Naureen & Ghazaly’s Super Colorful Mayoon & Mehndi Ceremonies- Part II

We are back with the second part in a very fabulous wedding of Naureen and Ghazaly. Check out their nikkah and reception first, and then head back here.

Today we have the honor to feature their Mayoon and Mehndi parties. A mayoon is like the haldi function but in the Muslim community instead of the Hindu community. In both cases, it is a day for the bride to get beautified and painted with haldi (turmeric). A mayoon can also be a ladies event, as it’s a bonding experience for the bride and the women in the community.

After Naureen’s mayoon, they celebrated with a Mehndi party. Lots of peacock colors of blues and greens and purples, along with some amazing DIY projects. Plus, a Star Wars theme entrance.

How do you not fall in love with this couple?!

Naureen shares her inspiration for the mayoon and the mehndi (after the photos). Grab your chai and get ready for this gorgeous wedding!

Tell us about the mayoon.
The mayoon/haldi ceremony traditionally marks the beginning of wedding customs and festivities. As a half Bengali and half Bihari bride, I wanted to honor both my parents by combining the rasms (customs) involved for both cultures.

Bengalis are notorious for their love of sweets! They congratulate the bride and wish her well by feeding her mithai and blessing her upcoming union. In addition to having a variety of ladoos, barfis and halwas, I added my favorites of m&ms and skittles to my menu for the night.

Another tradition that is common to both Bengalis and Biharis, involves applying turmeric paste to the bride to help provide a “bridal glow.” While the paste does work wonders, I personally opted for a decorative leaf for my guests to dab the paste onto and avoided any turmeric paste mishaps!

The event in itself was hosted by a lovely cousin who customized favor bags from India and made the centerpieces herself.

What was the inspiration for your outfit and the bridesmaids?
I stuck to the traditional yellows to pay homage to the turmeric paste. I bought this outfit from the same store I bought all my outfits from in Kolkata. The bright tangerines, pinks, and greens made it the perfect fit for the colorful mayoon celebration my cousin had planned.

I also coordinated my lovely bridesmaids to wear matching yellow and green anarkalis for the mayoon. They looked beautiful and were super bright and happy!

(Did you not just love all those mayoon photographs?! You’ll be stunned even more with the menhdi!)

From Naureen:

Given that mehndis are typically green, the color of henna paste, I loved the idea of infusing a modern peacock twist to the traditional color scheme. We used greens, teals, purples, and blues with sweeps of fabric and peacock feathers as accents in all the décor.

As a fun idea for the guests, I made custom composition notebook table numbers. I bought 30 miniature composition notebooks and spray-painted them with purple and gold. The notebooks served as a way for guests to write messages and well-wishes to the bride and groom. The messages and drawings in these books were highly entertaining to read on the flight to our honeymoon.

Another project we did was based on the growing trend of fingerprint guestbooks. One of my very talented friends leant her artistic skills and created a peacock feather pattern as a fingerprint canvas for guests. It turned out to be a stunning piece of art that has a special memories attached to it.

The entire event was a fun evening overall with a bride vs. groom question game, bridal/groomsmen party skits, and old-school Bollywood singing. My favorite part, however, was seeing my handsome groom in his teal kurta walking in to the Star Wars theme entrance song.