Back home you can find many things made in this style of wood with ivory inlays including side tables, jewellery and even cigar boxes. I remember having a set of side tables growing up made of the same stuff that I would sometimes pull up in my living room while doing home work. Out of boredom, I’d sometimes stick my pencil around the ivory inlays and try to loosen them. Until, of course, Ammi saw me doing it.

A couple of weeks later she was sitting in our living room, three of us plopped on our white IKEA couch, her hogging the remote control in one hand, a plate in the other, as we all ate something delicious Mehreen had cooked and watched “So You Think You Can Dance”. A little while later we shared our funny YouTube finds, the laptop hooked up to the TV laughing our asses off.

Then there was the time she decided to be our Ottawa tour guide; the time both of them dropped by to give Mehreen company after the accident; the time they came by on Mehreen’s birthday leaving their best friend’s wedding earlier; and of course the numerous times she’d run into us at weddings and yell and wave frantically upon our first sight, “DOST! HELLO DOST¹!”

We still don’t know why you like us Afroz. But, we like that you like us. And we like you too. A lot!

And Usman, we like you too, coz YOU’RE THE MANAGER! (sorry internet; inside joke – maybe another blog entry some other day – you’ll be hearing a lot more of these two).

Afroz and Usman are getting married this weekend in Ottawa. And we’ll be there as their friends, and their photographers. Gitty up!

1. Dost is Urdu for Friend.

For the must-have posed, traditional pictures, we found this perfect set of stairs with some greenery around it. This is where we took all the family shots.

A candid of the ring bearer, a little confused about his surroundings after waking up.

We asked Shawn and Melissa to hold hands for a picture, and out of nowhere this moth came and started circling around their hands. It also sat patiently enough right on top of their hands just long enough for us to take a couple of pictures. How serendipitously cool!




One of the groomsmen had to leave because of his newborn, so one of the other two got lucky with two bridesmaids. You can see them cracking up in this one about it!

Our absolute favourites from the day! Mehreen captured these pictures of the bridal party next to a barn.


With some time to relax, the girls got talking …



Mehreen’s exact words to the bride after this following picture: “You have lovely collar bones!”


For this set of pictures below we tried a different technique in post that gives it a very old school, hint of sepia, faded film look. See if you like it …





We then headed back to the reception hall and ended the night with cake cutting and first dance.

What has all of this got to do with Ambereen and Intiaz. Well, they were the first clients we signed after moving to Ottawa, Ambereen is Jawad’s cousin, we are covering their wedding this summer, and really excited about it! Here are some pictures from their engagement shoot.