PRODUCT REVIEW: Halal & Vegetarian Sweets by The Sweet Path

I was recently sent a beautiful sweet hamper by halal sweets company The Sweet Path, who are a UK-based sweet company, who specialise in retro, halal sweets which are also vegetarian. The sweets were sent to me in a beautiful box (which I am keeping for my pretty things) and were beautifully packaged. Naturally I couldn't resist laying all of them out for a pretty photo, so please appreciate the time and arranging-fiddly-things which went into the below picture!

These are the sweets - and yes, they tasted as good as they look!

This is the box the sweets came in - it's a surprisingly sturdy, very well made box which was lined with tissue and had a pretty ribbon and bow on it. The sweets came in wrapped packets were well protected - and can I just say, there was a lots of sweets in each packet!

My sisters and I love our halal sweets and always stop to buy some whenever we find a shop that sells them - so this is pretty perfect. These are the sweets that were sent to me (everyone in my family are obssessed with marshmallows so that one was perfect for them!) My favourite was the tangy cola bottles, and my husband ate all the jelly meerkats which he said were amazing (he only let me have a few but they were nice!)

I'm really impressed with how this hamper was put together and arranged - it would make a really lovely present and the size is pretty good. I also love the fact that the company also does wedding favours, sweet jars, sweet cones and even sweet lanterns - there's lot of different sizes and they're handy for anyone looking for a mix of sweets for various occasions.

I really liked this sweet hamper, and the fact that it also comes in different sizes - they really are a nice idea for a gift for someone who has a sweet tooth, and it's lovely to see the effort which is put into these products. I'm pretty sure that the next time I have a tea party or event, this will be a great option for favours too!

You can buy the halal and vegetarian sweets at The Sweet Path's onlinze shop here
Facebook group here
Instagram account here

The company will also be at the Muslim Lifestyle Show this Bank Holiday weekend so check them out if you're attending!

THE WEDDING POST: Mehndi Memories!

Can you believe that it's been a year since my wedding?! I really can't, it seems like only a few weeks ago that I got married and moved away from my parents, and yet I'm so settled and comfortable in my married life that weirdly enough, it feels like I've always been married!

So this time last year, on this day, I had my mehndi night. which was surprisingly an emotional day but a lovely one, surrounded by friends and family. There's a lot of things which I stressed about at the time but on that day, walking in under a curtain of flowers and looking at all of my friends, a lot of that stress and anxiety melted away (to the music of Ali Zafar's Jhoom, if anyone wanted to know!)

I thought I'd do a series of memories posts this week - what I remember from my events, including my mehndi day, the good, the bad and the funny, especially as it's amazing what sticks out in your mind afterwards!

So here's a few random things I remember from my mehndi night, in no particular order, although I'll try not to complain too much! I do remember wanting to do a hundred and one things and stressing about it, and I'm only mentioning them now because a year later looking back, I really don't know why I worried as much as I did.

Getting ready
I'm lucky enough to know a lot of make-up artists and henna artists, so naturally I got my sister-in-law to spend do my makeup, which I loved. We even managed to spend a little free time in the the day where she took me out for brunch before we got ready, which helped relax me a lot. She got the look even better than I thought, I wanted simple and glowy and she managed both without making my face look too heavy or busy, and I loved the result.

It made me happy that I was able to save so much money by booking a makeup artist for my main wedding day, as it can really add up with the more functions you have. I was also glad that it looked the way I wanted without having to compromise - I've met so many women who have opted to do their own makeup or ask a friend to do it, for one or more of their wedding functions and they've looked great, so I'd definitely encourage that options for brides who are thinking about it.

My hair and the mess at the end of the day!

My jasmine flowers (which were such a headache to buy, because I wanted fresh ones!) came loose half-way through the mehndi and basically looked a mess by the end of the day - you can see them unravelling in pictures below, and the before/after of the flowers! This isn't to criticise the hair-stylist at all - I got my hair and dupatta setting done by Shamalah Hairstylist and LOVED what she did, the flowers themselves just wilted and were bound to fall down after a lot of dancing and moving around! The hair looks not so bad in the second picture, but by the time I got home the flowers had dried and my hair was all over the place!

Also, if any Londoners wants to know where I got the flowers, Vallis in East Ham, East London do them at an amazing price of £1 per string meter and they smell beautiful! A tip for any brides using flowers though, keeping them in the fridge really helped me in keeping them fresh overnight.

Even worse, when I got home, it took me ages to undo my hair and get my hair sorted out. It was actually more painful than my wedding hair was because there was a lot more extensions and back-combing involved, and worse for me because I didn't realise it would be this difficult! 

Non-attendees

A few of my friends didn’t turn up to the mehndi, which I was a little upset about at the time, although I did get over it 15 minutes into the mehndi, once the dancing started! I only mentioned this because it's inevitable that someone can't make it, or something can happen which can be really annoying - try not to let it get to you too much. A friend of mine who got married around the same time I did told me that she was pretty upset that a some of her friends and family didn't make it to her mehndi, enough that when she went home she was upset and even cried a little. You're bound to be emotional but don't let these be the last and defining moments of your Big Days, the last thing you would want to remember about your events is being upset for the wrong reasons.

It's also easy to get annoyed at the little things like these, when it's so much better to appreciate people who DID turn up and make the effort, which can really make a difference on the night! It's fair to say all of the right people turned up and it was really warming to see that they made the effort, not to mention all of the hard work from my mum, sisters and sister-in-law!

Asian Timings

I got to my mehndi venue really early, and was a bit annoyed that I turned up before the guests, particularly as it meant my brother, who was my chauffeur for the night, and I had to wait because I didn't want to talk into an empty hall. Thankfully, my photographer was already at the venue, and used this time for a quiet photo-shoot which I loved – some of my favourite pictures are from this shoot. I was also glad to be punctual because it meant I had some quiet time to myself beforehand.

Sweets and Favours

I barely saw the beautiful sweet table my sisters made and set up. I sure as heck didn’t get to eat anything from it. At least I had lots of photos of it afterwards! Similarly I had spent a lot of time with my sisters making up favour bags, sweet cones and decor boxes in a peacock print theme, which kind of got lost in the hall decor, but admittedly on the day, it didn't matter as much to me anyway.

Ghagray

We’d bought lots of jasmine strings to make into bracelets (ghagray) for some of the guests, and some of them got forgotten. Two of my friends ended up putting dolly-mixture sweet bracelets on my wrists to make up for it because we forgot to get my best friends to put the flowers on my wrist! I don't know why I look so serious in the photo below because I remember laughing about it all!

Food!
Our food got served late, which was very frustrating, as the caterers had been calling me all afternoon while I was getting ready to ask me about venue access and set-up. I actually got up from my stage at one point during a break when the guests managed to eat, to go into the kitchens and tell off the caterers. They learned their lesson and served the food on time on the wedding day though, so at least I told them off effectively!

Dancing the night away!
We managed to get some of the older ladies, the mums and aunties, up for a Beyonce dance which was fun, and it was even better when my sisters and friends joined in too. One of my friends is an amazing (and enthusiastic!) dancer so she stole the show with her moves and got me to join in as well, although I'll admit I was a lot more embarassed!

My niece and I doing twirls!

It feels pretty strange to look through some of these now and see myself all dressed up, especially because I looked pretty calm in a lot of photos and I know I was quite nervous!
A friend of mine got married a few days ago and told me she felt the same - I think it was that point after months of stressing that she walked in and decided to just enjoy herself rather than look for things that had gone wrong.

I know there were a lot of things which were missing, didn't look the way I thought or just general things I thought were needed - looking back I now know that as much as we brides love the little details. the beautiful decor, the amazing dances, it's more important to enjoy the night and being with your close ones. Above all, just sit back, relax and focus on looking good!

My Mehndi Night!

I finally got (some!) of the professional pictures from my mehndi and wedding day, so I thought I'd kick off this Monday with a post about my mehndi (finally!). I've been sifting though hundreds of photos and trying to pick out the best ones (even as I was typing away I kept finding more to add in!)

Just a quick note to ask anyone who does share these images, please do credit me back to my blog.

First off (and most exciting for me), here's what I look like. I debated for quite some time about showing my face, especially as I never really do in my blog. I've decided not to because I don't want this to be about how I look, so much as what I wore. I did want to show my face to show the amazing make-up I had done by my sister-in-law, which I was really, really  happy with, but in the long run I think I'll stick to my decision (although you can have a quick peek of my eyes!)

So here's me doing twirlies in the town square as directed by my photographer! This is my mehndi outfit, which I designed myself over a course of a few months and got made from Pakistan. I will be doing a fuller post about my outfit soon, so don't worry, more details coming! Overall I kept my mehndi look simple because the outfit was so heavy - I wore a simple teeka and a ring, and some bangles, plus some jasmine flowers in my hair. Even now when I look at my mehndi outfit, I want to wear it again because I enjoyed wearing it so much, and because it came out so beautifully!

 

My decor was mainly done by the caterers we had booked, although all of the small touches were done by my sisters and sister-in-law. The mehndi itself took place in a local Town Hall which was perfect because it was intimate and pretty sound-proof for our function, and also ideal since the event was ladies-only and the venue protected our privacy.

Here's some of the decor from the caterers and also some that we did - initially I had wanted to go for a peacock theme which we mainly kept to. We did also end up adding a lot of marigolds and gold touches with fresh flowers which didn't go with the peacock theme, but overall it was a beautiful, colourful look and it worked. Here's some just of the images below, again there were so many, I didn't know which ones to post!

My favourite part of all the decor was the candy bar, the fruit table and the smaller touches which were all done by my sisters and sister-in-law. The henna biscuits, the cupcakes, the sweet trees and the candy bar were ALL made by hand by my sisters and sister-in-law - looking back I'm still amazed at how much they managed to put together and make it all look so amazing.

Here's me being walked in by all the girls and women in the family, while my mum stood next to me underneath. I was meant to walk under a deep red dupatta we had, but my sister-in-law thoughtfully got me this beautiful curtain of flowers to walk under instead. It was a really pretty effect (although it really made my sisters and sis-in-law's arms tired because of the heavy poles!) - it was also really nice to walk in and see all my family, friends and neighbours smiling at me while I peeked through the flowers.

Once I walked in, we did all the rasms (cultural traditions) which usually take place at our mehndis - putting dabs of mehndi on my hand, being fed fruit and mithai, while some of the guests sat in the cushioned area and sang folk songs with the dholki, and some put mehndi on their hands.

After this was dinner, which my photographer and I took as an opportunity to take some silly photographs, before we cleared everything away. We ended the night with a LOT of dancing and some games - we tried to get the older women up to join the fun as well but some were more stubborn than others!

I won't post pictures of the dancing because a lot of them are pictures of friends and family who want to remain private, but I will post this picture of me dancing and twirling with my friends which we couldn't stop laughing at!

I'll be posting more pictures about some things from my mehndi soon, and also about my outfit, so watch this space!

- Curly Fries x

Bride & Groom Cake Pops!

Cake pops (along with cupcakes) are becoming extremely popular in terms of wedding favours and/or wedding cakes, and no wonder when they look so cute. I really liked these bride and groom themed cake pops, which look simple yet incredibly cute, and they're certainly different from the usual cakes and favours I've seen at weddings!

Definitely something to consider for weddings, they don't cost a lot to make, and they would make a great theme for a wedding (especially if you could even do an Asian bridal version!).

 Image from here

Wedding Preps!

There wasn't as much running around to do for my sister's wedding day, compared to how much we had to do for the mehndi night, mainly because most of the things had been organised and finalised months before.

We mostly spent the night before the wedding with family, joking around together, as well as just making final checks on things like the favour boxes (which we filled with personalised Love Heart sweets, pink and white heart shaped jelly sweets and various nuts and sugared treats), and putting together the guest book (with a baby picture of both bride and groom!) We also spent the evening pampering (or trying to!) and doing last-minute things like putting on nail varnishes and arranging our bangles  - and not getting a lot of sleep! :)