A 500-guest wedding,
sourced from Dubai.

The brief.

Salma asked for a bridal wardrobe, gold, and three coordinated outfits for the bridesmaids. The brief grew the way Somali weddings always do.

By the time we boarded the flight to Leicester, we had sourced, packed and shipped:

• The full bridal wardrobe, gowns to home diracs (casual house dresses)
• Custom henna-night baatis (patterned heritage dresses) for the bridal party
• Coordinated abayas for the women of both families
• The groom's kandura set and bisht for the nikkah
• Bridal gold and a perfume edit for the wardrobe
• Five hundred custom favour boxes, embossed with the couple's initials
• Home goods for the new house, kitchenware, living room decor, carpets

The sourcing.

Seven weeks across Dubai. Meena Bazaar for the lace and beaded fabrics. Deira Gold Souk for the bridal set, weighed and approved per piece. Karama for the tailoring runs. Three abaya houses for the family coordinates. Two perfumeries for the wardrobe scent. One workshop in Al Quoz that does what most workshops won't.

Every fabric photographed and sent for approval before the cut. Every gold piece weighed on a witnessed scale. Every box video-recorded before it sealed.

The henna night.

The bridesmaids in matching baatis (patterned heritage dresses), sourced and delivered together so the palette read as one. Henna applied two days before the nikkah by one family artist. The whole sisterhood in one room, one moment, one photograph.

The hardest call.

Days before we flew, Salma decided we needed custom favour boxes for every guest. Five hundred of them, embossed with her initials and Abdiweli's. With almost no time left.

It was the kind of request most suppliers would refuse on the timeline alone. We briefed the right one, clearly, with a bride who couldn't be let down. He said yes.