Ok Folks, time for round 2. I’m truly sorry for the long delay, but I’ve been busy with weddings and sessions lately. Not to mention it took me almost 2 weeks figure out how to incorporate a slideshow on the blog. You would think they could have made things easier with wordpress. The reason I chose to do a slideshow instead of the typical image post is becauase… well, there’s 80 images. Yes, I chose my favorite ones, and there were still 80 images from the wedding. Lucky for you, you don’t have to scroll forever. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the slideshow.

A little info on the wedding: The wedding took place in Youngstown Ohio. Maryum wanted some getting ready shots, so I proceeded to a fancy pants spa. Now being a heterosexual male, I’ve never been inside a spa/boutique… so the experience was a bit odd. However, I was surrounded by beautiful women working and getting work done on them, so I managed to survive through the fiasco 😀 Every wedding I’ve covered thus far, one thing has always been consistent. The amount of time it takes the groom to get ready, is exponentially larger for the bride. A formula I use in my head is grooms hours x 2 or 3 = brides hours. The getting ready phase for Maryum was almost 3 and a half hours long, whereas Sajid and the groomsmen were ready in literally 15 minutes. I encounter this at almost every wedding, and it cracks me up every time.

The wedding was very lavish, with lots of colors and festive events. The cake was one of the most spectacular cakes I’ve ever seen (even till this day). The figurine on top of the cake were miniture versions of the bride and groom in their traditional outfits. The detail on them were remarkable, and quite accurate to the real clothing. The cooler part however, was the fact that the mini-maryum figurine’s dress poured down the cake, and basically formed the main design. I don’t really care much for cakes at weddings, but theirs was definitely a show stopper. The wedding was full of festivities as well as various emotions. The food was good, the cake was good, and the couple were great. What more could you ask in a wedding.

Without further delay, I present you the images:

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Please feel free to leave any comments below. I really do enjoy reading them 🙂

A lot of people have seen the main site, and a questions I often get is… “Who is that gorgeous bride in your first picture?” Well, that gorgeous bride is Maryum, and the next few posts will be dedicated to her and her husband Sajid.

Sajid contacted me over the phone like any other client I have dealt with in the past. However, at the end of our conversation, he mentioned to me that the wedding was in Ohio. I was super excited, because this was officially my first destination wedding. I have never been to Ohio, and it was quite interesting to visit the little town of Youngstown. When I met both Sajid and Maryum in person, I instantly knew that it would be an absolute pleasure to work with these two. Not only were they super nice and accommodating, but they really did treat us like their own family. I ended up with so many great pics from this wedding, that I have to actually split this up in 3 separate posts to be able to properly cover the whole occasion.

This particular post includes the images from the mini Bridal session, and the Mehndi session right after. I love desi weddings for 3 main reasons: the colors, the fun, and the food. Lucky for me, I got the best of all 3 from this event 😀

The Bridals

Mehndi Session

I was asked on behalf of UNC to come and cover a guest speaker they would have in Chapel Hill.  Little did I know, the guest speaker was non other than Dr. Muhammad Yunus!

This was such an extreme  honor, my words can’t even express it.  Dr. Yunus not only won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, but he’s also from my native country of Bangladesh!  How awesome is that?  He pretty much single handedly introduced the concept of micro-financing with Grameen bank in Bangladesh, and revolutionized the country because of it.  If you don’t know much about what he did or why he got the much deserving award, I suggest you find out a bit more information here… it’s very interesting.   Although I was mostly focused on getting these pictures, I also very much enjoyed his lecture.  His brilliant ways of combining both business and humanitarian efforts are just remarkable.  His ideas is simply not to waste anything, because someone can always find use for it.  I remember one part I found particularly interesting was his relationship with Danon yogurt company.  Danon approached him to see how may be able to help him.  His response was, make an affordable yogurt for poor people, that anyone can buy.  However, this yogurt must have all the vitamins and minerals that children are lacking in the poorest part.  This way the yogurt can be given to all children, and it will not only feed them, but pretty much give them the suppliments they desperately need.  When Danon agreed, he said there’s still one problem… the cups are made out of plastic.  You should make the cups edible as well, so it’s not just being wasted.  On top of that, that edible cup should also contain vitamins and nutrients since it’s being eaten 🙂  This concept of helping people, conducting business, and not wasting anything is just amazing to me.

This was a very informative shoot, and I thoroughly enjoyed being there.  If you ever get a chance to hear this man speak, be sure you’re there.  I also suggest you read his book: creating a world without poverty.  It may very well change your outlook on life and what you can do for the needy.

So… here are the pictures:

This guy waited at the door throughout the whole speech, and then right when they’re giving him the award, literally jumps in front of everyone, block their view, and takes pictures like a paparazzi.  The most unprofessional photographer I’ve ever seen.

I wanted a quick picture with the man, but no one knew how to use my camera in there 🙁  <– that’s how sad I was because this picture wasn’t focused