Liz and Azeem's Wedding

Wow - can't believe its been almost two months since I posted here. We spent much of July at the farm, and you can catch up on that news on the Villa Mir Farm blog. Farm 'n Fun was a great party this year, perfect weather drew lots of people including David, Claire and the kids, Michael and some of his friends, Carol H. and Karen K. and many others. After the party, Don and I worked the following week to clean out the house and get it ready for construction. This project is going slowly, but I still hope to have it all finished for next summer.

The big August event was Liz and Azeem's wedding. They got married outside of London in Oxfordshire. Don, Mike and I accompanied Dave and Brynn - how many grown-ups does it take to manage a travelling two-year old? Claire stayed home with baby Evan. It was a wonderful time - several days of non-stop festivities, including a religious ceremony at the mosque, a mehndi party, a civil ceremony at a beautiful restored old farmhouse and garden, a reception and dinner in the restored old barn at the farm.

The mehndi pary was great fun - very informal with lots of friends and family. Mehndi is a tradition where a paste made of henna is used to create designs on the body - hands, arms, ankles, etc - and is often used in celebrations and special ceremonies in Pakistan and India. It is temporary, and the designs are incredibly intricate. Liz's looked awesome!

It was great to meet Azeem's parents and extended family for the first time. Joan, Andy and Ben flew in from LA, which provided even more people to entertain Brynn! I also got a chance to wear some of the clothes I constantly buy in India, including the sari I bought 10 years ago and have never worn. Liz looked absolutely gorgeous (I guess brides are 'radiant', not 'gorgeous'), wearing a wedding dress of traditional Pakistani design which was deep red, shot with gold lace and embroidery. Stunning! Azeem wore traditional dress as well, with very cool shoes that turned up at the tip. Even Michael got a new suit out of it and cleaned up remarkably well - who knew he'd look that good in pinstripes?! David has a ton of pictures on the gallery on his website, the one's here are just a few of his shots.

After a short visit in London, we flew home to NY and since then it has been wrapping up the end of summer - getting Mike off to school, a couple of business trips, a few days in Wisconsin at Steve and Kelli's, a brief stop back at the farm. Now we're back in CT and I'm getting ready to head off to Japan as the fall life science conference season begins!