Moroccan Henna Party

My best friends sister got married recently and my whole family were generously invited.  A henna party for the ladies at the brides home preceded the wedding.  Mash'Allah it was a lovely event that lasted most of the day and was full of beautiful traditional Moroccan touches.

The brides sisters cleared one room to create a colour coordinated seating area for the guests to eat.

I didn't know what these candles where for until the brides sisters brought the bride in - they lit the candles and led the way holding them up.

We created gift baskets for my sisters henna earlier in the year and I remember my best friend and her sister really liking them, so we put some together for the bride to take with us.

The bride was Moroccan (I love their henna designs), but opted for intricate Indian style henna which looked amazing.

 Here's my darling bestest with her henna:

I do like Moroccan food (bestest's lovely mum has fed us well in the past) and the henna meal did not disappoint.  It was a  mix of Moroccan (very tender chicken in layers of sweet pastry), Somali (colourful rice and peppers), Bengali (tandoori chicken) and Indian cuisine (samosa's and onion bhaji's).  I had to stop myself at two plates...

The brides friend made her these lovely cakes to go with her theme.

I really liked the little gift pouches we were given (below).  These were full of dried leaves and I assured our hosts that I and hubby would enjoy drinking the Moroccan tea.  My best friend advised me it wasn't a good idea to make tea out of dried henna ...






















Alhamdullilah we had such a good time.  Shutterbug Sister was busy taking pictures and getting some photography practise in and I enjoyed roaming around soaking up the flavour and atmosphere.  I really enjoyed hearing the singing and duas that the women call out when the bride is led in and my favourite was the ululating that the Somali and Arab women could do (I so want to learn how to do this, maybe I could do it at the airport when my mum-in-law comes here again in a few months?  If you don't know what this is, try googling ululating or Moroccan wedding - I couldn't find a video without music).

Our hosts were so welcoming and so much fun and I enjoyed getting to meet their guests and make new friends alhamdulillah.  Darling was baby-knapped and baby-sat by the guests until it was time for us to leave meaning I got a little break too.  More pics of the wedding to come.