Mehmuna & Azeem

Mehmuna asked me to photograph her bridal preparations at her family home in Stoke-on-Trent, a process which began for her at 5am which is possibly one of the earliest starts I’ve ever seen any of my brides make! Mehmuna’s wore an intricately detailled, traditional wedding dress, elaborate jewelry and beautifully applied mehndi patterns on her hands and feet: her transformation into the beautiful bride you see here was a hugely photogenic process. She wanted me to keep the posed photos to a minimum and we agreed that my candid shots would provide a nice contrast to the more formal posed groups coming later on with the hundreds of guests that would be attending. I was lucky to be working alongside Riaz and Zaki from J’adore Productions who shoot video in a similarly unobtrusive way to the way I shoot stills – best of all, I don’t think we tripped over each other once all day!
The ceremony took place at Usmania Banqueting Hall, a huge repurposed church which was perfect for the hundreds of guests invited (she wasn’t exaggerating about this amount of guests!) Azeem arrived to the sound of drums with a procession which was still working it’s way in long after he had sat down. With so much going on, I was never short of subjects to photograph candidly before being invited to discretely photograph Mehmuna signing the Nikah.
After the emotional finale of the ceremony, we stopped at Abney Hall Park where Mehmuna and Azeem could relax a little, have some bride and groom portraits and I could make the most of the evening’s soft, warm natural light to bring them the photos you see at the end of this post.

Congratulations Mehmuna and Azeem!