A Muslim Wedding

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1220.

Five hundred guests and four days of festivities marked the marriage of Naila and Rizwan Minhas. Theirs was a winter wedding, last December: Naila veiled in the traditional Punjabi wedding outfit of beaded red lace, remembers shivering in the snow as she was taken from one venue to the next. ‘An Asian wedding is a really big deal and people travel miles to go to them – we had guests from Hong Kong, Pakistan and the United States at ours,' says Naila. Naila and Rizwan both grew up in Glasgow where their parents have been friends for years. ‘It wasn't exactly an arranged marriage,' says Rizwan, ‘ but you could say there was a fair amount of parental persuasion. We wouldn't have done it if we hadn't both been very happy with one another, though.'

The wedding celebrations started when 250 guests gathered to welcome Naila and mark her hands with henna, the traditional greeting for a bride. The following evening there was a similar ceremony for Rizwan. The actual marriage took place at Eastwood Hall in Glasgow and the couple arrived separately to the serenade of a kilted piper. ‘I feel very Scottish as well as Asian,' explains Rizwan. During the ceremony itself, the couple were in different rooms – the priest went first to the bridegroom and then to the bride to ask whether they had consented to the marriage. A ring ceremony followed, in which Rizwan's mother placed a gold ring on Naila's finger and Naila's mother placed one on Rizwan's. ‘Wearing rings is a western custom which we've started following too,' says Rizwan. A sit-down meal of traditional Pakistani dishes was followed by speeches. Naila, now officially part of Rizwan's family, left with him for his family home where music and dancing continued into the night. The newly-weds stayed with Rizwan's parents for a few days before leaving for a honeymoon in Tunisia.