I am getting married next year inshAllah, and am trying to get ideas going for the wedding. I’ve just started to think about the dress, the hall, the guests, the food, the cake.
Apart from that though, both my fiance and I are pretty conservative. That pretty much means no music and dancing at the wedding 
Other weddings in our families have had music and dancing, but we will choose not to for religious reasons.
Problem is I don’t want the wedding to be boring for the guests. I guess we will have some nasheeds (naat), but then again I thought there should be other things or rasam or whatever that we’d be able to do to have a cute wedding…
I was thinking of maybe a ring bearer? Or a little henna booth if people wanted to have their mehndi done? And perhaps a little juice bar, but that’s not really an activity…
I was hoping you guys knew of any rasam or activities or something we could do to have the wedding a little more fun and interesting 
thanks much!
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
There are other entertaining things people have at weddings besides dancing...like speeches from family/friends...picture slideshow presentation..etc. Those always add a nice touch (as long as its not overkill, like 10 boring speeches!!) One wedding I went to had a quiz left on each table for the people till fill out together, questions to see who knows the bride & groom best, and then they collected the quizzes and the MC answered them on stage (and read out some of the funny, strange answers) and then the winning table got a prize...that was something different that I never saw before and everyone seemed to have fun (it was a wedding with mostly younger people though, dont know how aunties/uncles would react to it). I dont think you need a henna table because thats somethg more for a mehndi night. If you want something unique maybe a calligraphy table or something, if you can hire someone to write people's names is a nice Arabic calligraphy perhaps...or fireworks!! But anyways, I have been to weddings where there was no entertainment at all, you just came, mingled, ate and left. And they were still fun times. So dont sweat it too much, inshallah you will still have a great wedding without the dancing and music
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
hey druggist. what we did at my best friends wedding. There was segregation on her side so teh men were in one hall and women in another.
The name was dinner for mehndi she wore a beautiful orange and green chunri outfit.
we did put on some music only for teh girls to dance and included teh mothers and teh aunties as well.
did a few songs oin teh dhool and had a small competition with teh dulha walas.
then at teh same time we had arranged for a few mehndi walee to be there in teh midst of everything putting mehndi on teh teh guests and children
and then there was food ofcourse.
so we had a really great time.
my friend was nikahofied so when teh boy and his immediate family and a few friends did come in the gals from our side gals and aunties we just did ludee on lathay dee chadar.
simple and sweet
when my friend came under teh dupatta she was given mithai to eat and lots of duas.
so u see u can keep it simple and straight.
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
Speeches
Skits
Slide shows
Naat
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
I went to one wedding, where they had a wedding presenter/comedian, that was entertaining. My family wedding's have had shayari, a recitation from the quran and speeches, all of which have been entertaining.
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
people attendnig shd be happy 4 u and respect ur wishes/beleifs. do u really want to consider ppl who will complain about how "boring" it was?
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
Thanks for the ideas guys! I have never been to a wedding outside of our family, so all these ideas are new :-)
The slideshow is a cute idea :-)
Having speeches and poems is an interesting idea too
Oh and maybe I can have my neices sing some naat as well :-)
I think I'll have a little flower girl too, and I'm still if the ring bearer idea is a good one.....
thanks again
people attendnig shd be happy 4 u and respect ur wishes/beleifs. do u really want to consider ppl who will complain about how "boring" it was?
Well, I'm not really concerned if they complain or not, but I think since they'll be my guests and have been nice enough to share in our happiness, they should have a good time too :-)
Especially if there are any ghoras there, who might not have many to mingle with except the people they came with :-)
But thanks for the concern :-)
I am getting married next year inshAllah, and am trying to get ideas going for the wedding. I've just started to think about the dress, the hall, the guests, the food, the cake. Apart from that though, both my fiance and I are pretty conservative. That pretty much means no music and dancing at the wedding :-P Other weddings in our families have had music and dancing, but we will choose not to for religious reasons. Problem is I don't want the wedding to be boring for the guests. I guess we will have some nasheeds (naat), but then again I thought there should be other things or rasam or whatever that we'd be able to do to have a cute wedding... I was thinking of maybe a ring bearer? Or a little henna booth if people wanted to have their mehndi done? And perhaps a little juice bar, but that's not really an activity.... I was hoping you guys knew of any rasam or activities or something we could do to have the wedding a little more fun and interesting :-) thanks much!
Also not an activity but chocolate fountains always go down well too :)
You could also hire a couple of caricature artists to do funny sketches of people if you think the crowd would be into it. You could also do a creative guest book to occupy people and stimulate conversation:
1) If you do an internet search you'll be able to find 'instant' Polaroid guest books where each guest can take a Polaroid of themself and insert it into the guest book where they write their message. This can get fun if you have people with a sense of humor who could have a good time with the picture taking.
2) If you're crafty you could make your own guestbook---for example, my sister is a quilter and for her wedding she started a quilt, and then left out a bunch of unsewn squares with fabric markers for people to write on. After the wedding she sewed the squares into the quilt, completing a 'wedding quilt'!
3) Bubbles! Especially if you're in a spacious place or outdoors, give all the little kids bubbles and it will be really cute watching them have fun blowing bubbles. Not to mention it could make a really pretty atmosphere. Just be careful to confine it to a certain area since bubbles could land on food, leave soapy residue on glass, etc.
I'll try to think of more but those are some of the things that come to mind.
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
cotton candy machine.
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
^^ That is a brilliant idea, am going to look into that for mine :)
Congrats druggist. All good ideas have already been given so I don't know what to add. Oh & also if you can find music that just has duff used in it. Since duff is allowed in Islam. If you have a segregated gathering then the ladies can even sing & dance as long as the wordings are of blessing the new couple & giving them duas rather than romantic lyrics.
I once attended this wedding. Very Islamic but it was beautiful. We dances on nasheeds & some duff music. It was kinda fun watching all hijabans or Jilbabuns dancing. After the Nikkah the groom came in the ladies side. Woman who observe Niqab actually covered themselves & we did some cute rasams like joota chupai & everyone presented gifts to the newly wedded couple. Good luck.
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
shairy contest if you know you have a couple of them in your wedding party!
cotton candy machine.
Ooo I like it!
Make sure you get one of your annoying relatives to do it though!
At my last workplace, for the Summer Fete I decided to volunteer my candy floss making skills. BAD idea. I was washing the candy/sugar out of my hair for 2 weeks!
Do most weddings have dancing on the Barat/Valima day too now? I havnt ever seen anybody dancing unless its the mehndi. I wouldnt worry about the guests being bored per se and most only come for the food and gossip!
cotton candy machine.
sounds like a carnival
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
You can have cocktail hour in the first hour....then you can come out and do the pic thing for a while and people can have dinner. Instead of doing the speeches and slideshow while people are eating save it for after dinner...start it while people are getting dessert b/c that's when most people get bored and leave so it'll keep em entertained.
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
Naamaz
Naat
Batain karain
Logon ke bachon ko marain
Logon se larayi karain
Ek dosre ko dekhain
Ek dosre pe pani phnekain
Re: things to do at a conservative wedding
i dont get it......... why do u need entertainer or a singer on a shaadi??? its a shaadi not a circus!!
ppl coming should enjoy ur moments.... rather then some total outsider coming and cracking jokes on ppl.... or singing indian filmi songs.
i dont think anyone can be bored.... if they dont know anyone there.....they can still communicate with new ppl.... i so think keh 14th aug keh mele main aur shaadi main farak hona chaiye......sorry if i am being too blunt.
Tilawat, speeches, nazams/ruksati, dua is good enough i think... and all this done by ur family members would make it even special. and ya slideshow is good.... recently at my friend's mehndi they had a slideshow with all the pics from her childhood to engagment.... and it was really special. but it was a surprise...... so get ur siblings to do that for u :P and on ruksati wale din u have also run slideshow of all the previous events of ur shaadi from engagment to last night's mehndi or dholki...... everythiing should be about YOU and ppl u care!!
I like the idea of having guest book........ or enlarge ur engagment or nikkah pic and get ppl to sign on it.....(leave good blank space on all sides so they dont sign on ur pic) and then u can always frame it.
oh ya.... i remmeber in pakistan... there used to be fresh paan... and ppl loved it....... not sure where u are based.... but u can always get paan makers anywhere...... if not paan... then u can have kulfi!!