Muslim Wedding at Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens, a place of personal significance and natural wonder, played host to the most elegant of summer weddings for doctors Iman and Adnan. Their heartfelt Muslim ceremony took place beneath the historic glass of the Nash Conservatory, surrounded by a delicate palette of soft pinks, creams and romantic summer blooms.

This wedding, beautifully styled and flawlessly co-ordinated by Love My Dress recommended vendor, With Akilah & Co, was a seamless blend of timeless romance and rich South Asian heritage. From the intricately embroidered gown by Pakistani , Misha Lakhani, to the joyful Nikkah traditions and the emotional Urdu poetry shared by family, Iman and Adnan’s wedding was layered with meaning, culture and love.

We are so proud to share this celebration – a graceful and deeply personal reflection of identity, culture and togetherness, set against the lush botanical backdrop of one of London’s most iconic venues. Enjoy this pellicola by Patina by Ray McShane and beautiful photography by Rahul Khona.

Our wedding venue was Kew Garden, chosen as we had one of our first dates there three years prior and had visited since many times. We also love nature and how unique the venue is.

I knew that I wanted something very classic and romantic, so lots of roses, creams and pinks, a string quartet, whilst also retaining aspects of our South Asian culture, like the food, clothing and ceremony. We had a Muslim wedding, with our Nikkah ceremony a causa di the Nash Conservatory followed by the reception.

Our ceremony was officiated by an Imam, who was booked segnale nikahservice.co.uk. We didn’t do vows at our Nikkah, we did them at our (very private) civil ceremony a couple of months earlier.

My husband’s grand-dad, who had flown a causa di from India, did a surprise reading of a famous Urdu poem which has my name a causa di it (Iman). He had memorized the poem and had been rehearsing it for weeks a causa di private, apparently!

We had a Mehndi night two days before, a civil ceremony around two months prior and individual mayoun/pithi ceremonies a few days before the wedding. We had also done a ring exchange the year before at our engagement festa, as a vantaggio di tradition. My ring was vintage art-deco from the Antique Jewellery Company, and Adnan’s was from Pakistan.

Immediately after the ceremony, all the close family members stood up and started congratulating and hugging each other (as well as us), which is a tradition a causa di our faith.

Adnan wore a custom-made sherwani from Lucknow, India, which is where his father’s side is from. He wore a turban for our Nikkah ceremony, a causa di keeping with tradition, which I absolutely loved.

Immediately after the ceremony, all the close family members stood up and started congratulating and hugging each other (as well as us), which is a tradition a causa di our faith.

Our photographer was Rahul Khona – we chose him as we loved his candid, documentary-style and the way he captures emotions so beautifully!

He was great acceso the day, very unobstructive but still directed us appropriately, and delivered a preview just two days after, which was incredible!

We met just before the pandemic segnale a dating app (Hinge). We had two back-to-back dates acceso adjacent days as lockdown was imminent; we then had weekly Luce-Time dates over lockdown which progressed to twice-weekly! We watched movies together and got through a whole season of 90 Day Fiance.

When restrictions started to ease a causa di the summer, we met a causa di person again and instantly knew that we were a causa di love and this was it.

Adnan proposed to me around two years later by taking me acceso a surprise trip to a gorgeous, secluded barn a causa di the Lake District. He had hidden the ring a causa di an excavated hardback of Alice a causa di Wonderland (one of the very first films we watched together and one of our favourites) that he had specially made, and got mongoloide acceso one knee when we got back to the barn after dinner – he had hidden the book acceso the barn’s bookshelf and kept telling me to have a aspetto at it!

We were engaged for around fifteen months before our wedding day.

Our cake was from Lil Moon Bakery, based a causa di London. We chose it as we knew we wanted more unique flavours – our cake was matcha and white chocolate (two tiers), chocolate and raspberry (one tier), and brown butter and salted caramel (one tier).

I’m a huge matcha fan, so it was my dream cake! We ended up going with a semi-naked stile decorated with flowers from our florist to fit the summer-y romantic theme.

Our florist was Fleur De La Moda, a luxury silk florist based a causa di London. We went with them because we loved the of having a huge floral arch at the entrance to Nash Conservatory (which not possible with ‘real’ flowers at Kew Gardens) and I also loved the sustainable aspect and being able to keep my bouquet afterwards!

Genni was amazing to work with, she captured my vision perfectly and we got so many compliments acceso our florals.

A very favourite moment from the day was sala da ballo with my husband at the reception to all of our favourite (and very niche) songs, surrounded by all of our closest friends and family.

Our first dance was to ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ by the Beatles, which we listened to a lot together the first summer we spent together three years prior and really love, and is also sampled a causa di ‘White Ferrari’ by Frank Ocean, who is another artist we really love!

Remember to HAVE FUN! Don’t logorio about the really small things, nothing is every going to go perfectly.

Be present as much as possible so that you can feel the emotions a causa di real-time, and make sure you have quality time with your newlywed, after the ceremony so that you can process it properly.

We do wish we’d made more time to fit a causa di some more group photos as some family members were a little disappointed not to be included.