Glamorous NMWA Wedding

Aramesh and Imad had a stunning and glamorous wedding at NMWA this summer! Foregoing a traditional wedding party, they wanted to only be focused on the two of them and not have to worry about additional attendants. They had a beautiful first look before the wedding at the Lincoln Memorial. They then made their way to the National Museum for Women in the Arts (NMWA) in downtown DC, to wait as their guests arrived for the ceremony.

Their ceremony consisted of a traditional Persian sofreh aghd. The sofreh aghd translates into spread ceremony, as this design is setup to honor traditional Persian marriage customs and each item on display has a unique role and meaning. Not only is this spread encompassing hundreds of years of history, but it is also beautiful to look at and quite the statement piece!

I have excerpted some items below on the sofreh aghd and their meaning:

The mirror represents the couple's happiness and future, and is for the couple to look into together. Also, side note, traditionally the mirror is placed on the sofreh aghd in front of the couple, but ours chose to have it set behind them.

The honey signifies the sweetness of life, and the couple dip their fingers into it to feed each other.

The sugar is probably one of the most popular traditions and most well known! Married women in the family come forward to rub the sugar over the couple's head, which is covered by a fabric, to shower them with sweetness and happiness.

Other items you will typically see on the sofreh aghd include eggs to signify fertility, coins for wealth and prosperity, fruit to symbolize a joyous future, almonds and walnuts for prosperity and fertility, and a needle and thread to symbolize two becoming one.

After the ceremony, guests made their way upstairs to enjoy cocktail hour in the art gallery. While guests mingled, staff flipped the ceremony space into the stunning reception setup -- quite the transformation! You can see we had to remove the sofreh aghd and break down the draping to allow rooms for all of the tables and dancing!

After welcoming guests to their seats, the zaffeh began! The zaffeh is my favorite part of middle eastern weddings! This is a talented group of Arabic musicians and performers to get the crowd excited and pumped up for the newlyweds entrance! After the newlyweds made their way down the grand staircase, you can see the guests were eager to begin dancing. After the early dance set, guests sat down to enjoy a middle eastern meal prepared by Corcoran Caterers. After dinner, the bride changed into a second dress to allow her to enjoy dancing all night long!

Beautiful pictures by Maria Vicencio. Florals by Maryam Flowers. Sofreh Aghd by Exclusively Events by PJ. Planner SRS Events.