It looks like 2008 is the year of the wedding. This morning Akhlaq got wedded to Batool and this evening they had their first reception – it is actually the reception for the bride’s side. I’ve never heard of two wedding receptions but I guess its traditional. Plus from what I could gather from what Akhlaq said they had no shortage of guests to invite … not that Akhlaq or Batool knew many of the guests!

Although I have asked Akhlaq a few things about Muslim weddings James and I still weren’t too sure what was going to happen tonight. The invite said that guests were to arrive at 6.30, speeches at 7.00 and food served at 7.30. Well, not unexpectedly I guess, we were one of the very first to arrive and guests didn’t finish arriving until after 7.30! Arriving early allowed us to get a feel for the room however. Located at The Centre in Slough (a conference centre) and with Akhlaq and Batool expecting up to 800 guests this was definitely one of the bigger wedding receptions I’ve been to. Interestingly men cannot sit in front of women and so with the L-shaped room the men were at the back and the women off to the side. This made for an interesting array of colours with the black of the suits of the men contrasting sharply with the colourful saris of the women.

At about 8pm Akhlaq walked in with a rather large entourage. It was kind of cool actually. He walked in greeting a few people and then went and sat up on stage with his I guess what would be considered his grooms men. About 20 minutes later Batool then walked in surrounded by her entourage to join Akhlaq on stage. It was all rather theatrical!

After that it was a lot of speeches and then at 9pm they started bringing out the food – big time! There were these giant platters of food and we could barely work through half of the platter before it was taken away to be refilled again. As we didn’t now what food was to come we didnt know how to pace ourselves … as a result I ended up seriously over eating.

After dessert there was a bit of time for going up to the stage and sitting with Akhlaq and Batool. It was strange that not many people were going up to talk to them – or mainly it was the same people going up. I don’t think that Akhlaq and Batool actually got a chance to eat which was a shame as there was a LOT of food.

Finally it was cake cutting time. Boy was this a crazy time – I somehow snuck up quite quickly next to the official photographer to take pictures and the next second I turn around and I’m literally surrounded by at least 50 people and their cameras. Bizarre! Because it was so busy and we had to go catch our train James and I didn’t end up getting any of the cake 🙁

So, its now official – the Boy is married! And he couldn’t be married to a nicer woman. In Batool he seems to have the perfect balance to his personality. Definitely great to be here for this part of Akhlaq’s life. Its also really nice to see him so over the moon and happy and confident.

More photos here.