A bit of a wedding backlog

When we first arrived in Karachi, everyone (ourselves included) was pumped to tackle two weeks of weddings. We quickly learned that the excitement starts to peter out after a few days of back-to-back events. It's common here to invite a very extended group to such functions -- including in-laws, near and far family friends, colleagues, etc. -- so lots of folks have multiple stops on the docket in a given night. In fact, Cousins Saira and Farrah were relating stories about their own weddings, which I attended as a young'un, and one of them had 250 unforseen guests show up at the last minute (=1,000 guests, total)! I take back everything I said about Nick and I having a big 'do last summer...160 is peanuts.

Anyway, it's hard to keep your enthusiasm up when you've got so many late-night events to attend, and as a result I missed out on Cousin Samia's shaadi (I think this is the word), or reception. (To be fair, I bowed out for a few reasons, one of which was an upset tummy. I'll leave it at that.) As in a Hindu wedding, one of the main events of the reception was the theft of the groom's shoes by the bride's relatives. The groom then has to negotiate a price to pay for retrieval of his footwear, ostensibly to reward the bride's family for the work they put into their event.

So OK, I missed the shaadi. But one thing I was very much present for, along with Cousin Alishba's family, was the exchange of gifts between the bride's side and groom's side. (Please don't accuse me of being a blog-slacker, but the name of this particular tradition is escaping me at the moment.) On the first night, we [bride's relatives, including my hubs] took baskets of gifts for relatives of the groom over to the family home. These ranged from Coach products to the outfit the groom would wear on the day of the nikkah. After delivering the gifts, we stayed and visited with Abbas' relatives, giving everyone the opportunity to get to know each other.

On the second night, the groom's family reciprocated by stopping by for chai, snacks, and to drop off (among other things) Alishba's nikkah outfit. (Attention married American ladies: can you imagine trusting the selection of your wedding gown to someone else? Eeek!)

The gifts arrived wrapped in brightly-colored tissue paper:


















We unpacked everything once Abbas' family departed. Here are Alishba's nikkah clothes and jewels -- oh, the jewels:













I particularly like this tradition (even though I can't remember what it's called) because among other things it gives the families a chance to get to know each other better. Family is just HUGE here, and this only reinforces that notion.

And, drawing a parallel for a moment, my in-laws are best friends with my sister-in-law's parents. Although I don't think formal exchanges like these were involved before Leigh and Greg's wedding, it all goes back to the same point.