Me-Made-Wedding Part 1! The Aroosi...

My wedding feels like a LONG time ago now - in fact, they both do... Yes, I had TWO weddings! One was the planned, "let's do it in the summer..," kind of wedding. The other was a glorious gift, given to us by Martin's family - a Persian Aroosi; like nothing I've ever experienced before!



When I set about finding a dress for the Persian ceremony (the aroosi) my mind went back to an amazing series of blog posts by dressmaker Charity Shop Chic who made her own wedding dress, and what a beauty it was. I almost cried when I read the last post, I know that sounds daft - but she put so much effort into making that dress, and it was so perfect... I can imagine it made her wedding day even more wonderful. ANYWAY - I am in NO way near as gifted/experienced as she is, but I still wanted to have a hand in making something to wear, or something towards the day itself... 
My mind started buzzing... Wedding favours? The place settings... the groom's tie?!! There were almost too many choices, so I decided to do what I could fit in to the reasonable amount of time given, and forget about the rest! Interestingly, the things I ended up making for the wedding/s are the things I just couldn't find for sale anywhere - so you could say it was a happy marriage between desire, and necessity! In this post, I'll just talk about one of my makes for The Aroosi.

By way of background - an aroosi is a Persian wedding ceremony, of Zoroastrian heritage, and rather than tell you all about it here - I'll just share this link to a great post, so you can read all about it! Martin's father, and wife, are Iranian - and it was with great pride they held an aroosi for us, in their back garden, with a 'few' of their/our closest friends...


Roya leading the way to the sofre aghd

It was a beautiful, emotional, and personal experience - and all of it completely new to me! I was, however, determined to be involved in some way; in spite of not being aware of the traditions, I felt I could contribute something. It just so happened Roya had the perfect crafty project for me!

During the aghd (ceremony) - we would be sitting under a canopy, as is tradition (the following excerpt is taken from the other blog); As the bride and groom are seated before the guests, a canopy is held above their heads by several unmarried women, traditionally family members, but in modern weddings, by the bride's wedding party. Until the 19th century, the canopy was green, the favourite colour of Zoroastrians, but in recent years, it is a white piece of cloth to blend more with Western culture.
As the ceremony is taking place, happily married members of the family take turns grinding two sugar cones together so that the sugar granules fall into the canopy, symbolically showering the couple in sweetness.

It was, when I started, a plain piece of chiffon cloth. Roya wanted something more ornate, and for it to be adorned with pearls all the way around.



This would have been a fairly simple, fast, job - had I worked out how to do it, earlier on. As it was, I tried to sew it together on the machine, which worked out fine for the ribbon - but NOT the pearl trim...



Suffice to say, the pearls were rather fiddly - and needed to be attached by hand. I threaded the pearls onto acrylic thread, then looped the string of pearls at regular intervals onto the ribbon trim... the 'reveal' is the first photo on this post - but here's a close up, so you can see how it turned out:



And now a couple of 'action shots'!






I was quite happy with how it turned out, and thankfully no-one said "erm... what IS that?!" - so I think it managed to fill the remit! To be fair, I was very much in-the-moment, and probably wouldn't have noticed if it had ripped apart over our heads!

That wasn't the only thing I made for the aroosi - but, as this post is already quite long, I'll save the next make for another day... here's a sneak peek of the shawl Mum mentioned she would like to wear...



That will be my next post, a VERY simple DIY post on the shawl; in the meantime, I'll leave you with a photo of me with Martin when we arrived at the aroosi, about to see all the guests...



It was such a beautiful evening, with so much love, and happiness... a wonderful, generous, way for Martin's family to make me feel welcome.
More on that, next time! 

Gema
x

Comments

  1. Oh my gosh, Gema! Everything about this is absolutely beautiful, you, the canopy, the Aroosi, the photographs! Thank you for sharing with us. :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank-you so much Beth; we did have the most perfect evening... x

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  2. Belated but best wishes & congratulations Gema! You & your Mum look fabulous - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as the saying goes!
    ; )

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