Marlee and Belal’s beautiful nikkah took place at the iconic ISNA Canada mosque in Mississauga. I’ve shot multiple nikkahs at ISNA before, and it’s always a pleasure shooting there! This particular nikkah was unique and special as Marlee and Belal are from different cultural backgrounds; Marlee is Canadian while Belal comes from a Pakistani background. It was so heartwarming to see the two families come together with so much warmth and love. Wait till you see their reception post next to see what I mean 🙂

To begin their nikkah coverage, I met Marlee and her fun group of bridesmaids at The Riverwood Conservancy to take some brief bridal portraits. August is such a wonderful time to photograph there because literally every flower they plant in spring is in bloom. It looks so LUSH and gorgeous! Especially during golden hour in the evening!

Their photos were done mid-afternoon, though. Thankfully we had patches of clouds come in and out which helped diffuse the sunlight and provided me with this soft and beautiful light for their photos. We wrapped up their portraits within 30 or so minutes, and headed over to ISNA where I photographed their nikkah ceremony.

I wish I got to do an extensive shoot of the couple once the ceremony was wrapped up, but I was booked for another wedding the same day, so I had to finish this up and head out for that. However, a couple of days after the wedding madness and choas was over for them, I met Marlee and Belal again to do some post-nikkah portraits at Mint Room Studios where Marlee wore her nikkah outfit again and got a chance to rock in front of the camera again with her husband :). If you’ve been through my blog, you know how often I shoot there! Take a look a t a few other galleries from the same studio space on the links here, here and here.

Scroll through this post to see some of my favourite images from their Canadian-Pakistani fusion nikkah day! Stay tuned for their reception blogpost coming up next!

Kind words from Marlee and Belal:

There really are not enough words to explain what an incredible photographer and person Qurrat is! She far exceeded our expectations in every regard, and we are so blessed to have found her to photograph our wedding. Qurrat was so accommodating from the day I first met her. My fiancé, me, and our families all lived in different cities, so you can imagine how difficult it was to plan a wedding. Qurrat made it so easy to coordinate our photography shoots and even gave us a *to-die-for* photo shoot after the wedding because we weren’t able to do engagement photos (since we lived in different cities!). Both my husband and I were nervous to have photos taken and weren’t sure how we would feel in front of a camera. Qurrat made everything so enjoyable and comfortable, we now both agree that our time with Qurrat was our favourite part of the wedding! We had so much with her, and she coached us the whole time (but in a way that allowed us to just be ourselves, and be fun and playful). We were truly blown away at the end of each session at how easy it was–we owe that feeling entirely to Qurrat. Qurrat sent us sneak peaks the day of (the day of!!) and we were in awe. Her work is FLAWLESS. She has a keen eye for detail and truly goes above and beyond for her clients to capture and create the most beautiful photos. When we received our full album, our hearts nearly stopped! Absolutely breathtaking photos. The lighting, the colours, the softness in each of them–her style is exactly what I dreamed of for my wedding photos. I would recommend Qurrat to anyone in a heartbeat and I hope that we have Qurrat shoot some of our other milestones down the road. She truly made our wedding memorable. Aside from her incredible talent, Qurrat is a beautiful person inside and out. She is thoughtful, caring, calming (great for brides!), and has an essence about her that is so genuine and humbling. We absolutely adore her. Qurrat, thank you for your incredible talent and beautiful soul, mA.