Hoda & Khaled's gorgeous wedding at Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club.

Just over a year ago I styled Hoda and Khaled’s wedding. I actually can’t believe how quickly a year has flown by. Where did the time go? Anyway, today I’m finally sharing this lovely wedding captured by Liz at JVR Photography.

Wedding Preparations…
My husband (fiancé at the time) and I are living in Toronto. When Khaled (my husband) proposed to me, we knew from the first moment that we were going to get married in Dubai. My husband’s family lived in Dubai and my family lived in Iran, so Dubai would be the ideal place to get married in. However, we knew that planning the whole wedding from the other side of the world would not be an easy task.

We planned to travel to Dubai in August, which was 6 months before our wedding date in order to plan the wedding. I started to look for different vendors before travelling. I searched and Googled a lot, and one of the first blogs that I came across was “My Lovely Wedding” which was all about pretty weddings and wonderful vendors. I emailed and messaged vendors that I liked and scheduled back-to-back meetings for the 2 weeks that we were going to be in Dubai. When we arrived in Dubai, I started talking to my favorite wedding planners, photographers and make-up artists. One of the first people that I contacted was my make-up artist Monica who was so helpful, and offered me a make up trial while I was there. She was so kind to invite Khaled and I to her place. A day before my make-up trial, I contacted the best photographer in Dubai Liz (JvR Photography) who I also found through My Lovely Wedding – her photos were to die for. Finding the best photographer was something very tricky for someone like me who cares about her wedding photos more than anything else!! Contacting Liz was another great decision after finding Monica, from the first moment I talked to her over the phone she started providing me with very helpful tips for my wedding; she was extremely friendly and offered to join us at Monica’s apartment while I was getting my make-up trial.

The make-up trial went really well as Monica is very professional, and she really took her time experimenting with different make-up styles. She is great at what she does, and she listens to all the little concerns and comments. Liz also joined us at Monica’s place (Note that Liz and Monica had worked together in the past). We also knew then that we wanted to work with Liz.
By that point I already talked to a couple of wedding planners and stylists and based on our budget and taste we could not agree on anyone and I was very stressed out! After speaking to Liz and Monica about my wedding and what I had in mind, they suggested that I talk to Joelle, whom I knew from “My Lovely Wedding” but shockingly didn’t know that she styles weddings as well. This was my third important decision. I contacted Joelle and we met at Dubai Mall to talk about all the details. Joelle was also so friendly, positive, and kind. She did a great job of calming me down. She also told me that we can definitely work with any budget that we have in our minds, and she assured me that she can make it just the way I like, including all the details and prettiness.

After coming back to Toronto I was in touch with Monica, Liz and Joelle all the time through emails, WhatsApp and Pinterest. Joelle and I started sharing our thoughts about all the details, she was always available to chat and that was very assuring while I was thousands of miles away in Canada.
On the Wedding day…
On Feb 20, 2015 I woke up with a big smile on my face but when I saw the weather outside I couldn’t believe that after many beautiful days, sand storm hit Dubai on our wedding day. At this point, Khaled and I started to keep each other calm and we tried to make sure to have as much fun as we can without thinking about the storm. On the other hand, our families, and of course Joelle, were in a battle with the storm to make our dream day possible. I am happy to say that they really did a GREAT JOB! Joelle did all her best to keep everything the way that I wanted, considering the bad weather. She did an amazing job and I loved all the details about our wedding. Joelle was extremely kind throughout the whole process, and she even went as far as buying us lovely pretty gifts.

Liz took great photos of us, and you can’t even tell there was sand storm around us 😉 Love each and every one of our photos.
Derick from Morning jacket films was our videographer and he made an amazing video for us, capturing all the emotional moments.
And last but not least, I should thank Anna from Nice Ribbon Atelier for the most beautiful wedding cake I could think of! Add to that an amazing taste.
I want to once again thank all the people who worked very hard to make our wedding possible. If the people organizing our wedding didn’t care from the bottom of their heart, I doubt that they would have worked so hard to make our wedding so beautiful with such bad weather.

Lovely vendors:
Wedding Stylist: Lovely Styling
Photography: Liz JVR Photography
Videography: Morning Jacket Films
Hair and Make-up artist: MHG beauty
Cake: Nice Ribbon Atelier
Headpiece: Jennifer Behr at White Toronto
Wedding Gown: Monique Lhuillier at White Toronto
Wedding Shoes: Manolo Blahnik
Grooms Suit: Hugo Boss
Grooms Cufflinks: Tiffany & Co.
Flowers: Mayflower