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Behind the scenes

By Mahnoor Tariq
14 January, 2025

’Tis the season for wedding bells. This week You! talks to a few wedding planners, photographers, caterers and salon girls who share their unique experiences with our readers. Read on…

Photo by Irtaza Chaudhry
Photo by Irtaza Chaudhry

According to a report, Pakistan witnesses more than 1.6 million marriages in the country every year. It is estimated that more than PKR 110 billion is spent on weddings on an annual basis which is pretty evident, even in an event hosted by an upper middle class family.

Weddings are huge days of our lives and hold incredible sentimental value as it’s a memory that we look back on until we turn grey and old. As soon as we enter winters, there is time for nothing but thousands of errands like getting that perfect lehengay, booking the best salon and photographers, telling the caterers not to mess up the food, and making appointments with organisers to land that aesthetic decoration - just good enough for Instagram of course.

While we remain swamped to make sure that everything goes as planned in order to ditch the ‘haw hayes’ of the wedding guests who frown upon the nitty gritties of the planning, most people don’t realise the effort of the ‘wedding elves’ that play a huge role in these events. It is also important to acknowledge and value the work of people who put in their 100 per cent to make your big day memorable. Seriously, it really takes a village to pull off a wedding in winter.

In this regard, this week You! talks to a few wedding planners, photographers, caterers and salon girls who share their unique experiences with our readers. Read on…

Lights, camera, action

Capturing wedding photographs and preserving the memories of a lifetime is a huge responsibility and while Irtaza Chaudhry, a 24-year-old student turned photographer, realises the sentimental assignment, he points out that people have a limited budget and that’s fine until they start demanding more from him. “Clients often have high expectations, sometimes wanting their wedding photographs to look like Mahira Khan’s. What they may not realize is that the stunning results in those pictures are due to elements like lighting and décor that cost crores,” observes Irtaza.

“We want to capture and document your moments authentically, staying within the budget you allocate to us. However, it’s important to note that we cannot create elements like backgrounds or dresses from scratch or through Photoshop. Our focus is on preserving the beauty of your day as it truly is,” he adds.

Photo by Hooriya Aslam
Photo by Hooriya Aslam

On the other hand, Take by Two, a photography venture run by twin sisters Aerish and Anusha Khan, don’t expect clients to fully understand what happens behind the scenes. “Just like when we go to a restaurant, we are focused on the food we order, not the countless processes that make it possible. Similarly, my clients are focused on the creative work I deliver, as they should be,” elucidates Aerish. However, the self-taught photographer terms her operation as ‘intense’.

“From the first inquiry until the final delivery, the process is intense. We hold client meetings to plan everything carefully and manage logistics on the event day. This includes handling last-minute time constraints since clients are often late. After the event, hours go into backing up data to avoid any loss, followed by editing photos and videos,” elaborates Aerish.

Being a perfectionist, Aerish doesn’t like to take breaks when covering an event. “I overshoot intentionally, ensuring that I don’t miss even a single moment because every detail matters. Weddings are once-in-a-lifetime event, and I approach them with the value they deserve,” she states. However, she does address the budget woes, adding, “While photography preserves everything - your outfits, decor, emotions, and the essence of your day - many clients allocate very little of their budget to it.”

Talking about how people often undervalue photographers, Irtaza underscores the difference between working for ‘Instagram photographers’ and conventional studio houses. He claims the industry is heavily exploited and that the latter hires small town boys and makes them work for pennies, under the pretence of teaching them. “Some of them are not even paid anything as they are just given a place to live and are told that they will enjoy the events. These studio houses are all across the country and they are even paid lots of money, but they don’t give any share of this to the team of photographers working for them,” expresses Irtaza.

Aerish also highlights the issue of safety risks. “There is an ongoing fear of equipment theft, especially in Karachi. Photography gear is expensive, and I have invested my savings into buying the best equipment to produce high-quality work. The safety risks are a constant worry,” points out Aerish.

The dream merchants

As mentioned before, we like to make our wedding setups more visually pleasing for Instagram (as we should) and there is no harm in investing on a sentimental event to look as pretty as possible.

21-year-old Hooriya Aslam, an event planner and founder of ‘Band Baaja’, shares how event organisation is all about planning and communicating with your clients to bring their dream setup to life. “From time to time, this often happens that their budget is limited, but clients expect something more elaborate, customised or expensive. So I try to have detailed conversations with the client about the setup and ask for the budget first. You need to ask them how they want their event to look and then suggest alternatives accordingly, which comes under their budget,” explains Hooriya, who is also pursuing a BBA degree simultaneously.

Photo by Asif Ali of Fresh Food Kitchen
Photo by Asif Ali of Fresh Food Kitchen

According to her, the key to keeping your client content is keeping them in loop of the entire operation. “I keep the client updated throughout the entire process, whatever things had to be customised and get it approved by them. For me, handing over the event to the client on time is utmost important,” she stresses.

When asked about how understanding the clients are about the work, Hooriya elaborates, “There are times when clients have been really happy with how I work but there are also people who sometimes feel that the amount charged is much more than the event because they don’t know about the market rates. I have had times in the past when people are unaware of numerous things and seem to think that everything happens with a magic wand; it’s not that simple. Even management involves a whole lot of things like timings, planning, finance, logistics etc.”

She also addressed the misconception among clients about event managers reusing props. “For example, if there’s a panaflex, even a non-customised one, I don’t reuse it. The charges we present to clients are carefully calculated. They account for conveyance, labor, creativity, and the time we dedicate to each project. That’s why the amount we charge is fully justified,” she elucidates.

Underneath the makeup

Between all the hustle bustle of the wedding season, we keep in mind the caterers and the vendors but overlook the craft that is most talked about at any wedding - a bride’s makeup. This is a question that most women ask the bride about, ‘kahan se tayar hui ho?’ It’s a huge responsibility to doll up the bride for her big day. And even more so when bridal services and the care provided in salons become an essential part of the experience.

Photo by Asif Ali of Fresh Food Kitchen
Photo by Asif Ali of Fresh Food Kitchen

Samrah, 21, who works in a parlour in the vicinity of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, tells this scribe that customers often mistreat salon girls. “You have to put up with people’s tantrums and you get ill-treated very often in this field. They think just because they are paying you, they have put a price on you as well. But on the other hand, there are people who treat you as their own and literally think of you as their family member,” informs Samrah, who has studied till intermediate.

Samrah unravels that it took her five years of working in this field to realise that being a salon worker is no child’s play. “People still look at this profession as some side hobby and not a career as a medical doctor or an engineer. We work equally hard and put our heart into what the field demands but unfortunately there is zero appreciation,” she sighs.

On the other hand, 35-year-old Raheela, working in the same parlour as Samrah, encourages girls to consider this profession. “Every girl likes to take care and maintain themselves which is why this profession is being talked about more now. The salon business is quite successful and you earn good income too,” she observes.

Cook up a storm

Let’s be honest - wedding food is what makes or breaks the event as it is what makes all the spending worth it. Hailing from Chiniot, Asif Ali Khan, who has been in the catering business for the last 25 years, claims that nobody does Kunna and KFC style American Broast like his catering company called ‘Fresh Food’.

Photo by Take by Two
Photo by Take by Two

“Winter is our peak season, and before COVID, business ran smoothly. However, post-pandemic, things have shifted, and with so many catering companies now, competition has grown tougher,” comments Asif. However, looking at the silver lining, Asif says that at least they are not swamped and the limited orders get done smoothly. “Even if we receive an order a day ahead of an event consisting of 2000 people, the food is prepared on time,” he describes.

Speaking of crisis aversion, the caterer says that they try meeting with customers in the middle and the accommodation mostly depends on the dynamics they share as some of them can be long term clients. “For instance, if we are unable to prepare their order on time, the payment is refunded. And if the food is not to their liking, then other adjustments are considered. Sometimes if guests are unable to make it due to heavy rain, we send the food into orphanages and seminaries,” explains Asif. “I am lucky in the sense that most of my clients are decent people. In any case, we, Karachiites, are always mentally prepared for any kind of crisis at all times,” he smiles.

Mahnoor Tariq is a journalist dedicated to highlighting social issues and topics around women and underrepresented voices.

She can be reached at smahnoort11@gmail.com