This 25 People Wedding Boasted Of Personalised Elements & All Things Sustainable

It's not every day that we come across a nikaah submission, especially as intriguing as this one, where each element was thoghtfully planned by the bride, & then infused into the big picture. So when Usman & Sabah gave us a peek into their wedding intangibles, we knew it deserved a larger audience for mutual admiration, and here we are, doing just what was right!

Set against the countryside village views of Al Seef Heritage Hotel, Usman & Sabah's wedding celebration was a modern renaissance of Indo-Pak elegance. The bride, being a wedding designer herself, left no stone unturned to get her wedding stationery, decor & for that matter, even her bridal portraits on point! Each ceremony had some unique takeaway. While the mehendi saw organic elements like teracotta pots, reusable cacti & a personalised jute signage, which Usman & Sabah's mom wrote names for, the nikaah boasted of unique take-home decor elements,  a moss-filled couple seating & a “life-size” kunafa  instead of a cake. Not to forget the couple's suave looks & Atisuto★ 4.6 's incredible planning & decor that added the perfect finishing touches.

Now it's your time to scroll through their wedding finery & decide what you love the most!

Meet Usman & Sabah

Usman is British-Pakistani, while I’m an Indian Muslim. 

Over the pandemic, we met for the first time in Dubai in 2020 while I was in my vacation home and Usman had just moved countries to work here. We talked online for about 10 days. The first time we met post that, we instantly knew that this is it for the both of us. 

We had a rather interesting story, we were strangers to each other and our families as well. Usman was brought up in Uk, while I’ve been living in India. Due to the pandemic, it was extremely difficult for us to bring about our families together. Most of our family members met ON our wedding day! 

However we did manage to get our parents to meet in between the slightly better months of Covid and finalize all the details. After meeting for the first time in August, our wedding was already confirmed by End of December. It happened rather too fast for us. 2021 was a difficult year. With both the variants, we had a long distance relationship after which I moved to Dubai in July to plan the wedding.

The Mehendi

The Nikaah

 

The Walima

From The Bride 

Both of us are extremely private intimate people that live for great experiences. That is what we wanted our wedding to reflect. Our wedding consisted of 25 closest family and friends, spanned over 2 days in Dubai. Our guests flew in from Uk and India. 

We were on a hunt for something that reflected our personalities and would be a holiday style  approach for our guests. We then came across Al Seef Heritage Hotel, Nestled in the Al Seef Souk, it’s one of the most beautiful rustic-heritage hotels in Dubai. The first day we visited, we instantly fell in love. It was a scene from a countryside village in Marrakech. What more could you want?

This hotel instantly set the mood for the wedding & we were excited to host our guests here!

As a wedding designer myself, I decided to get into immediate planning. We worked closely on the stationery, decor & event experience. Although it was intimate, it meant even more to us!

We all love stationery, some more passionately and tastefully than others.

One of the main reasons for me is that it will unleash your creative potential. The unsullied pages, the pristine colors and the beautiful sketches offer limitless possibilities.

Stationery is your first vision of your wedding, the first look that you want your wedding to be directed at. As a modern minimalistic bride, I knew I wanted to create a similar approach within my wedding & event stationery inspired by the venue, decor and my love for neutrals. 

Wedding signage is a great way to welcome your guests, but we wanted to do something a bit atypical. After much deliberation, we came up with the idea of getting both Usman and my mom to write our names down which was then scanned and designed into a wedding signage on organic jute fabric. We used this for all the 3 events that we had, and today it hangs as a keepsake in our home. 

The ideology behind the signage was to have a minimal interpretation of the venue, the sand dunes of Arabia & the memories of our parents on the day we decided to spend our lives together.

Our wedding took place 15th & 16th December, 2021.

Henna:

The Henna marks the beginning of most weddings and ours was a prelude to the festivities to come. Nestled in a corner outside the rooms, is a beautiful courtyard overlooking the Majlis and mud houses of a middle eastern souk; this formed the landscape for my decor design. I knew from the get go that I wanted an amalgamation of our cultures incorporated in this beautiful heritage hotel and the decor illustrates this notion. The Bridal seating is encompassed by traditional Indian marigolds and moss grown flowers, locally sourced handmade terracotta pots and dessert cacti which are reusable and now reside in my home garden. It was a beautiful intimate event inspired by our cultures & Arabia. We welcome you to our minimal countryside oasis that amalgamates both bespoke luxury and middle eastern heritage; tucked in a beautiful Souk that provides the perfect setting for our intimate wedding of 25. We loved the organic aesthetic, so all we had to do was to accentuate the natural beauty of the property to reflect our personalities within the experience and the decor of the events.

Henna Dinner:

Straight from the setting of a middle eastern folklore, our sit down dinner hit all the right notes of rustic minimalism. Following the Henna ceremony the Moroccan souk inspired decor theme continued to a late evening soiree, where music and authentic middle eastern cuisine added to the revelry. Each of our guests had personalized menu cards with their names and the food was served on sharing platters on each table. A lot of moss was used along with different kinds of bottles and lanterns to create warmth on the table along with candles, spices, nuts and condiments as part of the decor. Surrounding the venue we had little majlis on the floor for people to sit and enjoy the music and the weather.

Wedding:

We were very particular on wanting to have a sustainable local wedding! The venue itself played its part but we got married amongst moss filled dried florals with the beautiful backdrop of the souk. 

We had a hand painted signage of our most beloved verse of the Quran as a backdrop amongst the florals. ( This art piece is currently hanging in my house as well) This is where we read our Nikah & had our wedding ceremony.

 We are both big fans of Kunafa ( a local Arab sweet) and we got the chefs at the hotel to create a “life-size” kunafa surrounded by wheat grass and cut that as our cake instead. 

The ceremony was followed by lunch. Our lunch tables featured different styles and sizes of locally produced terracotta pots with zero florals in them. I wanted to keep the tables as minimal as possible and let the venue do the talking! I hope this showcases to brides worldwide that there are many other ways to create a beautiful tablescape besides the use of florals.

Each guest was given a personal oud oil bottle with a little tag and thank you note for being there to share the big day with us. Personalized place cards and menus also were placed around the table settings. We served authentic Indian and Pakistani food to represent our cultures! A lot of dancing and pictures continued post the lunch, after which Usman & I walked around the souk carefree and did some beautiful intimate portraits! 

All of our wedding flowers were created into small forever bouquets and were handed over to each guest with personalized handwritten thank you notes!

 We allowed the guests to take a part of the “decor” home forever to cherish and remember us and our beautiful moments together. 

Our wedding was followed by a reception dinner. 

An intimate candle-lit dinner with a personalized photo booth! 

Over here, we featured a postcard guest book, we are a couple that loves to travel and especially document it! Guests had to click a picture in the photo - booth, choose a stamp and a postcard ( we offered them multiple designs) and leave us a note! These postcards are now being turned into a coffee table book that resides in my house as part of decor. 

Majority of my wedding was shot on film & polaroids - most of which was taken by my family & friends! 

I can’t wait to bring all the photos together and create the most epic wedding scrapbook to pass on to our generations!

I had some of the best industry experts to help me bring this vision together! 

Being in this industry myself, I completely understand how easy it is to move away from the intimacy of an event but we were adamant that we wanted to have a wedding that reflected our personalities, a more “holiday style” approach with our closest family and friends. 

Vendors: Venue: Al Seef Heritage Hotel; Wedding Planner: Atisuto★ 4.6 ; Wedding Photography: Shay Photography; Wedding Cinematography: Dhruv Bachan; Bridal Makeup: Safa Sheikh Beauty; Hairstylist: Anastasia Alawadhi; Bridal Outfits: Hussain Rehar Official (Mehendi), Suffuse by Sana Yasir (Nikaah), Zara Shahjahan (Walima); Groom Wear: Pashas (Mehendi), Sarah & Sandeep★ 4.7 (Nikaah), Hazure by Sadaf khan (Walima); Wedding Stationery: Naqqash Studio, Wedding Styling & Execution: My Lovely Wedding; Wedding Signage:  Tiger and Twig; Wedding Coordination: Lateral Events