My Cousin's Dua-e-Khair / Henna

For my cousin’s wedding, my aunt invited us to a party for dua (supplication) and naseehah (advice) for the bride. This was something we had not heard of before. In our family, the minute a wedding is announced, we just want to party like a bunch of heathens.

I wore one of my favourite outfits by Gul's Style London (I last wore it five years ago and it hadn’t fit since then):

I matched it with lots of colourful bangles and earrings from N.K Collection – I always find something there to go with whatever outfit I have:

The function was in a marquee at my aunty’ house – she has a lot of friends, so this ended up totally packed. I loved the bright colours and floral theme – there were flowers everywhere.

It was a nice evening, there was recitation of the Quran and the women were encouraged to give their advice to the bride.  It varied from the sensible (to never share your personal matters regarding your husband with your family) to the slightly cringeworthy (say I love you and you are marrying to have children…). You should have seen the brides face for that one.

I offered the following two bits if advice:

Love each other for the sake of Allah (SWT) and he will place blessing in your love

Don’t worry about your rights in the marriage – this is your husbands problem to fulfil and he should worry about them, worry about your husbands rights, these are your concern and job to fulfil.

After more advice and lots of mike hogging and speeches from some of the ladies, we had dinner. There was so much food – both catered and brought by friends. This mojito was pretty good, the poor mojito jar did not fare well though.

The bride looked so pretty mash’Allah

The little girls enjoyed their own party and posed up a storm:

My youngest child, and too many sweets is probably not the best combination. At one point we heard a loud crash outside and I thought oh heck, I hope that’s not one of my kids.  Of course someone came in and told me Baby had broken the mojito jar.

We all got our henna done which was nice, I’m usually too busy on Eid or weddings to get it done properly.  The lady doing it was also super quick.

We finished the evening with cake and Indian sweets and guests started leaving in time for the evening prayer (maghrib)  which was a change from the usual henna parties which finish just before midnight when we get chucked out of the hall.

Picture of the Day 14.07.19: Cuddly Kittens

I took the Babies to my friends house at the weekend to visit her children’s new kittens.  They were ready in a shot as soon as they heard the word “cat”.

They turned out to be the cutest, friendliest little kittens:

This one got into my lap and refused to get out. Every time someone tried to pick her up, she would wriggle through their hands and settle down again.

Apparently she likes being held like this…

I’m waiting for them to ask for their own, I’m just going to take down the road to my friends house for an hour to get it out of their system.

Picture of the Day 11.07.19: Henna Practice on Tiny Hands

With my cousin getting married soon, I asked my youngest two if they wanted me to do their henna. I didn’t have to ask twice.  There were lots of telling offs and being told to sit still.

I got some ideas from searching Pinterest (try kids henna and easy henna motifs) and copied the easy bits:

As soon as they were both done, they got upset because they couldn’t suck their thumb (or fingers in Baby’s case). I had to stop them from washing it straight off for as long as possible.

I tried a simple motif on myself:

I loved the colour that I ended up with if I thought the design was a bit shaky:

I’ve got loads of henna cones at home, and two little willing guinea pigs to practice on, so hoping to practice some more.

Pink Floral Bridal Shower

My family is not very big here and we very rarely have weddings, so have never had the wedding season experience of one wedding after another that many Asians experience. So the fact that my young cousin is getting married soon is a source of excitement and outfit planning activity in my family.

As the bride’s sisters are all younger, my sisters and I offered to host her bridal shower. The bride accepted and we started our party planning, splitting up décor, dessert table and games.  Everyone pitched in and worked together on food and gifts.

We went round to my mum’s house the day before to decorate the garden with white lacy bunting, white lanterns and pink pompoms. We also blew up the balloons for the balloon arch – it takes a lot more balloons than you would expect.

On the day of the party, we started a few hours early with setting up the dessert table and making sure the drinks and food was ready:

The lovely ombre cake was by Fashionista Sister:

I wore this pretty, very comfortable dress with pearl embellishment, with soft white jersey trousers and a pearl cuff.

The babies all wore pretty party dresses:

We encouraged people to bring a dish, so that all the cooking didn’t fall to one person. We had chicken pilau, lamb kebabs, tandoori chicken, salad, I made samosa’s, spring rolls and sandwiches…but forgot to take pictures of all the food.

I made this selfie frame a few days before with my youngest two “helping”:

Photo shoot and party games followed lunch with lots of competitiveness and laughter. Then it was time for cake (it…was…good!)

It was a lovely afternoon and we finished with our gifts to her and plans for her henna party.