Going to Pakistan for the Wedding Season!

Okay, so this post was long overdue, but here it is! In August we found out one of my aunts was getting married! It was just so exciting for us because we love to attend Pakistani weddings, and the last one we attended was in 2012 😱

I immediately started planning for the trip, and in the end, it was decided that my mother and I would be going since my semester break coincided with her wedding dates.

It had been more than 6 years since I experienced a Pakistani winter, so I was not prepared at all! My last trip was in the summer (you can read all about that here), and this time, I was so excited to experience the beautiful weather as well as the very famous Pakistan wedding season (apparently everyone in Pakistan decides to have their wedding in December-January).

We arrived two days before the wedding and got to experience all the festivities! On our first day there, we attended my aunt’s Mayoun Event!

The Mayoun:

The mayoun is a part of the pre-wedding festivities! The bride dresses in yellow and there are many different traditions that are associated with the mayoun like,  feeding her sweets and protecting her from the evil eye. There’s also singing and dance practices going on in preparation for the big day!

Usually, the bride stops wearing any makeup and even stops dressing up during/after the mayoun up until her wedding, so all her beauty can show on the wedding day 😊

Next comes one of the three major events of the wedding, starting with ….

The Mehndi

The mehndi is basically a huge party from both sides of the family. The bride and groom have amazing entrances. In this mehndi, the groom came on a motorcycle and the bride came in a huge Cinderella-style carriage. After that, there is basically non-stop dancing as the bride and grooms side face off on the dance floor :D.

The mehndi is my favorite day out of all three because it’s a time to just let loose and celebrate. The only thing that I was annoyed with was Lahore’s rule about ending wedding functions at 10pm. We barely had enough time to do anything, and everyone started packing up at 10!

Overall, the mehndi is a time for everyone to celebrate the bride and grooms union before the more somber occasion of giving the bride away which is on the second day of the wedding…

The Baraat

The baraat is technically the day the bride and groom officially get married and sign their papers. It is usually a very formal occasion where everyone (or at least the bride’s side) is a bit down because they have to give the bride away.

The groom usually comes in a very decked out car (like the one in the first picture), and this is the car the newly married couple sits in after the event is over.

There are also different traditions that we do on the baraat. One of the things we do is the “dhoodh pilai”. Basically, the bride’s sisters bring a glass of milk onto the stage where the bride and groom sit. The couple drinks the milk while the bride’s sisters demand money from the groom. Nobody leaves the stage until he hands over the money :D.

Then it’s usually time for us to say goodbye to the bride which is usually a very sad occasion. I felt so sad because my aunt’s mother was crying so much while giving her away!

After the baraat, there’s one more big function held by the groom’s side ….

The Walima

So the Walima is a function that the groom’s side throws to welcome the bride into their family and introduce her to the groom’s relatives. This was the day where the bride’s side got to relax a little and just enjoy the event instead of hosting.

My aunt’s Walima was actually in Faisalabad which is two hours away from Lahore. Her father-in-law was very kind and got us a bus so we could all attend the Walima together. The bus even had wifi! It was a lot of fun getting to Faisalabad I got to spend time with my whole extended family.

So those were all the events for my aunt’s wedding! Even though I did attend a few more weddings while I was there, this was the one I went to Pakistan for 🙂 . I love Pakistani weddings so much! If you want to see what I wore to my aunt’s wedding check out my Instagram 

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