Anum and Eihab’s Turkish-Pakistani Fusion Wedding

Today we have a very sweet wedding from Carrie Wildes Photography. Anum and Eihab are from different cultures and together, they put together one fantastic wedding.

What we love most about their wedding is their genuine sweetness and their ability to make their wedding very personal. Instead of having a limo, they opted for a beautiful 1963 Ford Thunderbird. How does one not fall in love?!

This time, we had the chance to chat with both Anum AND Eihab! It’s not often we get to hear from the groom.

Tell us about the wedding!
We had a Muslim/Pakistani wedding that was held where the bride’s family lives, in Sarasota, FL. We chose the Hyatt because it could easily accommodate the nearly 250-300 guests we expected and allowed us to cater our traditional Pakistani and Middle Eastern food.

We chose December 22nd and 23rd since we would have time off from medical school and to ensure most of our family and friends could attend. The religious marriage ceremony took place on the morning of the 22nd at the bride’s home, the Mehndi was on the evening of the 22nd and the wedding was on the 23rd.

Were there any special customs in your weddings?
We had numerous customs as part of the wedding. One of which is the Nikah of the religious marriage ceremony. This took place on the morning of the 22nd at home with our close friends and family members.

The bride’s side of the family carried out a tradition that involves stealing the groom’s shoes on the day of the wedding. The idea is that the groom can’t leave with his bride until he gets his shoes back and so the bride’s sisters and cousins hold the shoes for ransom. The groom was informed of this custom prior to the wedding so he employed several of the boys to pay forth the $200 ransom in pennies, nickels and dimes. While the girls got what they wanted, they weren’t expecting payment in coins.

What was the hardest about planning the wedding?

We are from two different cultures. The hardest part was maintaining an open line of communication and understanding each others needs, i.e. our first exercise in true compromise. We were successful as we were able to begin to form our own new identity as a couple from both Turkish and Pakistani cultures.

And, finding time. With both of us being in medical school it was hard to meet and follow up with all the vendors as regularly as we needed to and forced us to be quick decision makers. While everything came out perfectly in the end for us, both of us could have benefited from a few more hours in the day to enjoy the process more!

What was your favorite part of the wedding?
Being married! It’s hard to pick one part that was the best because truth be told we had fun through it all. We loved the fact that our wedding was formal, but also had a fun party atmosphere. By the end of the night we had everyone up dancing and having a good time.

We also did something very special. Eihab bought a 1963 gold Thunderbird on Ebay from the original owner. It only had 29000 miles on it, and he drove to and from Colorado to pick it up all in one weekend. He found the original owner’s manual which had a picture of a couple posed next to the car. We of course recreated that same pose. Seriously, one of the coolest things ever, I guess it’s the small things in life that make me the happiest.

And what could be better than to have your family and friends around you having a ball celebrating your wedding?

What one piece of advice would you give future brides-to-be?

Eat your cake !! We got so caught up with the sequence of schedule events that we only had a small bite of our cake and did not get to eat a real piece. I shall forever wonder what it tastes like and it doesn’t help when guests remind me of how tasty the cake was!!!!

Also, it’s not the end of the world. I think we get so caught up in the details of wedding planning that even the slightest bump in the road can stress us out to no end. It is important to keep the big picture in mind enjoy the process as much as possible. And on the day of the wedding remember to appreciate all the little details that came together!

{Photographs by Carrie Wildes Photography}

{Wedding Suppliers}
Photography: Carrie Wildes Photography
Hair Styling: Tommy DaSilvia, Sarasota, FL
Catering: Cedars, Orlando, FL. Chaat House Orlando, FL
Event Planning: The Perfect Settings
Cake: The Cake Zone, Sarasota, FL
DJ: DJ Spin
Venue: Hyatt Regency Sarasota