WEDDING INSPIRATION: Cakes from the Cake & Bake Show 2016

I went to the London Cake & Bake show this last weekend, and thought it was a treasure-trove of inspiration for brides to be, as well as those looking for cake displays for special events like baby showers, bridal showers, birthdays and even just girly tea parties.

I won't post all of the photos of the things I saw (there were just too many!), but wanted to show the variety of themes, styles and cakes out there for those who are looking for more inspiration.

I'll start with my favourite tables, the professionally-made dessert tables - these were beautifully made floral cakes grouped together, made by professional cake companies to showcase their skills. I love that each dessert table had cakes and biscuits to match the whole theme, which looked gorgeous together.

I loved that each dessert table had more than one cake (maybe that's just me being greedy) so that it made the table seem more luxurious and extravagant. I thought this was an interesting alternative to a lot of tables I have seen where the cake is the main showpiece and everything else is centred around the main cake.

I also really liked the colours and textures used for the cakes - lace, floral pieces, ribbons - not to mention some very cool looking mini cakes which looked a bit like bath bombs!

There were cakes on display all around the exhibition, which showed a variety of techniques, themes and colours so that brides aren't just stuck with the traditional plain white cake. I particularly liked the wooden-themed nature cakes below, and the beautiful pearl cakes!

I also loved this beautifully detailed cushion cake - probably took ages to make but doesn't it look beautiful?

The Cake show had a huge number of vendors selling tools to decorate and embellish cakes - there were lots of styles I hadn't seen before such as glittery lace, edible gem stones, detailed beading and beautifully worked icing in a variety of ways.

Macarons are the latest, fashionable edibles for wedding cakes, so naturally we also saw some of these - I loved the giant gold macaron cake below, although not sure how it'd taste!

Another thing that also gets neglected a lot in wedding tables are biscuits - and there were some amazing ones at the Cake and Bake shows. My favourite were these wedding-themed biscuits, such as the wedding dresses, proposal biscuits, floral bouquets and even biscuits for the bridesmaids! I thought this would be great for bridal showers as well as henna night and wedding dessert tables.

There were also some gorgeous cake stands available for those looking to display their own cakes, or even for weddings. I love that these weren't restricted by size or styles (we even saw a huge stand shaped like a horse-and-carriage!)

Another things which has become fairly fashionable recently are cupcake bouquets - they look cute and are fairly easy to make! I thought these looked so pretty, and would made a great centre-piece for a dessert table, or even as a hand-held bouquet!

I also saw some great cake ideas for mehndi events - such as these peacock cakes below. I liked these straightaway because it made me think of the peacock theme I had for my own mehndi - I would have loved to have these on display! I also liked the embellished biscuits below, which reminded me of  a lot of biscuits I've seen for mehndi parties which have a henna design on them.

Cake-pops and meringues are another pretty alternatives to cupcakes or cakes - they look colourful and cute, and would look amazing for a dessert table! My sister has made us cake-pops before and they have looked really pretty on dessert tables (or in our hands!) and I liked the variety of flavours and colours below. I'm less a fan of meringues but I LOVED the rainbows ones available at the cake show - you could have just these on the table and they'd look beautiful!

There were a huge amount of cakes at the show, and we spent a good few hours browsing, buying goodies and also looking at new techniques for cake and cupcake making. It's given me a lot of ideas for future tea-parties, as well as different treats to try out, so watch this space!

You can see more of  my pictures here, and also on my sister's blog here.

The Wedding Posts: Getting the Groom’s outfit

As my wedding anniversary fast approaches (two years next week, if you can believe it!) I’ve been remembering my wedding preps all over again (thank god that’s all over), and remembered a few posts I meant to write around the wedding time and never got around to.

I don’t normally post much about men’s outfits primarily because I don’t know much about them, and also because I haven't needed to buy many Pakistani/Indian style men’s outfits in the past, so I’ve stayed away from the topic. I also have noticed that while there is plenty of information out there for women to order their bridals, there is a lot less for the men's side of things - so here are my experiences. (And also, this ended up being a longer post than I thought, so be warned!)

I thought I’d post this one first out of the 'wedding posts' because with Eid coming up, I’ve been pestering my husband to make time to shop for his clothes and not leave it last minute – not for the first time! So inevitably this brought to mind the headache that came with buying my husband’s wedding outfit, which seemed to be more drama than mine. Unlike my outfit, which I spent about 2-3 months designing with the designer I used, and the step-by-step involvement I had with my outfit, my husband managed to leave his outfit nearly to the last minute, mostly because he assumed that he'd be able to go to a shop quickly and fine something to wear!

Little did we know that when it comes to men’s wedding outfits and groomswear, it can be just as much headache as the bridals!

To be fair, my husband didn’t leave his outfit TOO late - he started looking around just under 2 months before the wedding, which I thought was a reasonable time since a lot of shops ask for 6-8 weeks for anything to get made.

What we wanted:
A simple, not too fussy sherwani jacket with straight trousers and a plain shirt. My husband didn’t want any extras (turban, scarf, sword!) because he wanted something comfortable and flattering, and was mainly focused on having something which was made from a good quality fabric. He also knew my bridal outfit would be dressy (and sparkly!) so wanted something to complement this, but wanted something simple to suit his tastes as well. We both wanted a black outfit rather than a cream or white, and looked online for ideas - below are the closest two images we wanted to go with when looking for the wedding outfit.

 Left: Ziggi's Studio, Right: Bargello.com

Our budget: Not very high, again because he wanted something simple he was willing to pay about £300ish for the suit. Personally I don't believe a men's outfit should cost too much if there isn't much work on it and if it is simple - the designs above had some embellishment but we didn't even want too much of this either.

Places we went to: Mainly east London - Ilford Lane, Green Street, some online vendors. We spent about two weeks shopping around and making email and Whatsapp enquries before we settles on something.


Our Shopping Trips and Online Queries:
I wanted to share some of our experiences with some of the well-known shops in the high street - sadly enough, we actually had some bad experiences with a lot of shops. It was a pity to see that some shops and designers we wanted to go with gave us a bad service as well.
This isn't to bash any shops or designers, but share my experiences - and perhaps a warning for anyone shopping for men's outfits!

Ziggi’s Studio
This was our primary choice, as the outfit we wanted was the black sherwani above and which my husband loved. We weren't able to visit the store immediate because it is in Birmingham and we both work full time so it would be difficult to make time to visit, so we decided to contact the designers via Whatsapp. Firstly I spoke to Ziggi himself and said that we couldn't visit the store yet, and showed the design we wanted. He explained that this was an older design, but something could be done if we didn't go with the exact same material. Once we said we were fine with this, we were then passed onto another person (I was told this was Ziggi's brother), who sent some pictures of fabrics. After this, communication dried up and I wasn't able to get much clear information at all, and was mostly told that I would need to visit the store to see outfits and make an order. The outfit itself was quoted about £500 to me, which was higher then our budget, but again, it was not made clear whether we could negotiate to make a cheaper outfit. Ultimately I was very disappointed with the information I was given, and the fact that it did not feel like I could get much information before making an order. After being sent a few pictures I didn't get much reply at all, and was frustrated at the fact that we weren't given the service we could have been.

RDC London
This is a local store, which does some pretty decent men's wedding wear and semi-formal outfits. My husband and I went to the store and spoke to the designer of the store, showing the designs we wanted, and also browsed the store's collection. We were advised to make an appointment to look at the bridals, and then told that we had 'left it too late' -  the store would need at least six months to custom-make something we wanted. When we said that we didn't think it would take too long as we wanted something quite simple, the designs we was pretty simple, the designer first quoted us £650 for it (which was more than the original designer outfit would cost!) and then stated that he didn't think he would be able to make it for us. Because it was the middle of Ramadan, he explained he wanted to focus on the upcoming Eid collections and 'didn't have time' to focus on our wedding outfit. Needless to say, we left the store after this, feeling very annoyed.

Cuckoo Fashion
This was a store in Green Street which had an amazing, colourful colourful collection, with some very elaborate pieces and some really nice pieces. Fairly above our budget but the shop did say that they were willing to work with our budget. Our only problem was that my husband wasn't able to try anything on - everything in the store was either a size Small or XS (he is neither) and there was nothing in his size. When we asked for bigger sherwanis to try on, the shop stated we would have to order something in his size, but we were unwilling to take the risk and buy something without trying it on first.

Geeta Arts
This was the other place which was in our top choices for men's bridals - the designs are chic, very well made and very flattering. My husband has bought semi-formal kameezes for Eid from here before so we knew that we'd be happy with the pieces from here, which also helped. It was slightly pricey, but we were able to design an outfit with the vendors that was exactly what we wanted. The shop told us they would have to order fabric sample for us to pick before we ordered, and gave us a final quote of around £350, which was higher than we wanted but we agreed to pay it. When we came back the following week to place the order, and after we looked at fabrics, we were about to pay the deposit when we were told the actual price was £750 - a different amount to what we were initially told. When we queried this, the shop denied telling us it was £350 and suggested we were perhaps confused or had spoken to the wrong person. My husband got a little annoyed at this and decided not to order in the end, as he thought the design was too pricey for something so simple.

Junaid Jamshed
This is a Pakistani label which did not have a local store at the time (there's a pretty good one in east London now!) so we had to make queries online. My husband hadn't worn this label before but my sisters and I have ordered from here for my dad for family weddings. The men's wedding outfits were simple but very elegant, and not too pricey. In the end we didn't order because my husband wanted something more contemporary, but my sister did order a jacket with a kameez suit for my dad for my wedding, which was a little pricey but came pretty quickly. One of the things we all really liked about this brand is the excellent quality - of design and the fabric - and the fact that it would be hard to find something like this any local shops.

Poshak Mahal
We liked this store because it had very reasonably-priced outfits for men, although the stores we went to did not have men's wedding outfit and was very limited. Having said that, I'm a fan of this brand because of the wearable pieces and decent prices.

Bombay Looks
This was another store which had reasonably priced outfits but a very limited range of men's outfits. The style also felt a little old-fashioned, with mainly kurta-pyjama pieces which wasn't what we wanted.

Mahir
This was a store in Green Street which had a good range of outfits but again, there wasn't much that we liked. It wasn't that we were picky, but more that the outfits felt too garish and didn't fit with what we wanted.

There were a lot of shops around East London that we visited, which had the same sorts of styles and pieces, although I can't remember them all! I will say that since my shopping trips, the shops have expanded a lot and there seems to be more available for men, so don't be put off!

What we ended up with:
Desi Dulha
We were pretty lucky to find a shop in Green Street, East London that had pretty cheap outfits and were able to do it quickly enough. They had plenty of sizes, colours and designs and were willing to negotiated prices yet still design a custom-made piece for us. We placed an order for a brocade jacket sherwani with velvet and bead-work on the front, collar and sleeves, for just £250ish with matching trousers, and also were given a free inner kameez and shoes to match! The outfit was ordered for us to collect in 4 weeks (which was lucky for us) and we loved what we ended up with. You can see the design below:

Evaluation:
I like to think that even though this was only a couple of years ago, the range and availability for menswear has improved and definitely become easier for men. I also think that social media has really helped with visibility – showing new styles, different vendors and shops

I’ve definitely learned from our shopping expeditions and searches for men’s outfit. It was disappointing to see that not all shops gave us the service we wanted, and that some shops were even unwilling to work with us. I can understand if a shop is unable to meet your needs but there were a few vendors who were a little discourteous which I didn’t appreciate, as it's not professional.

One of the alternatives we toyed with was the idea of just getting an English three-piece-suit after we realised how difficult it would be to find a decent sherwani, but we weren’t too keen on this idea as we wanted a very traditional, Pakistani look for both of us. Also we knew the boys in our families were all wearing suits (some with bow ties!) and we wanted the groom to stand out from this. We also found that price-wise, getting a 3 piece suit would probably cost the same so wouldn’t make a difference in that respect.

Ladies and gents, I would advise anyone looking for a men’s wedding outfit to do some research and definitely call around, but don't give up or be put off! Vendors should be able to work around your budget, or at least adjust outfits to suit - and don't let them tell you that you've left it too late! I have had friends who had weddings organised as short-notice as a month or so, and have managed to work with ready-made pieces with alterations.

I'm hoping this post will help a few of my readers for their shopping preps - let me know about your experiences too!

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!

THE WEDDING POSTS: Finding Gold Shoes!

I've been meaning to do more wedding posts from the preps I did from my wedding, since a lot of readers ask me about certain details, and I've wanted to share my experience. Unfortunately some of my pictures were damaged from the wedding days, so I've been trying to recover these, but I'll still be doing the posts!

One of the biggest headaches from my wedding preps was finding the right gold shoes for my bridal outfit. My main problem was that the shoes were just not gold enough in colour - they were all either pale gold or a rose-gold, which didn't go with the wedding lengha I would wear. I wanted to wear yellow-gold heels that were comfy enough to wear with a heavy lengha, that could be re-worn and also look glamorous enough for a wedding day.

I didn't mind if I got a designer shoe or not (and I didn't, in the end), but I was keen on something easy to wear, and decided to go with peep-toe court heels style which I'm very used to, and which would go with a lot of my outfits afterwards.

These are the shoes I found while hunting in the shops - I literally looked on the high street for cheaper heels, and the designer ones for bargains. I looked in a lot of shops, so these are not all of the ones I looked at, but they were the more serious contenders:

Kurt Geiger Belgavia (currently on sale I think) - I loved how these looked on my feet, but they felt too party-ish and not quite right for a weddingy look. It was added to my list of heels I wanted to buy for later dawats/events, but not for the wedding.

Dune Delia - I've seen a lot of girls with these shoes (my sisters have them and I now have a version of them!) - they're not too high, they're comfy and they're easy to walk in. I did consider going for a shorter heel so the lengha would be easier to walk in, but decided not to in the end, because the colour was too light gold in colour, and I decided to go for a higher heel.

Dune Beautie - a rose-gold pair of heels, which caught my eye because they were so sparkly. I also liked the fact that these had crystals on them. Again, these was quite decently priced, but it was too rose-coloured for my outfit, and I thought it would clash. I also wasn't sure about the point heeled look.

Jimmy Choo Isabel - My sister had bought these for her own wedding day, so these were a pair to consider. Again, these were lower heeled, and came in silver and a light gold, but they were still too light-coloured for me, which I wasn't keen on.

Jimmy Choo Evelyn - very similar to the shoe above, but a higher-heeled version. Again, these came in a few different colours, but none of them were a yellow enough gold. I also debated spending a lot of money on shoes that I didn't feel quite happy with.

Louboutins strassed heels - the term 'strassed' basically means to cover them with crystals, When searching for gold heels, I saw this term a lot, specifically in relations to Louboutins, which added to the cost of them up to about £2000 for some of them. Unfortunately this was way above my budget, and I didn't have the funds for this, nor did I think it was something I wanted to spend this much on. I'll still dream the dream of having Louboutins one day though!

Karen Millen gold crystal heels - these were probably my favourite of the heels I saw (I think I loved them as much as the ones I ended up with!) They were the perfect colour and incredibly sparkly, although I think they're now no longer selling because they were limited edition. I took pictures of myself trying them on, so I'm annoyed that I can't post these because the pictures are lost - but they looked very glamorous and sparkly on. The only drawback for me was that they were pointy - I jsut didn't want pointed heels poking out of my lengha skirt from the bottom!

Dolce & Gabbana gold heels - I saw this picture somewhere and thought these were extravagant, but pretty amazing. Unfortunately I couldn't find them for sale ANYWHERE. So they were off the list.

The heels I ended up with were high street ones, partly because I opted not to spend a lot for the wedding day, and partly because I didn't get a lot of wedding preps done as I wanted. I don't really regret this because they were the last things on my mind on the wedding day, and I just wanted something comfortable to walk around in.

These were gold court shoes that I ended up buying from Carvela, which were a lovely shape and which I thought were a good fit. I would have liked them to be a little more yellow, but they were pretty sparkly and on the day, went with the look pretty well. I've worn these at least five or six times for weddings and events since my own wedding, and they're seriously comfy.

I've noticed the latest trends of heels seems to be either glamorous pointy court shoes, or strappy sandals, which are a really stylish alternative to the usual heels I've seen. Looking back now, I'd love to go for something different. My heels for my mehndi event were 5-inch gold glittery heels from Dune, which were actually really comfy and added a sparkle to my outfit.

I've had friends who have tried other things when they couldn't find the right heel - one of my closest friends opted for khussay (those beaded flat shoes) for her wedding day, for comfort and a traditional look; another friend couldn't find Louboutins she wanted so bought some plain ones and a good few hundred Swarovski crytals, and then spent a month customising her heels to her satisfaction. I've even seen the contrast look done well - hot pink shoes with a white dress, and so on. So for brides-to-be looking for the perfect shoes, it is a headache, but you will find something you like, so don't give up!