Happy Muslim Mama: My Brothers Wedding – The Reception

My brothers wedding reception was held at Ingatestone Hall in Essex. We stopped at the gates and had a dhol-player lead the grooms party in.

The bride and groom had decided on a marquee in the grounds and the brides family were waiting to receive us. The bride had picked the colour theme, the table settings and the centrepeices. She filled the favour boxes herself with the “bidh” we provided. This is the traditional mix of nuts and dried fruit that we give out handfuls of once the nikah or wedding ceremony is complete. The cake was gorgeous – a layer each of rich chocolate, sponge and carrot cake and a fourth I can’t remember.

We had agreed our colour scheme for the grooms party beforehand with the bride so that we didn’t clash (her side wore navy). We had the same colour in different styles. A long dress for Kooky Little Sister, an abaya for me, a churidar dress (fit and flare) for Fashionista and a cigarette trouser and long jacket combo for Long-Suffering Sister. (Kooks, me, Fashionista and Long-suffering Sister – I wish you could see the face Fash is pulling in this picture).

Kooks henna:

The boys wore grey suits with purple shirts. I spent all day tucking this one’s shirt in.

I got the little girls to wear white dresses amd tied purple ribbon as sashes with purple flowers I had bought. Little Lady’s dress was a floor length ball-gown type affair which was reduced from £110 to £20 at TK Maxx.

The bride was walked in by her parents and looked stunning.

Alhamdulillah, we had a wonderful day. The food was amazing, the whole family was together and everyone helped out. As with the henna night, my boy cousins ran around for us. We managed to dump about 100 boxes of confetti on my brothers head and we made so much mischief that we are still laughing about it.