Noreen & Imran - Ismaili Wedding Extravaganza in Edmonton

Imran: 

   "Noreen and I met at the start of fall semester at the University of Alberta in 2002 through a mutual friend. Throughout the year, we never really hung out together but we had the same friend-circle. She knew me as the quiet guy who was addicted to going to the the gym and who would be eating all the time (especially Edo Japan), while I thought of her as one of the loud girls in Cameron library who was always laughing and smiling. More often than not, we would be found on second floor on Cameron library with a group of friends procrastinating and trying to avoid anything associated with University classes. Over the next few years, we stared to become really close friends. She always made fun of the fact that I was a secret Bollywood fan and took ESL (English as a second language) when I moved to Canada. I always made fun of her flourishing acting career (search Borrowed on Youtube) and the fact that she always seemed to be "confused". We would always be seen together with my good friend Aamil and her good friend Seema. People always assumed that we were more than friends and were convinced that we were dating. They just thought we kept our relationship a secret because we didn't want anyone to know. I think we wanted to be more than friends, but were afraid of ruining our friendship if things didn't work out. It seemed like it was inevitable, but what made us really take the next step was the threat of Noreen moving away to England for pharmacy school. Not being able to see each other was not something we wanted, and we wanted to give "us" a shot before it was too late. 2 days before she left, we went to the Keg and I asked her if she would be interested in taking the next step, even though she was moving away. It does seem backward that we started dating when she moved away but we decided to try it for a semester and if it was too hard, we would stop. It was tough, but we got through it. We would talk on the phone for up to 4 hours a day. We made the 7 hour difference work for us. When she was getting ready for bed, I just got home from school. Throughout the first semester, our relationship definitely grew since we got to know everything about each other. The anticipation of seeing each other was very large, and we were so excited to finally see one another after being apart for 3 months. Over the next 4 years, we went through ups and downs and we always knew that we were meant for each other. I visited her in Europe twice during her program, and we shared many experiences together. We visited the Eiffel tower in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome, the London Eye in London, and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul together. And those experiences would not have been as memorable if we had not been with each other. Noreen would come back to Edmonton for 5 months each year, and we could not wait until seeing each other again. When she came back to Edmonton for good, I started thinking about an engagement ring, but I wanted to wait until she finished all of her licensing exams in Canada before asking for her hand in marriage. We flew together to Vancouver in November 2010 for her last exam. I had planned to propose to her that night after writing her exam. I took her to the top of Grouse Mountain and proposed to her in an isolated spot amongst the fog of Vancouver's altitude. She said "yes" and the rest as they say is history. We can't wait to celebrate our special day with our family and friends, and for Cosmin to capture our memories!!"

 Day 2:

 Day 3 - Wedding:

 Day 4:

 Congratulations, Noreen and Imran! Thank you so much for everything! Your 4 day celebration felt way too short!

 love.more.cosmin