Anita & Raheel - The Flying Rice and the Abounding Cake

Raheel:  "We met through the least likeliest of all sources and I just wanna say I love you, Anita, more than yesterday but less than tomorrow. And as they say, the best is yet to come!"

Anita:  "Raheel, not only are you my husband but also my best fiend. I am so lucky to have you by my side and cannot wait to share my life's adventures with you!"

And the first adventure is getting in top shape for the nikah:

 I'm always impressed by the simplicity and joyfulness of the Ismaili wedding ceremony:

  It consists of a prayer:

 Signing of the marriage contract:

 The officiants put the rings:

Feed the couple candies:

  And bless them:

 A children's book is being read, as well:

Actually, that might not be part of the ceremony. But congratulations are always well received:

 And so are the sweets at the end of the line:

 The couple is welcomed into their new home by Raheel's mom. That's when the rice starts to fly all over the house:

Before they are allowed in, they have to break two pots of clay. Easier done than said, you might think:

 But someone didn't take his vitamins this morning:

  The couple needs more energy for the games that are about to start:

 I've seen this before, mostly at Hindu weddings. It's called: Find the fortune in the bowl full of milk and rose petals. However, here the milk is replaced by colourful rice and the fortune by a coin:

 It's still a lot of fun:

 And less messy:

The newly weds give rice to each other. I don't know why, but it's very nice of them:

 One thing is for sure: they will still find lost grains of rice in the house on the 10 year anniversary:

 I'm feeling creative for a couple of seconds:

  This is what I like to call the Las Vegas game. The bride grabs as much money as she possible can with her both hands, signifying her fortunes to come:

Jackpot:

 It's not very often when I have the opportunity to do 2 photo shoots in a single day, but this is my lucky chance. First session:

  Anita has to carry a lemon in her bridal purse throughout the whole wedding week. It's supposed to bring good luck. Well, it did snow like crazy outside and the roads are more dangerous than ever, but other than that, it worked. Anyway, it's not much more you can ask from a lemon:

 Time to change in the evening outfit:

 With a little help, Anita goes from Snow White to Red Riding Hood:

And a touch of Cinderella:

 This is not part of the welcoming ritual of the bride in her new house, but it's our second photo shoot of the day:

 That's it. In fact, both sessions combined last about 87 seconds.
With no time to lose, we slide our cars to the reception hall:

 Ariana - the flower girl - is not 100% sure what her job is, but she takes it very seriously:

Ismaili MC:

 Karima puts 'performance' in dance performance:

 The cake serving ceremony is one of great importance at Muslim wedding receptions:

 One way or the other, everybody is fed the sugary stuff:

 For outstanding visual results, one has to look in the camera while doing it:

 After one point, it doesn't even matter if the goods go in the mouth. It's all done for the camera, in the spirit of a centuries old tradition:

 First dance finds everybody full of cake and Ariana still trying to figure out how this whole flower girl thing works:

 Congratulations again, Anita & Raheel! Thank you so much for everything!

love.more.cosmin

Vendors 'n' Things:

Wedding ceremony - Edmonton Headquarters Jamatkhana
Reception venue - Mirage Banquet Hall
Makeup - Sunita Sumaru
DJ - Nav Dunichand
MC, dancer, best man, maid of honor and who knows what else - Karima
MC - Karim
Second shooter/assitant - Ioana
First shooter/photographer/camera man/the guy who takes pictures - Cosmin