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After the crazy, fun-filled, action packed mehndi the night before (check it out here if you haven’t already seen it!), Sehr and Iltifat (and Hugo and I) somehow got ourselves up from the late night before, to start preparing for what turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day and a gorgeous wedding.  The shaadi is the bride’s reception and was held in Dallas at the Omni Park West, which has quickly turned into one of my favorite venues to shoot at in Dallas, you will see why later.   Saturday night was a much more formal affair, complete with a stunning bridal lengha worn by Sehr, grand entrances, heartfelt speeches and one of my favorite traditions, the rice games!  Sehr and Iltifat also held their nikkah ceremony at the reception as well.  It was a beautiful night and we had so much fun with Sehr and Iltifat, and their amazing families.  Now on to the photos…

Look at this hair!! Maitee did an AMAZING job on Sehr’s hair. I looooooved it!

Finishing touches by the uber-talented Rosa Moreno…

While I was with Sehr, Hugo was with Iltifat and his family as they got ready. Here are some of his shots…

The nikkah began with Sehr’s portion first…

Now on to Iltifat’s portion of the ceremony…

Signing his life away to his beautiful bride Sehr ….

Waiting on Sehr to make her entrance…

The infamous pink milk…the bride and groom drink first then pass it around to any single people that want to get married, apparently it works because I am shooting a wedding this coming weekend from a “pink milk drinking” friend of my bride from last summer that drank the milk and is getting married Friday!

The rukhsati, one the most beautiful and emotional parts of a traditonal Pakistani wedding.  It always gets to me, especially as I am editing the photos from a rukhsati.  So much tenderness and love.  It symbolizes the bride leaving her family to join the groom and become part of his family, I think Sehr held it together pretty well.

So this is something I have started suggesting to my couples because it worked out so well with these two and continues to do so…having a mini bride and groom portrait session at the very end of the night.  A lot of times things run behind schedule and sometimes that means that we have to shorten the bride and groom’s portrait sessions, which is fine by me, we can get some great portraits in under 5 minutes! So these are just in addition to the ones that have already been taken, but often time they have a completely different feel to them.  Sehr and Iltifat had an amazing suite at the Omni with some beautiuful views so we took advantage of it.  Since we do these sessions at the end of the night, the stress of the day just seems to melt away, with the realization that, for the most part, the big day is over and it is just the couple’s chance to enjoy each other’s company.  It is a great opportunity to get some relaxed, beautiful and dramatic portraits and it only takes about 15 minutes. W0rth every minute.  Trust me.

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Sehr and Iltifat were my very first wedding of the year (yes, that is how far behind I am on blog posts!) in March, and I seriously could think of no better way to start of the season than with these two. This is post 1 of 3 for them, the start of their amazing beginning of their lives together. The mehndi was held at FunAsia in Richardson, TX, but let it be known, Texans might have been in the minority here. Iltifat is from North Carolina, went to school at NC State, is in Med School at Wake Forest and finishing his masters at UNC. Whew!! Hard worker to say the least!  He had such amazing support for all of his friends and family from all over the country and to date, I have never seen so many college friends make the trip for a wedding, it was amazing.  Sehr is by far one of the coolest, sweetest, most intelligent girls I have ever met.  I am confident that if I would have met Sehr in college or elsewhere in life, we would instantly be friends, she is just that great.  Her family? Exactly the same. So loving, kind and generous, they made me and Hugo feel like part of the party.  The mehndi consists of: bride and groom’s separate (awesome) grand entrances, the rasm-e-henna ceremony, and dinner.   The night was full of “hype”, as Iltifat put it , love, laughter and of course dancing, who can forget the dancing…here are my favorites from the mehndi, it’s a long one.

While I was inside with the greeting party, Hugo was outside with Iltifat and his family, Hugo’s shot:

Here is the “hype” I was referring too….

Waiting for his bride…

All of Sehr’s cousins and sisters, every single one of them beautiful and amazing dancers…

Iltifat’s college friends put on an outstanding performance…

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LOTS more to come from them!

Ok, now onwards to a bit of what I have been working on….my first out-of-country destination wedding!!! Yay!! Thanks so much to Gulay and Tamer for having me (and my wonderful hubby/assistant Chris) come out to the beautiful Barcelo Maya Palace in the Riviera Maya with you.  We had sooooo much fun with you guys and your wonderful families (and I now have a great tan too!), I can’t wait to do it again!  Here is a preview of what’s to come….

The gorgeous Gulay…

Thanks again Gulay and Tamer, and look out for the rest of their sweet wedding!