Ramadan : The Holy Month

Salaam !
Ramadan of this year just started alhamdulilah ! For this occasion I wish you all a Ramadan Mubarak to you and your loved ones , may Allah bless you with happiness , faith and health , Ameen !


In each Ramadan , we do our best to perfom well islamically , between salah , fasting reading quran , volunteering and so on of good deeds .
This Ramadan my perspective is not to sleep too much , and not over eat !
Now for sleep , you must be saying ; "that's no big deal ! you can have rest in Ramadan !" , well no , not exactly . Over the past few years , I used to sleep without counting , and it wouldn't matter for me if I woke up at whatever time . However , I'd feel dizy the whole day , and wouldn't be productive at any task !
It is therefore that I decided that this year inshAllah I'd follow a certain programme . At night we get back from taraweeh at around 10.30pm and with dinner and family socializing, we would finish till 11.20pm . I now go to sleep at 11.40pm max . I wake up for Suhur at 3.00pm-ish , go back to sleep at 4am , and the morning force myself not to sleep over than 10am .
If it might seem very little , then let me tell you that in fact it is not ! With this sleeping routine , on the morning , I feel I had enough sleep , I'm much more focused while performing during the day , and alhamdulilah it feels good .


Now , for food . I'm a food lover . I can't deprive myself from food , that's why it's hard for me to diet . If you know me , you will kill me after reading this post , simply because I do not need any diet and I'm thin :D but I never said I wanted to lose weight , did I ?
Honestly , I just want to be fit and eat  healthy , which I've been doing since I got into university alhamdulilah.
But with Ramdan , it's another story . We all wait so passionaly for the iftar time . During the day Everybody is cooking , yes litterally everybody. Either at homes , or out , the smell of food is everywhere during Ramadan .
And me , whos is a fan of cooking , during this holy month , I always look for new recipes , adn each day make something special .
One incovenient about us ( in my country) ; the iftar table is FULL . I'm serious ! it's like you cant see any empty area on the table ! and just after the muazzin call for maghrib prayer , we start !
Trust me , it's near impossible to eat just what you need , after seeing such a full table with tempting dishes . And right after the iftar , you start feeling like your stomach is packed .
This year , I stood for myself and said Stop !
All the food i usually take makes me feel kind of sick later , and while orayign taraweeh , I can't concentrate and all I think about is laying down .
This is why , I made a programme . I decided I'd have exactly 6 or 7 things to eat maximum , and that I would eat to fulfill my hunger then stop . I tried this yesterday -as it beign first day of Ramadan , therefore first iftar- and I was simply delighted . I felt light and full , and during taraweeh , I was more able to enjoy the spirituality and focus in salah ! 
I started my iftar with a glass of water and some dates , then I had a bit of soup ( I wasn't able to complete it ) with a raghifa , then I had jus and a small pizza and briwat , then finally a slice of fruit tart . What helped me during having my iftar was eating slowly , and taking several breaks while eating .


My light iftar also made me able to have dinner , since mom made a delicious tajine ! 


Alhamdulilah I'm very satisfied with those decisions and inshAllah I'll be able to keep them during the whole month ! 
Until my next post , I wish you a happy iftar ! 

                                  

WR : Wedding Favors Shoppping

Salaam everyone !

I hope you're all doign well !
I just got some rest between my work and my vacation !
Last week I went for a 3 days vacation to a beach city in the north with my family .
The city we went to is very nice and is caracterized with it's beautiful beach and other places to visit , but is mainly an interesting place for shopping .
In case you didn't know , the north of my country is well known of its fancy lavish weddings . Caterers their are known for their perfectionism , rare decoration and outstanding wedding organization .
Since my aunt is herself a caterer , and the preparations for my cousin's wedding are on these days ( the wedding is after Ramadan inshAllah ) we decided that we should order the wedding favors from there .


In weddings here , both the bride and the groom take care of the wedding favors , but mainly separately .


We first headed to a known very big bazar calles Casa Parata . That place  has anything you wish for on earth ! From clothes and jewellry , to phones and laptop , and wedding favors !
Since it's a huge place , we had to ask several vendors about the wedding faovrs sellers , and they headed us straight to it . What I liked about this shooping place , is that not only it has wonderful shops who import stuffs from Europe , but also the fact that not in any way you can get lost in it even though it's really big .


We went to see the wedding favors shops , and there was a huge range of them . Actually my aunt had in mind a specific thing she was looking for . She wanted a designed napkins, along with some small sachet for the people to put their candies in them ( in case you didn't kow , in our weddings , we offer guests alot of candies and small cakes , so it's common we also provide some sachet for the people who would like to take some of theirs home , because generally you can not eat all that in one night :D ) to put in each plate , in each table . From all the designs the vendors offered , we couldn't find something satisfying . We found what they had simple and pretty , yet not luxuruous .


Therefore , we decided to look elsewhere . The following day , we went downtown where we found some other shops offering all kind of wedding ornaments . We kept walking until we got to the old medina , where once again a wide range of such shops were waiting for us . This time those shops offered a better quality and design of what we were looking for . From the first shop we visited we were simply amazed ! We loved what the shops had , unfortunately the shops owner wasn't there . We continued the visit around the other shops , what they had was also nice , but what we saw in the first shop simply fascinated us . It was close , so I went to see if the owner was back or no , to my disappointment he wasn't .
We kept our walk until we got outside of the bazar , but we were just craving to go back to the first , and it was indeed what we did . Once again the owner wasn't there , but this time we decided to wait for him . After about 10-15 min the man showed up !


Then once again we had to wait , because there was two other clients before us who were also waiting for him to come .
We showed him the design we liked , and before proceeding with our order , we had to ask and negociate the price . We wanted 300 pieces of the napkins , the young man said the price was 2.60dhs . We negociated , and the man agreed for 2.40dhs . We asked him how long will it take to make the order , he said about 2-3 days .
We begged him to make it less saying that we were not from there , and our vacation was ending soon , so 3 days was impossible . The young man said he can get them ready the following day after Asr prayer , at around 4.30pm . We were actually concerned about wether we shoumld trust him or no , as we were afraid he wouldnt get the order ready , but a client who was there , and who appeared to also be caterer , told us that the man is definitely trust worthy !
So we began placing the order , we chosed the little sachets to be in white , orned with white flowers which have a golden border , they would be tied with a golden ribbon , along with a white napkin that has some kind of gold arabic designs ! ( all the choice was Mine ! :D )


After giving many details about what our perception of the whole wedding was , the man found us very friendly and decided to reduce the price till 2.20dhs ! how gentel of him !


Now I know you must be eager to see what the napkin looks like , unfortunately , I left the following morning , and my aunts went to pick up the order alone , and until now , I myself haven't seen the ready napkins ! However I promess that once I see them , I'll take a pic for you guys !!


Nevertheless , here are a couple of pics of what the napkins would look like : 

**The napkins would be enrolled like in the left pic , and would be placed over the plates like in the right pic .


I don't know if I was allowed to take some pics from the shop or not , but here some shots I took : 

.

** See the boxes on the left ? these can also be used instead if sachets

** I was amazed to see this huge chocolate crown ! In case you didnt know , in our country , the groom brings ( among with gifts and clothes ) chocolate to the bride during the festivities .

                                                 

** See the white-pink Napkins in the basket ? ours will look exactly like that ! 

So until my next post , take care of  yourselves and stay tuned for more posts ! 

Friday's Feature : Aisha & Yusef wedding

Salaam everybody !

We are Friday 13th :D Lol I don't believe in such stuffs !

I'm back from my vacation , so few posts will be coming after this one !
As for today,  I'll be featuring Aisha and Yusef's wedding by Andreas Holm photography . Seriously , these photos will make you crave to go to a moroccan wedding !
Andreas Holm is a destination wedding photogrpaher based in Spain , - so I suppose he's very close if any moroccan couple would like to have him photograph their wedding - and his photography , honestly , makes you speechless . I love how he captures the motion of time and those " eye" looks and moments between the bride and the groom !
Watching his shots is similar to experiencing that first breeze of love just like when we were teenagers !

Aisha and Yusef 's wedding took place in the Big city between numerous family members and friends . There is that beautiful chemistry between the lovely couple , and the bride is definitely enjoying her big day mash'Allah !

*( See the look I talked about ? Mash'Allah ! ) 

Finally , I'd like to also share those details pictures , because according to me details matter alot and translate the affection the people who organized this wedding have . They might be tinny little stuffs , but I know that they took alot of time and were chosen carefully !

I simply love the tables ornaments ( pearls and flowers ) , the tea drops and most of all the candels in the last picture ! 

Have a nice day everyone , and stay tuned , a WR post is coming soon !! 

Friday's Feature : I&P's wedding

Salaam people !
It's a beautiful day outside ! I hope you're doing good and enjoying the weather !

Not very long ago ,  I discovered Christophe Photo , and the talented work of this photographer made me a fan . I liek the way he takes pictures , and captures moments whilst almost nobody is paying attention . It's like he freezes the most precious moments , and while watching his photo , they speak for themselves and tell a completly whole story !
Christophe is very good at photographying weddings , and I felt surprised when I saw that he had the chance to shoot a couple of moroccan weddings .
The following wedding seems to have been such a real fun ! Surrounded by family and relatives , the nice couple celebrated their union in a friendly traditionally but slighlty atmosphere !

I just love the photos ! The following are those I liked the most !

Something I deeply liked , and thought of as a master piece , were the photos of the bride getting ready and being dressed . It is not very common , even extremly rare I would say, to take pictures of a moroccan bride getting ready . This being said , I highly recommend to any upcoming moroccan girl getting married to ask her photographer take shots of her while getting ready ! 

Untill next time , have a nice week end everyone ! 

PS : I am not asked by anyone to promote this pictures . This is a personal like and choice of feature in my blog . Any person who wouldn't like this pictures to be uploaded online should ask the people who put them in the 1st place over the net to remove them.

Graduation Ceremony

Salaam wonderful people !
you may have noticed before ,  that I mentioned how I truly like graduation ceremonies , and that for several reasons .
Ususally , by this time of the year there are plenty of graduation ceremonies that I uselly watch on TV ( especially UAE graduation ceremonies ) . This year though I was able to watch only one , the AUD ( American University of Dubai ) one , and in one word : it was magnificent . ( I wouldn't say more , go check it out ! )


However , the most nice news is that I got to be part among the organizing committee of my university's graduation ceremony that took place yesterday !
I was amazed by the whole decoration and huge place where the ceremony was held .
As we were in charge of helping organ izing , we got there early ( at around 3pm while the ceremony itself started at 6pm ) and got to enjoy the calm , all well decorated and ready ceremony place .
Afterwards , we were assigned different roles . Mine consisted of helping with some logistics and welcoming the people .


Friend , relatives , but mostly parents started coming at around 5pm , all well dressed and there was a happy ambiance everywhere . Especcially among the graduates who were taking pictures , and couldn't stop joking and making different noises and sounds while waiting to get into the ceremony . Once everybody settled , the graduating students came into the ceremony all in order ( the engineering and Master's sutends suits were aligned with royal red , while the bachelor's students' were aligned in pearl blue ) , with a wonderful music playing  background .


We then attended to the teacher's and directors speechs , the valedictorian's . After that , they were handed in their diplomas , for the ceremony to be pursuid by group pictures and a cocktail .


All in all I truly loved it ! I might be only a freshman at university , but it was awkward seeing some friends graduating already ! Anyhow , cant' wait for my graduation inshAllah !

The big ceremony hall ! Have you seen the pretty flower and the numerous Red chairs ? marvellous ! *