Fashionista's Henna Night: Decor and Displays

The decor was in jewel-like shades of turquoise, lime, purple and hot pink and we had asked for an Arabic theme.  We arrived at the venue two hours before the henna and set everything apart from the stage up, moving tables around and working out how and where to seat people.

My brother and some cousins very good-naturedly helped with shifting things into the hall and clearing up afterwards and then disappearing during the event as it was a ladies only henna.  I think a lot of the guests that wore hijab and niqab appreciated the opportunity to let their hair down and dress up.  The DJ was a woman as was the photographer and videographer and we asked them to seek people’s permission before filming or taking pictures which they found a bit strange but thankfully complied with.

For the table decor we used flower petals from mum's gardens and these little lanterns which we bought from the £-shop and spray painted gold.  Inside we placed electric tea-lights.

We dressed some tabled in the colours of the henna theme and used them to display the things we had prepared during the preceding days.

Baskets of henna cones, bangles and sweets to give away to guests.

The main henna thaal (or tray) was put together by Kooky Little Sister, I really liked how pretty this looked. The pot has henna and the leaves are placed on the brides hand so that guests can put a little henna into her hand (without actually staining them) before feeding her something sweet.

This J was created by Sis-in-law using florists foam (the dry oasis stuff) and fresh flowers pinned to the foam using toothpicks.  A gold beaded ribbons was added to the top to complete the look.

Dhandia (or dancing) sticks.  Some of these were loaned by a friend and others were made by Kooks, who sawed the top of wooden spoons off and then wrapped ribbons round the sticks.

Fashionista is always the one who organises the cake for whatever occasion happens to be coming up, so we thought it would be nice to get her one.

The ladies in the grooms side put loads of effort into lovely displays and gifts which they brought along for the bride and the family.

I think this chocolate tree was everyone's favourite

These are more henna thaals from the grooms side.

All four of us (myself, kooks, shutterbug sister and our sis-in-law spent all evening running around like crazy trying to keep everything going smoothly – seating our guests and greeting the women from the grooms family (who were very gracious which is not always the case at weddings), advising the DJ and photographers, getting the henna ceremony started, getting the singing and drumming (dholki) started, getting the food served, handing out favours, henna cones and flower garlands, getting the games started (pass the parcel with some naughty stuff inside which made the aunties scream with laughter).  There was also some fab dancing

We thought we were all over the place, but both the DJ and photographer said it was the most organised henna they had ever been to.  When we cleared out at 11.50, the venue manager said that he hadn’t expected us to be out in time.  We left the hall, kitchen and even toilets absolutely spotless and went home ready to drop.