Guest Post-Farah Khan-Lessons Learned

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

May 7, 2016- I signed our nikkah contract, handed the pen over to the Imam, he gave it to my (now) husband, and BAM. We were married. We partied the night away at our mehndi event afterwards, were fed fruit from a fruit basket, and danced the rest of the night away. Husband and I were long distance for awhile, and are finally closing the gap now! It has been an incredible experience so far, and being married is 100000x better than planning a wedding.

To any other brides (and grooms!) who are reading this right now, BREATHE! You’ll be okay, and you will look fabulous and everything will be amazing. Whatever goes wrong will make for a great story afterwards J. My own crazy story? My family forgot his wedding band. During the nikkah ceremony, one of my bridesmaid’s SO was at my parents’ house, being guided by my MOH to find his band and he could not find it. Alas, we had to exchange rings at the reception the next day. It’s pretty comical to reflect back on it now to think how worried and frantic we all were, when we were just able to do the ring exchange the next day anyways.

Here are some lessons I learned while planning my own wedding that might help you as well!

1.     1-  Throughout the wedding planning process, find time to completely detox from wedding related activities. Even if it’s just one night to binge watch a new show on Netflix, or get dressed up and eat a fancy dessert at a café. Just don’t let the wedding take over your ENTIRE life, because after everything is said and done, you will return to reality and realize life is so much more than just one event.

2.     2- Don’t feel pressured to conform to some pre-determined wedding timeline for someone who has had a 2-year engagement when you have 6 months. A lot of desi engagements are on the shorter end, and you might not have as much time as the longer engagements. That’s ok because shorter timelines help you narrow down on decisions sooner, leaving you with less time to overanalyze simple decisions.

3.     3- Instagram is your best friend. Don’t have an account? MAKE ONE NOW. I’ve found vendors on Instagram who are based in Pakistan/India, contacted them through WhatsApp, and then paid them via PayPal. As a techie, I can say this is an incredible opportunity and we live in an awesome time where global shipping is fast and reliable. Take advantage! 

4.     4- How do you search on instagram you might ask. So here’s the thing. Because of the way instagram’s search algorithms work, as soon as you start tapping on one vendor’s clothing page, others will start to pop up. I started by simply typing in Pakistani clothes in to the search box. Keep using the explore tab on the app and more and more vendors will pop up. You can even start by following some of the vendors Hira has vetted and mentioned in her blog.

5.     5-  If a vendor isn’t working out, let them go. The best vendors will work fluidly with you, and it will feel as if everything just clicked in place.

6.     6- It’s ok to complain about how expensive weddings are. A lot of us haven’t planned an event to this scale before, and the initial sticker price can come as a shock to many folks. I was flabbergasted when I realized how expensive it was for one person’s meal! 
 
7.     7- Outsource as much as you can for the day of. You do not want to be the one picking up something last minute the day of your wedding and risk running the other events later than planned. Need something to be picked up? Ask a friend to stop by. 

8.     8- Hire an MC/day of coordinator. But specifically, an MC. That is one of the most crucial parts of the wedding timeline, as he/she will help the flow of the program run smoothly and hype the crowd up when energy gets low. Make sure they are aware of the timeline in advance and they know who your key members are.

9.      9- Do something out of the ordinary. Be creative with any and every aspect. Guests will always remember something that was different but make sure it is personal to your personalities. We had a lightsaber sendoff because my hubs is a Star Wars geek. People loved it, and it fit his personality so perfectly.

Here’s a picture of my dress! I ordered mine from Bargello, and it turned out beautiful! I was a little hesitant to order online (never ordered Pakistani clothes online before) but the risk paid off. I wasn’t able to travel to Pakistan because I wanted to save my PTO for the honeymoon instead.


Here’s some close up of the kaam! The dress was made of three pieces, lengha, kameez, and dupatta. I finally fulfilled my obsession with mint green J.


Lengha:




A little more detail on my kameez:


My dupatta:


My jewelry designed my momma!




Here’s a cool shot of our sendoff:





Vendors:

Hair,Makeup, dupatta, jewelry : Mahwish Ali
Mehndi: Mahek
Photography: Jon Fleming

In between weather OOTD

Sunday, September 25, 2016










Hello BEAUTIES! Can you believe it's fall! This week flew by! Well, basically the entire year has zoomed by! I can’t believe it’s almost time for pumpkins, fall leaves and sweater weather! This is the time of year that we all seem to love & for good reason. It's not completely fall yet, I think it's more that in between weather. I paired a classic black maxi dress I purchased from H&M a few seasons back with a chignon type cardigan from Forever 21. The rich hues from this piece mixed in well with the fun zoo surroundings I was in at the time. Lastly I added a touch of gold with the draped necklace I found also at forever. 
  
Alternative maxi:

Kimono cardigan 

Necklace 

Hope to see you guys always shine your brightest! Xoxo

Summer Bridal Shower Outfit

Monday, September 19, 2016

This past weekend I got to attend a bridal shower for a friend. It was so much fun and the couple was adorable. I enjoyed the fact that it was not just girls only and the guys got to attend too. The event was at Sarabeths in the upper east side and we headed to karaoke in Koreatown afterward.

The dress was actually something my son chose for me, so I HAD to wear it. I can see why he liked it. It was so flowy and fun. I loved the oversized flowers, but the tailoring and cut was my favorite component.





Dress is available here: 


Remember to always shine your brightest XOXO

Greys my color

Wednesday, September 7, 2016










I inadvertently kept purchasing Desi attire in the same color again! This time I had my heart set on grey (I'm trying so hard not to include a 50 shades pun in here)! I felt like I needed an outfit with a belt so I purchased one from Pakistan. I tried my luck with a vendor I never ordered anything from before and was pleasently surprised. The color, style, cut and workmanship won me over. The next day I wore a sari in the same color, but experimented with a red lip to get a different look. I used someone that I knew wasn't of the highest quality but her price points keep pulling me back. I wasn't 100% in love with this sari because the border was too stiff and disappeared in the center portion if the sari. The petticoat was too long and the blouse not long enough. Aside from those minor issues I was content. 






The weekend itself was so much fun! We took a mini getaway of sorts to neighboring Long Island. We celebrated my husband's cousins wedding in a 3 day celebration. The couple was lovely, the hosting family was great but the memories created with family was the best part. 









Remember to always shine your brightest! XOXO

Heera Diaries 
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