Our traditional Bangladeshi wedding
Jasna & Shaf
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Happy New Year!
I believe it is important to start the year the way you’d like to spend it, so I’d like to share the most spectacular wedding I’ve ever experienced: our Bangladeshi wedding.
If you’ve been following our globetrotting wedding story, get ready for the Grand Finale!
(for more context, check out my previous posts about our New York wedding and our Paris engagement)
In January 2020, right before Covid took over the world, we had our last wedding chapter in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We were extremely fortunate to celebrate our union with all the people we love across the world before borders starting shutting down!
After spending 2019 celebrating our engagement reception in Paris and our three day wedding in New York, we flew to Dhaka for two final events: a Mehndi ceremony and a Walima reception.
The Mehndi
The Mehndi party is a festive pre-wedding event for the bride and her closest female friends and family. Mehndi is another word for henna, a traditional tattoo design that Desi brides typically get on their hands and feet. Aside from being decorative body art, henna is known to have medicinal properties and help the bride relax for her upcoming wedding.
The bridal Mehndi application is a very long process as it entails many little details and takes time to dry (up to six hours!). For that reason, while the bride spends hours sitting still, her ladies entertain her with a henna party complete with music, dance, and of course delicious food. Think of it as a colorful and energetic bridal shower. The guests bless the bride, socialize, perform, and sometimes also get henna done.
I’m including a video of the event so you can join the party!
I absolutely loved my Mehndi ceremony! My mother and her best friend hosted a very pleasant and intimate gathering of talented women. The energy was joyful and the performances were amazing, including my mother doing a beautiful traditional dance for me!
Although it was a ladies’ only event, we pulled in my husband for some of the festivities and photos of our coordinated green looks. Bravo to the artists who did my henna and put together my flower accessories!
The Walima
In traditional Bangladeshi weddings, the wedding day is hosted and financed by the bride’s family. The groom’s family throws their own wedding reception, called a Walima or Bou-bhat, typically as the final event.
My husband’s parents definitely knew how to end with a bang. The reception was a regal fairytale, my husband and I had a surreal time processing that this event was for us!
STUNNING, right? What I find crazy impressive is that all of this was put together in one day!
Wedding venues are a hot commodity in Dhaka and booked out every day of the year. As soon as a wedding ends, the event management team breaks down the previous setup and installs everything that the next client selected. My mother in law has exquisite taste and worked closely with a wedding decor company to custom design every single detail, including a reflective pool walkway!
As decked out as the venue was, our looks were equally elaborate.
The entire production was hours upon days upon months of hard work! Multiple trips to India were necessary to purchase the outfits, including my extremely ornate Sabyasachi wedding lehenga. The hair and makeup process took most of the day, and I was covered in gold that belonged to generations before me. I have never felt like more of a queen in my life!
After we were professionally dolled up, we arrived at the wedding venue in a flower covered horse carriage accompanied by a live wedding band! Because why not, right? Guests were lined up outside the wedding venue, cheering us on.
Our mothers accompanied us into the wedding hall, down the reflection walkway, and to the beautiful stage where we spent the majority of our evening.
If it isn’t obvious by now, this reception was a big scale affair (and I mean big, like 800+ people). Because of our giant guest list, I’ll spare you the million photos that were delivered but I invite you to check out our wedding teaser to get a feel for the ambiance.
Bangladeshi weddings have three priorities: beauty, food, and pictures. Our photographers and videographers did not disappoint!
I feel extremely blessed and humbled that this was our wedding. The amount of love, hard work, and sacrifice that went into each of our wedding chapters is not taken for granted. It reminded me that what ultimately matters is the love and respect you and your families share. All the pretty shiny details take over your focus, but they only live on through your memories, wedding photos and films (so definitely prioritize your camera team!)
The amazing souls that made this possible:
Wedding planners: our moms
Photography & videography: K. Nasif photography
Wedding venue: ICCB
Wedding decor: Shahjahan event management
Wedding outfits: Sabyasachi
Bridal preparation: BeautyCraft by Sanjana
If you’d like to learn more about this phenomenal experience or want your special day to be beautifully captured, feel free to reach out!