Re: One piece of advice....
I love these ideas!! I am doing program cards/thank you notes all in one...I came up with all the designs for my invites and other stationary....
...i think favors, napkins, thank you notes are a wonderful way of personalizing the wedding...
I was going to do personalized water bottle...but dropped the idea...plastic is such a waste..plus it looks horrible on the tables...
Re: One piece of advice....
Inshallah, I'm getting married in December as well!! one of my friend's is calling it a "shot-gun wedding" ... just because I got engaged in august and now planning for a December wedding. We're still trying to find a reasonable place, so I haven't even thought about my dress yet. I did get some ideas from the amazing bridal thread! I think the pace things are going at I may end buy a "ready-made" dress.
and, if any knows of any clothing stores in the DC-MD- VA that sell Pakistani style bridal dresses ... please pass on the info
by the way - this is a great thread...I've jotted down several points already:)
Re: One piece of advice…
Practice sitting and standing, i’m serious, gotta haev good posture… else it will look bad in pics.
no matter how tired u are, how annoying the duputta shoes etc are… just grin and bear it. i’d say thats 80 % of why u see some brides who look so pissed off cz they’re uncomfortable 
think of some good Poses i guess… im a lil annoyed that we dont’ have any “good” pics of us together on the barat as we do on the valima, on the valima our pics are more relaxed and stuff..IMO
and like khawateen said, enjoy being a bride…dont be in such a rush to take off the jewelery or makeup or dress or whatever. i was a dmmy at my rukhsati i bawled like crazy and of course makeup was ruined…as soon as i got in the car i was taking off the fake eyelashes and my nath lol i didn’t even know that the susral were coming to the hotel for rasams (not that i minded that but if i’d been more aware i wouldn’t’ve looked like such a ass).
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^ lol sara, i'm sure you didn't look like an ass!
the advice shay had of packing your overnight bag two days before is priceless! i didn't even think of it until i arrived at the hotel at 2am for our after party and realised i had nothing to change into! thankfully a few quick phone calls later, friends of mine who were coming to the after party also and had gone home to change first, arrived with clothes and contact lens remover/case, and moisturiser and all these little things i'd forgotten.
oh, and if you can, have an after party! they are the funnest things ever! you're still so high from being married and you are with friends and close cousins and siblings and its just great to sit around and do a post-mortem of the night and just chill... especially considering how formal pakistani weddings can get.
Re: One piece of advice…
your after party started at 2 am 
I’m not married yet 
Re: One piece of advice....
nice thread...it'll help me in the future lol
pics removed
Re: One piece of advice....
lovely, silsila!
mamakidua, you're not???? oopsies! lol
adra, yeah! it was after the wedding at the hotel we were spending the night at so everyone just met up there after. there were 30 of us- fun!!
^ lol sara, i'm sure you didn't look like an ass!
the advice shay had of packing your overnight bag two days before is priceless! i didn't even think of it until i arrived at the hotel at 2am for our after party and realised i had nothing to change into! thankfully a few quick phone calls later, friends of mine who were coming to the after party also and had gone home to change first, arrived with clothes and contact lens remover/case, and moisturiser and all these little things i'd forgotten.
oh, and if you can, have an after party! they are the funnest things ever! you're still so high from being married and you are with friends and close cousins and siblings and its just great to sit around and do a post-mortem of the night and just chill... especially considering how formal pakistani weddings can get.
im planning on having an after party also!! :D
My mascara was smeared (cz of hte crying), my lipstick was on my teeth and smeared (cz the makeup artist made the line wayyyy outside my lips)… oh yeah i should add that to the list, keep makeup wiht u to touch up!!! I dont know how, ME THE MAKEUP JUNKIE who brings loads of makeup to school, totally forgot that 
and yeah we had such silly poses, theres one pic of me that whenever i see i wanna go "I pledge allegieance to the flag of hte united states of america (i could finish this too :p)
Re: One piece of advice....
Haha it's funny that everyone is saying not to stress over the small things. I just got married a month ago in khi and we had planned out sooo many things that didn't happen that i was still mad over even 2 weeks after the wedding, even on my honeymoon. now, a lil over a month after i look back and realize it doesn't really matter. i bought a mont blanc pen that was supposed to be used to sign the nikkah nama by me and my husband, but everyone forgot it in my hotel room. the wedding decor didn't turn out exactly as i liked. however, the mehndi decor was phenomenal. chef zakir did all the food prep on the mehndi and valima. so some things go your way, some might not, u shouldnt stress over it.
one very important thing i realized and will make sure will not happen on my siblings weddings is that all my events were close together, mehndi on friday, shaadi on saturday in khi and valima on sunday in isb. it was horrible, i actually cried on one point, cuz i slept around 4 am on the wedding night, and our flight was at 8 am on sunday morning. we missed the flight and ended up in faisalabad with a 6 hour drive to isb. it was horrible and that day was just so upsetting but now i dont really care and am happy that it's over. life is exciting now, after the wedding.
another important thing to me atleast was to look and feel good on the wedding day. like pakifairy said, drink lots and lots of water. i had started drinking lots of liquids, water, fresh juices 2 months before the wedding, went to the gym regularly, ate healthy (most of the time) and just had a fun time shopping for the wedding.
make sure u pack ur things before the wedding because there will be way too many things going on the day of ur wedding for u to even think about packing.
this is for specially those people that are getting married in pakistan. salons there dont really have a concept of appointments, so make sure u go in early to get ur makeup done cuz u dont wanna be getting to ur own wedding late. my bridal shoot got messed up cuz i got to the hotel very late and everyone was calling me for the nikkah.
don't look down on the day of the mehndi and wedding, regardless of what anyone else says. you will miss out on a lot of fun!
relax and enjoy!
-Try to make sure your dupatta is not super heavy when ordering
-Like someone above said, ENJOY your dress
-ENJOY your moments!
-Keep your temper in check at all times, no matter how bridezilla you are
-Pack everything, based on a checklist--Separate bag for rukhsati, separate bag for the salon
-Try your level best not to get married in a Pakistani summer!! :P The bazaar trips will melt you
-Do not pick a makeup artist/salon without a trial (especially in Pakistan----> I swear, 9/10 the places I tried believe in hookerville or transvestite or clown makeup)
-Do not take too many people to help choose something, it will only confuse you.
-Make sure you get a generator for the home (if you are in Pak), even if it is only for the week the guests will be there.
More later.... (When I am not sleep deprived)
Arrange for someone to take "home-pics" those look so adorable later on..
Maintain everything written in a diary like things to pack and all.. (don't forget comfortable shoes)
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i am not married but my friend told me this story of her friend who got married few months ago.
make sure to get a full night sleep, my friend's friend didn't sleep for like 2 days before her wedding because her mehndi was a day before her wedding, so she didn't get to sleep that much day before her mehndi, and on the day of her mehndi she went to the beauty parlor to get her facial and waxing done and at night there was a rat-jaga so no sleep at all, she hardly slept for few hours and then left for beauty parlor to get her makeup done on her wedding day.
just like all the pakistani weddings her rukhsati took place around 2 am and after all the rasam etc she finally got a chance to change and rest at around 4, after she changed and came out of the washroom her husband went in the washroom to change out of his sherwani, while he was in there she dozed off on sofa, when her husband came out of the washroom he tried to wake her up so she can sleep on the bad, but she was mentally so tired and exhasted that when she opened her eyes she refused to recognize him(because she was still sleeping mentally i guess, she sat in from of the washroom and refuse to sleep on the bad and didn't regocnize him at all, poor hubby got all worried and tried to calm her down and then fainally let her sleep on the floor, after lik e30 minute or so she came out of her sleep-wake state and become normal.
so please take a lot of rest
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dayum! now that is what i call TIRED
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Sleep, sleep, sleep! Even if you have to take a pill to doze off. Since I spent 2 hours getting everything together the night before followed by shower, etc, I didn't get enough sleep at all. I had my phone on silent so noone called and bothered me, however, at 10 am, I woke up all of a sudden to find 10 missed calls from my best friend who had flown in from Maryland for my wedding and turned out noone had gone to pick her up! I sent my sister but of course I couldn't go back to sleep and stayed up. When I walked into the salon to get my hair done, my stylist looked at me and said, TUMHE KIA HOGAYA HAI? My eyes were so tired, and you could tell I was exhaused and sleep deprived. I don't think I woke up fully until my friend got me a large cup of coffee. And my photographer was with me the entire time taking pics, now I am too embarassed to look at them or show them to anyone. lol.
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yanzala, thats hliarious! omg, poor hubby and poor friend... what a start!
i was on an adrenalin high from the night before... we were all meant to meet up at 8am to get our makeup done (the b'maids and i) and then head out for the pre-wedding photoshoot (i agree with the advice of getting pics done before with hubs, and close family... its way less stressed and theres nicer pics than just the ones of you and your fam crowded around the stage). anyway, i didn't sleep for more than an hour the night before- the mehendi was bothering me so i was picking it off, i was hungry, i was restless, i stayed over at my cousin's house so they took me out for a drive at 2am cos i was making them crazy with excitement. yeah, my whole wedding day was just pure adrenalin, until 6am the following day when everyone cleared off from the after party so we could sleep.
boy, was i tired at that point! :p
SLEEPING the night before is great advice!
also, EAT at your own wedding! after all the menu planning, its such a shame when you forget. i think i had one bite of the lovely food that was being bbq'ed and one bite of our wedding cake. again, i was so busy mingling with people and just so excited to be married that i didn't sit still long enough, and now i wonder why because everyone still keeps going on about how awesome the steak and the dessert table were. diss.
Re: One piece of advice....
dont forget to smile!!! i regret that sooo much!! little things happen on weddings but dont let it get to u!! even though i had everything i wanted, i had the perfect dress, best makeup artist and even an amazing photographer.......but i was soo nervous.... i hardly smiled and i soooo regret that!!! but we had a baraat and valima shoot after our wedding and i have pics of me smiling and looking all happy happy!!!
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Yep..like another poster said, do not rush to take your jewelry and stuff off.... because i did the samething, and so regret it...
after all the rasams, when everyone left and it was just two of us in the room..i like jumped off the bed (literally) and starting talking off my dupata, jewelry, lashes etc..and my poor husband is just standing there in shock, with his hands folded on his chest and looking at me..just after a moment i realized his presence and was like o oh!..and he was like i didn't even get to see you properly... lol...
anyways..other than that, try to enjoy your wedding as much as possible.. my wedding was a roller coaster ride (I have told the story, so i won't bother again)..but yeah, so it was quick rukhsati at home with family and friends.... rasams like doodh pilai was soo much fun and yet, no memory of it because no one in my family bothered to tape it. I don't remember half of the stuff from my wedding. I wish i asked one of my brothers to record it..there were an after party at the mehandi, videographer didnt tape that part, and neither did my family. :( I have no video of my barat what so ever, not even a little bit. :(