Wow this is amazing. Chicago is just too small I guess. Already found 2 more ladies who despise Shaheen. She has ruined my eyebrows once too by the way. Zubaida makes 'em real good as well as these two sisters Maureen & I don't remember the other's name in Nikhaar.
No problem Mahwish :) Make sure you ask your fiance to bargain with Syed's. U won't find dupilex's website. Its just another beauty salon on the Devon stretch. My mom's friend knew Zubaida & had recommended her at my engagement time. She took a little over 3 hours & although I was really scared at that time now that I look back at it did an awesome job. Oh & I forgot to mention but also paid extra $25 to Anjum.
Amna's work looks great. Wish I knew her before would have checked it out. Oh & by the way as PSquared mentioned Mili is no doubt the best. Her work is more cinematographic though. She did my cousin's best friend's wedding who also happens to be MAU Mehwish Khan's sister. This was in 2007. before Mili did Tara & Raj's wedding. Since then her rates have sky rocketed. I badly wanted her to cover my events but she is a bit pricey. Her prices are fixed & this is what she send me.
"Production rates are $400/hour for 2 cinematographers shooting in HD (1 cinematographer is on a steadicam) and post production rate is $50/hr. A typical pakistani wedding could be around 8 hours of production and maybe 60 hours of post production depending on how extensive of an editing we decide to go for..we offer 5 DVD copies for the event and 1 of the copies is delivered in Blu-ray for you to enjoy the true HD quality of the movie."
I think our typical wedding is any where between 12 to 16 hours. Just 8 hour coverage comes to around $6200 considering Mili's rates. She is a very nice person to talk to, work is beautiful & if anyone can afford it then def. go for it. I am paying just a little less than this price & getting a whole lot of other things which include photgraphy as well as videography. Also Mili does not offer photography for weddings. Only if you wanna do a "you & me" sessions.
Chester I m sure you'll find someone in Chicago who will be willing to travel to Indiana for an extra charge. Best thing is to book the venues first. Food caterers, cake bakers then your videographers/photographers. Decorators if you plan to after that & then find a MAU & Henna artist. This is besides the other preps that is your bridal outfits, jewelery & other bla blahs.
Ira can you pls give me the info. about the henna artist you mentioned. My sister does awesome bridal mehndi too by the way. But since I plan to get my mehndi done on the mehndi day itself I am looking for someone else to do my mehndi. Don't want her to have a back ache on my mehndi night. The only problem is I want someone as good as my sister. I would love to check this lady out.
Ladies don't stress out for MAU. All the ladies mentioned above except Shaheen do good jobs. InshaAllah u girls will find someone good.