Showing posts with label cultures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cultures. Show all posts

Jun 19, 2013

:: Arabian Nights ::


SATC II 


12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 


With the majority of my friends overseas right now and Ramadan coming up sooner than I can wrap my head around I've got all things exotic Arabia on my mind.  Maybe it's because of my Middle Eastern background but I'm slightly obsessed with camels.  That camel picture must make its way to our home ASAP.  I wish I could blow it up and have it cover a whole wall but I'm pretty sure that this is one crazy thought Alaa will never go for.  Oh well, I'll just settle for a bunch of pretty, pretty exotic paraphernalia.  And I'm thinking that the camel sugar bowl can double as a flower vase.  See how I just justified it's purpose?  It's practically a two for one!



Dec 30, 2010

Wedding Week : Part IV

The Wedding
December 27th, 2008

We've finally arrived to the wedding!  My theme was PURPLE! And boy did I get sick of that color haha.  I'm slowly making a recovery to re kindle my relationship with the color purple :-).

{Oh, and I'm warning you from now..this post has a million pictures...enjoy!}

From left to right :  Bridal Toss bouquet, Wedding dress, Wedding invitation and souvenir chocolate, my bouquet,  and table centerpieces.

Before meeting, Alaa and I each took separate photos.  Mine at my friends house, his at our apartment.



 Now, I have a little story to tell you.  I had reserved with the same woman who did my hair for the Khutbeh to come over and do my hair as well as my mom and sisters for the wedding.  A few weeks before the wedding she came over and saw the inspiration photo and said it would be so easy to achieve the look there wasn't even a need to do a hair preview.
This is the hairstyle I wanted.  Its so charming and elegant.
And for my make-up I showed her a photo and told her wanted neutral colors with touches of gold.  
Turns out...shes color blind!!
In the middle of her doing my make-up I was curious to see how I looked.  My hair looked like I ran  through a hurricane.  And my eyes?  I had silver and pink bling.  It was my worst nightmare.  I wanted to cry.  What a horrible feeling to feel ugly on your wedding day!  Did I mention she wanted to put glitter hairspray in my hair?  It was that bad!!

Okay I'll stop venting now.  :-)

Here's a picture of us getting dressed.  A family friend came and tried to fix my make- up.  The next picture is of my hubs and his brother.  They're precious.

Despite being December, it was a gorgeous day outside.  We took these pictures outside my friends house before the wedding.




Then I went back to my parents house and Alaa went to meet up with his side of the family.  The tradition is that the grooms family has to come to the brides parents home and formally greet his bride.  It's like the transition phase where the bride becomes part of the husbands family.

My gorgeous sisters and I.  My family + Great Uncle & Aunt + Teta.

The two most incredible people you will ever meet.
My mom & my uncle.


The only thing that made me cry was when I hugged my uncle.


As the bride & groom enter the reception they have a trail of family and close friends behind singing old songs.  Some people even played the "tableh" {Go to 0;44 secs in this video to see what I mean }


This was the reception hall.  The stage was completely DIY.



The first entrance was kind of a "fake " entrance.  Alaa and I went into hiding until all of the guests arrived and then we made our grand entrance.



And then as usual, we danced...a lot! Our D.J. was absolutely incredible and kept everyones feet on the dance floor and hands in the air (That sounds cheesy, I know haha).
One of the dances we do is called the debke {start 0:36}


Le Gateau

Another tradition is that the girl does a "candle dance".  Theres a specific song that is played and the brides goes around the room carrying the candles.  People usually pull up chairs and throw flower petals on the bride as she walks by.  It's kinda fun!

And ofcourse, the American tradition of the bouquet toss.  The second picture makes me laugh. :-)
 My incredible family and the most amazing woman I know.

And I'll close off with two funny photos.




I hope I didn't bore you with all of these photos!  I couldn't help myself, it was hard to narrow it down and believe it or not there are still so many things that happened that I didn't include.  ( I'll spare you the picture of my cute husband rocking an invisible guitar!)

If you have any questions about our wedding feel free to ask me!

Oh and I have one more surprise for you tomorrow!  Can you guess what it could be?

Dec 29, 2010

Wedding Week : Part III

The Henna
December 24th, 2008

I mentioned yesterday that today's post would be about my favorite day.  Not all Arabs throw Henna parties but growing up I had been to so many my mom and I wanted to throw one.  Usually, people from certain cities will throw big lavish Henna parties and invite everyone in the family (and I mean EVERYONE...Remember that second cousin twice removed?  Yea, they're invited too!) while others opt for a more family centered party.  As first-generation Arab-Americans all of our family is scattered in various parts of the world.  The people in the Arab community are my true family, so naturally those were the ones I invited.   We did this party in our home and we had so much fun!  At any Henna you will always find the bride wearing a "thobe" (like what I wore on the Tulbeh).  Whether the bride chooses a more traditional or modern thobe is up to her.  Also, some guests will come wearing thobes, but not all.  We requested from all of our guests to wear one and it was so much fun!  It was great to see the different styles and everyone had fun dressing up for the occasion.  I've included some pictures to show you the different styles of thobes.  My mom has the sweetest friend who is known to have a million thobes, so we went over to her closet and chose something out.  I chose two dresses with different styles.  I love them both!

We started the party off with just the ladies.  We wanted them to let loose and have a good time before the guys came around after a couple of hours.  I'm glad we did, we had a blast :).  

The sleeves on this dress were so fun, they were like bat sleeves!The middle picture is my sister and two of my friends.  Each one of us is wearing a different style dress.  The last girl on the right is wearing a traditional thobe.  The traditional ones are hand embroidered and can cost a fortune!  The last picture is of me and my Teta (grandma).  I love this picture probably because I love her so much.  She's been through so much but is still so full of life!  She's feisty and funny and I am still so grateful she made it out to be there on my wedding day.



After a few hours the men graced us with their presence (*wink wink*).  These pictures make me laugh because they are so ridiculous!  It's so stereotypical but, I promise the majority of people do NOT dress like that overseas!!  My husband thought we were crazy to make him wear the traditional outfit but I'm glad I was able to persuade him haha!



So after we danced a bit more, I changed into this peach colored dress.  This style is more Moroccan but you'll still find tons of girls wearing them at their Henna parties.  


The bride and groom are decorated with henna, hence the name of the party.  Some people do lavish designs while others will put the initial of their spouse.  I didn't want to have henna stained hands on my wedding day so I opted for a simple design that I washed off almost immediately. 

{Note to self: Wash your hands after applying self-tanner!!}
And I love the last picture of me and my older sister.  She's a rockstar, she did my hair and make-up. :)


Heres the family (note the look on Teta's face..priceless! haha)  And then the other picture is of my best friend and little sister carrying the Henna on their heads with me trotting behind.




 I really am so blessed.







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