ton of papers, have some laughs
And that’s about it! Then it was time to have some fun and take some cool pictures. There was a nice orangey-pinky wall right beside the mosque, so let’s use it!
< insert wardrobe change here >
Then to our favorite stomping grounds, the U of A. We found some totally new spots to shoot this time around, as is usually the case! Love it.
Look at that stunning bridal party
Possible winner for the “Coolest Shoes” award
At the reception there was this really funny ceremony where they both stood on a bench, and had to jump off at the same time to break these little clay pots. Whoever breaks it first “rules the roost”, so to speak. Well, Aliyah had a very…strategic…way to win!
Cake (post cutting!)
Here’s the proof of Sameer’s broken arm (also known as his bionic arm) during the first dance
And as always, it winds up with “boogeying down”
Whew! That’s all she wrote!
Lauren 
Filed under: Weddings
July 14th, 2007 at 6:04 am
As usual, you guys do not disappoint! The shots from your 2007 season are fantastic.
Weird side note, I’m almost positive I went to junior high with Sameer.