One of my childhood friends had his Wedding this past week and our group has a new member as Kinza his wife. It has happened so quickly it just seems like yesterday we were 12-13 years old and played on the streets and parks together and now we are all grown up now getting our own families started. Congratulations Talha on your wedding and my God give you a happy and prosperous life ahead.
Weddings in Pakistan are a bit different than the western world or even India we have our own identity Like it’s not as simple as a reception in USA or Europe but also not as fancy as a full-on wedding in India where millions are spent on one night. It’s a mixture of both and a moderate solution.
The first step is to get a Nikkah done at the local mosque the Nikkah is an Islamic certificate under an Imam done to get an authentic paper to legitimize the wedding. It is like the vows in front of the Father in a church. We all dressed up in traditional clothes for the Nikkah ceremony wearing Shalwar Kameez for the evening it was a good gathering, one thing that happens is that there is no food for the day and people gather after the daily Prayer and the Nikkah is performed. One important thing is that we do not promote Jahez (the bridal household gifts the groom expensive items sometimes even cars) this is a major occurrence in India which makes the bridal parents come under loans just for this. Islam simply prohibits this even the dinner from the bride’s side is not encouraged. The Nikkah even has a clause where the Groom has to set an amount that he has to give the bride it can be anything from 5$ to 50000$ according to his own wealth, this is something which has to be given to her.
The next day it was his reception called the Valima locally, both the Groom’s and Bride’s families gathered for the moment including us their friends. Talha and Kinza looked really happy on the night. We went to the stage and had a memorable group photo with them to last a lifetime on this event we all looked formal suits weren’t the best dress because of the high temperatures but still I wore a casual coat on but my friends were in their pant shirts only. Nonetheless everyone looked good, so the NFS groups first dude got committed. One of our man is down and won’t be free for us time we will miss you Talha just kidding. Goodluck on your journey ahead we will always be together as a family and we pray and hope you guys are always happy with each other. Love from the NFS Family.