WEDDING SERIES : The Registry/Civil Ceremony | Irfan&Shumaila

WEDDING SERIES : The Day We Said Our Vows ;)

M A R C H F I F T H 2 0 1 6 

This day was absolutely beautiful and will always have a special place in my heart. This is because it was the first time a lot of my family and Irfans family met for the first time. It was also a super relaxed environment, this was key for some much needed bonding time! A lot of my extended family live in England and were unable to attend the engagement therefore the Registry was the perfect event.

I expected this event to be super romantic, due to the vows, but clearly these were the watered down version LOL we only had to say like a couple of lines to each other. 

This was the event I spent the least amount of time planning, ironically enough, it turned out to be my favourite day. 

DECOR/ACCENTS 

The theme was a bit vintage, consisting of lace, pearls, the colour maroon and hints of burlap. My mom was a big help, she is a genius at planning and carrying out a theme. She did most of the work from Canada, and brought a lot of things over to the UK just two days before the event. Somehow, everything came together perfectly. 

My tip on this is once you pick a theme, stick to it!! You may want to keep changing it up, this will confuse you and in the end you wont have enough time to bring everything together. Especially if you are doing this alone (with family and friends) without a wedding planner. If you try to do too much, it will be overwhelming and might look messy. Everything will come together in the end and the small details really make a big difference. So don't stress, just follow your theme as best as you can and enjoy yourself while you are at it! 

FLORALS

The civil ceremony was actually on British Mothers Day, for this reason, finding a florist to make my bouquet + Irfan's boutonniere was a bit challenging. I am surprised many of the florists did not want to take on a bridal bouquet on that day. If you are in this situation then I would suggest either booking more than a month in advance or finding an independent floral designer instead of a florist store. This is the option we went with, we found someone in our community that does floristry on the side and she was great to work with. She used different flowers in our colour palette & she also added some burlap and lace on the handle. 

MAKE UP 

Again, I did my own make up. I wanted to experiment with a super smokey burgundy eye & a muted burgundy lip. Even though it was quite a statement, I LOVED the way it turned out. Especially on camera! 

PHOTOGRAPHY

@taslimr_photography

@taslim_r

Done by my ever-so-talented cousin Taslim! If you are ever in need for a photographer for any event, fashion shoot, eshoot, I would really recommend her. This is not my bias speaking haha, I am truly amazed every time I see her work. Her photography & editing skills are like no other. Her photos looked like I was in a different, fairy tale-like world, I am totally obsessed!

Couple of places in Birmingham for a photoshoot: 

Brindley Place + canals area

Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Langley Maltings

OUTFITS

@heritage_design

I knew I wanted something with lace and pearls, but I didn’t decide on a cape till after a bit of research. The Cape is super trending now and I had seen some beautiful cape style outfits on instagram a few months before the registry. Once I narrowed down what kind of design I wanted, I realized I would need my outfit custom made, this is where I contacted Heritage Design. 

I had worked with Heritage Design the previous year on a custom made Eid outfit, this outfit turned out exactly how I had imagined. At the time Heritage Designs did a majority of their work from Pakistan, and so my Eid outfit turned out great since it was a Pakistani style outfit. However, for the registry I was looking for a more western dress, so I was a bit hesitant when approaching Heritage designs. 

All my worries were pushed to the side once I spoke to them. We discussed my design ideas and they sent me photos of the materials they would use etc. I was involved in every step of the way and they really brought the dress I had envisioned to life. When looking at the photos you can really see all the detail they put into the outfit, with the placement of the pearls, the lace and the cape. It came on time, the fitting was perfect and it looked stunning! 

Irfans outfit literally took a day, we knew we wanted it to have sort of a vintage feel and thats all the idea we had before we went into the mall. Guys have it sooo easy! 

MENDHI

@zed_henna

My best friend Zahra did my henna for the registry. Two nights before the event we had a girls night where we did henna and watched Bollywood movies, my perfect kind of night! 

I was looking for  a more classic and understated design that would go with my look. The design we chose slightly replicated a lace pattern and just peeped out of my sleeve. There was only a touch of mendhi showing and it looked so pretty!

CAKE 

If you guys don’t know this about me yet, I don’t like cake, I don’t eat it, I basically just get forced to have some at every single event -___- 

The one positive thing about cake is that it can serve as a decorative purpose. I am not sure who exactly it was that made the cake for my registry. If I can find any details of her work online then I will definitely link it here! I met with her once with the design idea and the flowers were provided by my florist. I love the idea of three mini cakes!

The ceremony was in the morning at the Birmingham registry office and we rented out a space for lunch! I really love day time/morning events. They give you perfect lighting for photos & somehow I just feel good in the morning events… I guess I am too tired by the time it reaches evening because even when the event is later on in the evening a bride is really prepping and in that wedding zone the whole day.