Duniya Photos: OH LA LA

A few weeks back I attended a wedding in the South of France. In a place called Abeunas in the Ardeche (definatley worth a visit, its one of my favorite plaves in France)

ON THE DRIVE INTO ABEUENAS

Needless to say attending the wedding was exciting but what made it more exciting for me is that it was a wedding of a friend and that I was doing the photography as a gift for her wedding.
Wedding gifts are difficult at the best of time so being in the postion to create meomeories that will last a lifetime to me are the best gift that I could possibly give a friend.
The wedding day is so important to a bride...doesnt matter what religion or what country rich or poor...wedding are universal, the feelings transends all boundries and differences. Needless to say I was hoping to impress and to see my friend rachida smile....not a hard task seeing as she never seems to not smile........

I was really excited as i knew i was arriving a few days before and would be apart of the preperations and pre wedding parties and to be honest i think thats what made the whole experience all the more magical for me.
Watching a family come together like that for such a joyous occasion is such a heart warming experience and getting to be a part of that in an honner. We live in a society where the family has become fragmented, bonds have thinned to the point of snapping so to see so many people laughing, loving and celebrating truely was magical. And walking away from that experience has left me feeling that my family is now a little bigger.

The funniest thing of all is that I speak very basic French and no Arabic at all...but my favorite people of all at the wedding were the older North African ladies.They couldnt speak English I can't speak Arabic yet with a few muddled words of French and Arabic combiened with hand gestures and facial expressions we got through pretty well i think. I have never received so many hugs kisses and warm smiles from such a lovely bunch of women......in fact see them for your selves....my chillout crewxx

So back to the preperations....

wow I have to say Tunisians love their sweets... I have never seen such an array of yummy colourful delights in all my life and have to guiltily admit whilst we were making goody bags for the guest to take away a few of these scrummy sweets made it into my mouth.

You can only imagine what breakfast was like with all those delicious baked delights.....now i'm making myself hungry. Yup i can resist showing you the tempations that i had to deal with.

Once the preperations were finished the partying really started ....there were two full evenings of Henna where the bride is decorated with henna while the rest of us sing dance and tell stories. It was fantastic, the house was full of laughter and music and of course plenty of sweets.

RACHIDAS HENNA

The best part of these parties was after....i've never seen so many people stay over in one house it was like the biggest and most fun sleep over with us often getting told off by Rachida and Takwa's Mum for making too much nosie and us bursting into fits of laughter. there was something innocent and pure about these few days almost as if we were all kids again. But thats maybe what fun does to you...takes you back to a time when things were simpler and the worries of the world didn't rest on your shoulders.

FAMILY DINNER

I am lucky to have a close but small family but to see such a big extended family from the cutest kids to the wisest old women reminds you how important love and unity really is. Im not painting this to be the perfect family...im sure just like with other families there are missed opportunities and distant relationships but on occassions such as weddings it's as if there is an amnesty and it's a chance to relight friendships and to create new ones.
A time to celebrate those that are there and think of those that could only be there in spirit.

Ive just realised with all my rambling about the warmth and love i felt i failed to actually show you the couple at the heart of all this positivity....the beautiful (both inside and out) Rachida and Ibrahim....

RACHIDA AND IBRAHIM

Lovely aren't they? The totally suit each other and I love the way they both make each other laugh all the time. You can see that they are close but their constant smiles show that life is never goning to get in the way about how they feel about each other. To be honest I am a bit of a pessimist and always have a downer on Love but seeing these two melted my heart and actually made me sit back and think that maybe I do have a soul mate out there but maybe he's not in a very obvious place.

The big day was majestic to say the least, Rachida was like some kind of princess with about 4/5 out fit changes...needless to say me and my camera were exsaughsted by the end of the day....actually i think i couldn't move the next day and missed my chance to quickly visit chamberry in the french Alps....thats not why i was sad..it meant missing the chance to see Hananes family....another amazing family that have shown me so much hospitality and love.

The big day started with the happy couple and their entourage leaving for the civil ceromony.