This Weekly Wednesday we're sharing Amina & Mahad's big day in Benton Harbor! These two got engaged September 3rd of 2017 and were officially wed in October, but we captured more photos during the "unofficial" wedding day this summer. These two live in the capital of Michigan- Lansing- which is just a couple hours from Benton Harbor, so they were relatively close to their home on their big day.
Amina and Mahad are a perfect pair. Amina is a very strong, straight-forward woman with many ambitions and Mahad complements her perfectly. The two are patient and kind as well as well-traveled and humble. They are Muslim (like some of our past wedding clients over the past 9+ years in Indiana and Ohio have been) and we were loving Amina's gorgeous hijab!
Since there's a lot of misinformation out there, we'd like to share some things about Islam and Muslim weddings. Many Muslims come from the Middle East, Turkey, Indonesia, parts of Africa, Central Asia in general, etc., though are only 1% of all of North America. They make up 25% of the WORLD and many of our friends and clients here in Indiana are Muslim. Islam is one of the two largest religions in the world along with Christianity. Both religions believe in one God, but in the Muslim faith Jesus is the Messiah (born of a virgin birth from Mary and vital to their theology) is separate from God (who in their eyes is one- not a trinity like most Christians believe). Muslims still believe that "the Gospel" was sent by God, but they have their own text separate from the Bible called the Quran which they believe to be the most important. Jesus is not seen as the "son of God," rather a prophet who was sentenced to crucifixion, but was saved from it and was instead raised to heaven. More important to Islam is Muhammad who received the Qu'ran directly from God. There are many other differences and similarities, but we'll leave those for a conversation between you and a studied theologian.
Though similar to Christian weddings in a way, there are some differences in Muslim-American weddings. We didn't photograph it for Amina and Mahad since their wedding was back in the fall, but the wedding itself is called the Nikah and it's the time where the marriage contract is signed with the Imam and at least 2 witnesses. We've photographed these before in home, but they are also often done in the mosque and all are done by the imam. Most Muslim brides in the United States still wear white, though they do have traditional mehandi (henna) on their hands (which Amina did have for their formal wedding in the fall). The most traditional portion of the wedding is the reception which is very similar to all traditional weddings in the United States as you may have seen in past Muslim weddings that we've photographed.
Back to the wedding itself, though! The reception was the Stonegate Manor in Benton Harbor, Michigan. There were sweets like donuts, cookies, and pop (soda) for guests outside on tables and the guest gifts were small, pink beautifully scented soaps (by Sydney Marie Soaps)! It's always amazing to have some portion of a wedding day outside so that guests and the bride & groom can enjoy themselves in some serene nature. (Stonegate is great though in that the reception hall is on the property inside so that no matter if it rains, snows, or anything, guests will be covered and comfortable!)
We loved capturing Amina's bridal portraits during the day. It was clear that she was confident and a very strong bride! She worked those angles and these are some of the most beautiful bride portraits we've gotten over the past 9+ years.
Amina graduated college 5 years ago and now works at a shelter to help battered women transitioning back into the community, is trained as a doula, dabbles in modeling, and is also a photographer as well! Needless to say she's a very talented, empathetic, and accomplished woman.
The reception has as always was gorgeous. Trudy has created a gorgeous property perfect for weddings complete with a beautiful reception hall! We always love all of the little details including the beautiful wall and table decorations. All-in-all the day was as perfect as the love these two share!
We hope you enjoyed checking out Amina & Mahad's beautiful Teasers! Congratulations, Amina & Mahad on the wedding (and officially having been married for 9 months)! Can you believe we're less than a month & a half from when you two got engaged?! We loved working with you two and hope that you're well up in Lansing!
***Vendor info for those interested: Hair & Makeup: Brittany Carpenter, Bouquet: Flowery Art, & Planner: Darion Longmire!
Unrelated: We just returned mere hours ago from camping at the Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan! This state park + campground is a beautiful beach on Lake Michigan (which is like an ocean beach, but without the salt and sharks) which also has huge, mountainous sand dunes sprawling all around it. We're only about 50 minutes from this gorgeous location, so when our plans got cancelled for the upcoming weekend that we'd booked for 3 days, we immediately booked a camping trip closer by for 3 days at the start of the week (starting Sunday evening) instead so we could still camp and use our pop-up trailer for the first time in non-winter weather (since we just got it 5 months ago)-! One of Jenny's 13 cousins recently booked her wedding for this coming weekend, so we cancelled our plans to camp in Ohio nearly 4 hours away with a couple of our friends we have hung out with even across the country over the past 4 years (a couple Jenny has been friends with since living in Columbus, Ohio from '09 to '12) this coming weekend. We're sad to have cancelled since it was going to be a fun Christmas in July event wherein we were to decorate our camper with a ton of Christmas decorations, but we're glad we'll likely still see Dan & Caitlin when we visit Ohio for art creation coming up in 2 weeks-! All of this to say: We just started the blog this evening, so it may be a little shorter than most since we were crunched for time to post today as we just finished unpacking and getting the animals and their things settled!
*Also Unrelated: Coming up next Weekly Wednesday next week, we'll be teaching you how to put together a successful wedding day schedule that ensures all of the best wedding photos, flow of the day, and no missed moments-! We've been helping our clients put together their Wedding Day Schedules for years, so it only feels right to impart some of our wisdom and knowledge to you from an insider in the wedding industry. Check back next week for some tips and tricks to help you piece together the most important parts of your big day-!