My name is Nabila and I’m 26 years old, I got to marry my best friend this year. I work in marketing for a prominent Canadian travel company. I’m of Ethiopian-Canadian, of Harari ethnicity. I love fashion, food, fitness and natural health.  I meet my hubby years ago, his family were friends and neighbors with my extended family. He popped the question at a restaurant with a group of friends, it was amazing! My first thought after saying yes was OMG is this really happening? What does this mean? How am I going to be someones wife? lol I just went into prep mode, prep for wedding, prep for marriage and bought a bunch of how-to books shortly after.

When I woke up on my wedding day I was nervous, excited and jittery, but most of all thankful to Allah. What made me fall in love with my dress was that it was perfect for me. I saw it on a high fashion bridal showcase, it’s inspired by a luxury Egyptian wedding dress designer. Because there is no way I could fathom dropping $60k on a dress alone I had my dressmaker recreate it customized to my taste and size. Having my girls next to me made me feel confident, beautiful, and tankful.  I picked blush for their dresses because I love romantic pastel colors.

When designing the reception I was going for a modern romantic look.  I wanted a minimalistic theme that is subtle yet shiny in all the right places. When we walked into our reception I said “Wow, there is a lot of people here and oh my gosh I hope I don’t trip over my train veil or dress!” Our first dance was to Yours-Ella Henderson, we had a bridal party dance to Thinking out loud-Ed Sheran.  The most memorable moment of the night was when my bridesmaids got up to do speeches, I teared up and tried to keep it together. Since I had a wedding planner there were no close calls or disasters! If there were she handled them.

For my Nikkah celebration and Ankar Mahatub event I wanted to be unique and selected red for my gey iraaz (traditional Harari outfit). However red was rare at the time but many harari habesha brides are wearing red now! Good thing I changed into a green and white traditional outfit as well! For my bridesmaids I thought they would look great in hot pink and gold maale fotas with traditional bombay gey ganafi.  For the decor I wanted my backdrop to be inspired by gey gaar (Harari traditional house).  That was a must for me and I absolutely love it! My favorite part of the Ankar Mahatub was when my mother and her afocha (woman group) sang traditional Harari wedding songs. Love doing the chaf chaf.  I also loved the songs we played to our choreographed dance!. If I could change one thing I would have also hired a wedding coordinator for the traditional events and added more time.  It went by so quickly! If I could give one piece of advice for a Habeshabride on her traditional day I would say to be kind, be patient, and learn traditional aspects and hot-to’s prior to the big day.  Show respect to everyone and most importantly don’t forget to smile!  Good Luck!