my parents were neighbours. my nana nani newly shifted to dada dadi's neighbor, phupo n mum became friends and so nani and dadi. my phupo was the initiator and she asked my nani, it was very filmy scene, phupo sat on ground grabbed my nani's leg and said I will not leave till you say yes, my nani didn't as k my mamus or nana and said yes. phupo told my dada dadi k I have decided, there was lot of shor sharaba especially at my nana nani home, dada dadi were happy. my mamus were super angry we have not seen him and you said yes but nani was firm k bus ab mei ne zuban de di.
mamu and father both were serving in army, mamu checked through his friends and confirmed k larka sharif ha. my father was posted in Kashmir at tht time and then family decided k jab baba chute pe aye gay tu shadi kr de gay.
almost a month before dada came to nana and told, baba is coming on tht date and we will bring barat on tht date. nana went inside the house and informed everyone.
in 30 years of my parenst wedding not even once mum stayed at nana nani bc they were neighbours. we were lucly bc children either live wth dada/dadi or nana/nani, but we were able to spend our childhood wth all four of them at one time.
My dad was already living in Canada in the early 70's. In the beginning of 1978 he got a call from my dada saying that his marriage has been arranged for April and he should return to Pakistan for it. He asked who the girl was but my dada would not give him any information.
When he arrived in Pakistan, he learned the girl was his benois sister (my Mamoo is married to my Phupo). He was not at their wedding, so he had never seen my mom or her sister before. My mom and khala are complete opposites in looks. My mom is short, very slim, very fair and very beautiful. My khala is very tall, very heavy, quite dark, and not nearly as attractive as my mom. A few days before the wedding, my dad saw my khala and was introduced to her. At that time my dad thought to himself, oh God, if this is what the sister looks like, what will my wife look like?
He saw my mom for the first time right after their nikkah. My mom wore a dark purple banarsi gharara. She looked so beautiful! Her father made her a seven string katmala which I have now inherited and wore at my own nikkah. On their wedding night my dad told her about seeing her sister a few days before and how he hadn't slept at all the last 2 nights because he was so scared of what my mom would look like. But he said, now that I have seen you, I am very happy. Lol!
my parents got married in june. Totally an arrange marriage , my mamu knew my dad from army. Barat went from Jhelum to Abbotabad. Moms side has this tradition that girls brothers take the bride to grooms place and she doesnt go with barat. Mom and dad had a room booked in PC rawalpindi so moms cousins and brothers took her to that room even before the barat left abbotabad :) mom wore off white gharara which my phupho made. it had golden kiran on the dopatta. Her makeup was done by her cousins which she didn`t like at all. interesting thing is that she says that it was so hot and the lehnga was suffocating , she changed to a lawn suit even before dad arrived in the room :)
not sure what she wore on the walima, i only have pictures of barat
My parents were both living abroad when they got married. My dad's family couldn't make it to Canada because of that reason and most of my mom's side was present because most of them were well settled in Canada/US (except nani ma passed away by then). My mom wore a red shalwar kameez with gold embroidery - with the full Punjabi jewelry like the red bangles, kaleeriyan, etc. She didn't cake on the makeup thank God. Very simple and very pretty.
My dad wore a pink pagri (which was customary) and he looked funny to me because it looked clearly too big for his head LOL. My dad was so skinny back in the day and he wore a suit with those flared pants. They got married in the 80's so we have coloured photos and even a VHS of their wedding. I did feel bad for my dad though because he had no one from his side of the family -only friends he had met during his time living abroad. My parents had a love marriage so they always knew they would get married but it's funny how it came about. My mom told me the first time she ever saw my dad was when he was 12 and he was this tall gangly kid who gave her a ride on his bike to get some ice cream. During that time, they grew up and played in the same area in Mumbai - but they had no idea they would get married.
Then she saw him when he was a bit older when their mutual friends had a rishta thing going on. And my dad was in love LOL, he approached my dada in his mid-20's after my mom said "yes" but dada told him to finish his studies first or no shaadi. LOL I guess it was a good motivator for him. Eventually both my parents settled abroad and tied the knot in Canada. Their wedding was a mix of both cultures because my parents come from 2 different backgrounds, the ladies side did their mehndi, vatna (besan thing) and sangeet. Since my dad had no one from his side in Canada, the guys on my mom's side included him in the fun.
Sweet entries. Thanks for sharing. In some odd ways, it's a very collectively nostalgic read. It's not your family, but you can relate to every single story
it was a complete arranged marriage, my phupo's friend's neighbor was my mom's colleague..(looong connections,lol) the entire wedding from the first time my dadi and phupos went to my nana to the wedding itself took place within 2 weeks!!! it was july in khi hence the unexpected monsoons. they had two mehndis, one when my dad's side came to mom's and the next day when nanhiyaal went to the boy's side. On the wedding day my mom wore a pink kamkhwab gharara w/tissue dopatta (w/ kiran and all). As my nana was v. v punctual he told my dadi to show up w/ the baraat at 8. she did, but only my nana was at the hall, the rest of the bridal party was still at home!!!
For the valima my mom wore a golden gharara, her makeup on both days was done by this chinese lady who was v popular for bridal makeup in khi in the 80s (her name escapes me abhi). the photos and video are there, but my mom gets all emotional when she sees it, especially in the rukhsati scenes. =/