Portland Multicultural Wedding at The Nines | Misbah + Frank

Misbah and Frank had so much color and beauty throughout their wedding, so many personal and cultural attributes throughout! Everything was so lush and vivid and truly a work of art and beautifully orchestrated by Aspen with Bridal Bliss and the rest of the talented creative partners.  Their ceremony was held on the rooftop of one of Portland’s best hotels and only surrounded by their closest family and friends. The sun came out just in time for their vows and as soon as they said their I do’s, the rain poured and they were all smiles! Their guests were welcomed into the reception with a beautiful Lion Dance which was spectacular! The evening ended with more entertainment with a traditional Bhangra dance. Check out what Misbah and Frank had to say about their day in more detail:

Q: Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specific theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day?

A: I think what was special about our wedding is that it was a representation of Frank and I.  It makes us both happy to see joy in other people, and we wanted to make sure that our wedding was memorable and enjoyable for our families and friends. We took a lot of time to think out details including colors, food, drinks and entertainment. We wanted to make sure that the cuisine was palatable to both sides of our families since they both have very different taste palates. We were lucky enough to invite both of our parents to our tasting with the Chef of the Nine’s Hotel after creating a custom menu over a couple of weeks.Our wedding style was romantic and modern with bright colors and some details from both of our cultures included in the day. The Nine’s Hotel is beautiful and represented Frank and my style very well, which is one of the many reasons we chose them! The ballroom had high ceilings, was visually appealing and grand. It was impressive before we added any details and close to 250 guests! Our ceremony was non-denominational and included a small amount of guests that kept it very personal and private for us.  It was on the top of the Nine’s Hotel at Departure. We both wrote personalized vows that we shared with each other and our closest family and friends.Our color palate included:  pewter for the linens, white for the napkins and different shades of reds and pink. Red is a very lucky color it the Chinese culture and we made sure to include bight, vibrant colors versus neutrals.  Reds and Pinks are also often included in the Pakistani culture and a Red gown, or lehnga is traditional for the bride to wear.To add a personalized cultural aspect to our wedding, we incorporate a Chinese Tea Ceremony the morning of our wedding to  include Frank’s culture. Two days before our wedding, we also hosted a Mehndi ceremony to tie in Misbah’s culture.Both events included family and friends of both sides of our family!

Q: Let’s talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY?

A: We had Bridal Bliss and Geranium Lake Florist help decorate our space for the ceremony and reception. None of the decor was DIY.We rented pewter chiavari chairs with white cushions to match the pewter linen and white napkins. Going along with the theme of bright colors, Geranium Lake florist made us a custom mini mandap that had vibrant reds, pink, and purple flowers included with  draping of white chiffon. This was our backdrop along with the beautiful picturesque view of Portland for our wedding ceremony. This mandap was used again as our backdrop for our sweetheart table. It was revamped and small hanging decor with candles were added for a more romantic look.We had florals on all of tables. They consisted fo the same theme of bright pinks, red’s and purples. Each name card was custom made by the Scribblist and had an single purple orchid tucked into the napkin. The first thing we noticed when seeing the ballroom set up for the first time was that everything was very vibrant, eye catching and romantic appearing. We added an additional personalization,  by doing amber up lighting for our first dance and dinner and then changing it to magenta up lighting for the dancing hours.  We wanted the mood to be dreamy and elegant for the starting of our reception and then upbeat and inviting for the dance portion.Lastly, for our first dance we had gobo lighting that was projected on the ceiling. It was supposed to mimic dancing under the stars. Our dance floor was lined with large glass vases of different sizes with floating candles.

Q: What were the florals like in your wedding? Did you use flowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding?

A: We used florals in a majority of our wedding decor. The very talented team of Geranium Lake Florists helped bring our decor and design together. They were able to take the image that we had regarding colors, cultural aspects and the modern romantic theme and make it come together for us.We would not have been able to do it without Geranium Lake and the magic of Kim Foren’s imagination and experience. Their team played a big part of our day!

Q: Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding?

A: We personalized our wedding day to incorporate both sides of our  cultures since we had two different cultures (Chinese and Pakistani) coming together. For food, we were able to make a custom made menu with the head Chef at the Nine’s hotel. It was Asian inspired flavors on a modern twist. We both have to say that the food was one of our favorite parts of the wedding!For entertainment, we hired the White Lotus Dance Company. They  did a lion dance a the end of our cocktail hour to entertain our guests and as an introduction to enter the ballroom for dinner and the rest of the events. This was a surprise to all of our guests and they highly enjoyed the lion dancers.After cutting our cake, we had Bhangra Inception perform a Bollywood style dance to open up the dance floor.  One of the ladies in Misbah’s wedding party is the founder of Bhangra Inception. She made this dance very special by choreographing a dance to one of Misbah’s Favorite songs, Chammak Chalo by Akon. Many of our guests got on the dance floor after this performance and danced with the performers from Bhangra Inception.

Q: Let’s talk fashion. How did you both choose your wedding day look? Describe the looks in detail.

A: Our wedding day look consisted of multiple outfits.Our first outfits were traditional American outfits.Frank rented a tux from the Black Tux.  It was navy blue with black details on the lapel and pants.Misbah’s dress was custom made by Amy Sims Couture. It was a spin off of an American style wedding gown and incorporated some details from a saree. We added a pallu (the part of the Indian Saree that goes over your shoulder). It was made out of lace and was floor length and detailed. We added a floor length lace veil and Badly Mischka shoes that completed the outfit. Her jewelry consisted of earrings and white bangles that were designed in Pakistan a Cartier necklace that was a gift from Frank on our wedding day. Our second look consisted of traditional Pakistani Outfits (Misbah is Pakistani). Our outfits were custom made from Nadya’s Visage in Karachi, Pakistan.Frank wore a Sherwani that was navy blue with gold hand embroidered work and white pants.  The Sherwani was very modern in design and Frank topped it off with a necklace that was gifted from our Chinese Tea Ceremony, a gold bracelet, and a Cartier watch that was gifted from Misbah on their wedding day.Misbah’s second outfit was a traditional red lehnga. The outfit was hand beaded and was quite heavy and intricate. We both wanted to incorporate parts of our culture into our wedding and this was our chance with our outfits. Misbah always wanted to wear a red dress and was very happy that she was able to wear both traditional colors. Her jewelry was gifted from her parents. They had bought custom made Pakistani Jewelry and gold bangles  when she was very young in anticipation of a wedding at some point in her life. Lucky for her, the beading details on the necklace and earrings were red and matched perfectly with her lehnga.

Q: How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal.

A: Frank and I met online five years ago. I was the first person to say something to one another. Franks’ screen name was (Phangy) which reminded me of the word Fang, or teeth. I thought I was really smooth by asking him “hey, do you bite?” Frank on the other side of the screen was confused, and probably kind of scared, HA! His screen name was actually his Chinese name, not fangy like the teeth.Lucky me, Frank decided to give me a chance and respond to me . We ended up going on our first date after chatting for a week or two. Frank was the first person I dated to put so much effort and thought into everything we did. I knew that he was special and the rest is history.Frank, some friends and I traveled to Peru in May of 2018 for a hiking trip and an end goal to reach Machu Picchu.  After 4 days on the Salkantay Trail and about 15,000 feet, we made it to Machu Picchu! We were not done hiking, we actually climbed Machu Picchu mountain which was a grueling two hours of Inkan Stairs (very large stairs). Some of our group did not make it to the top. I did make to the top and Frank took the moment to propose to me on pedestal that was made for people taking pictures(that is what I thought was going on). It was magical to say the least. The most amazing part is that Frank carried my ring through multiple airports, through Cusco and Lima Peru and up 15,000 feet and all of those stairs. This must have been very nerve racking! One of our friends video taped the proposal!

Q: What was the most anticipated or special moment of your wedding day?

A: The most anticipated special moment was seeing each other walk down the aisle.  Although we did have a first look, it was significant to us when we saw each other and we both remember the moment very well.

Q: Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you’d like to share with other couples planning their day?

A: The best thing that we did was get a wedding planner for the day of our wedding and then some. Frank and I were very excited to be hands on, so we did a majority of our interviews for vendors by ourselves, but greatly appreciate Bridal Bliss for taking over and making sure very detail was perfect for our wedding day.I think it was important to have this detail because were were wanting to tie together two different cultures and were very detail oriented. Bridal Bliss helped us organize and decide which details were most important and would be easily incorporated without going insane! 🙂