Faizan graduated a few years ahead of her and joined his father’s real estate business. Diyana was preparing for a career in journalism when the pandemic struck. While vacationing in Srinagar when travel restrictions were eased, Faizan’s sister jumped at the opportunity to act as a matchmaker. Due to their similar backgrounds, they quickly bonded and a two-year engagement followed. Although the couple initially considered Lake Como, they chose Srinagar to accommodate Diyana’s ailing grandmother.

“Sailing down the Dal in that shikara, I realised I was having the same experience as Lake Como, only in a much more beautiful setting,” Diyana confesses, her eyes sparkling with laughter. The next day, the women gather in their wedding dress in the cool banquet hall of the hotel and await the bride’s arrival after completing the Aab Sherun or “water ceremony”, a purification ritual in which the bride is bathed in water infused with saffron and roses. It is an intimate, emotional moment of maternal blessing, as the women of the family prepare the bride for her new life.

While we wait, Diyana enters the room accompanied by her mother and aunts. She is wearing an emerald green and gold tilla pheran and an amethyst-purple dupatta draped loosely over her head. Even without makeup, she looks radiant. But her red-rimmed eyes betray that she has just been crying. Her mother Fauzia, whose blue-grey eyes glitter, leads her to a table in the middle of the room.

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Diyana reads from the Koran and stretches out her hands in prayer to ask for blessings. The older women surround her, singing traditional love songs and giving marriage advice. The atmosphere is both solemn and joyful.

Typically, Muslim weddings in Kashmir are small, communal events held at home, where families gather in multi-storey houses with intricately carved wooden interiors. The men gather on one floor, the women on another, enjoying lavish meals served by family members at a leisurely pace that can stretch for hours. Diyana and Faizan’s wedding, however, is a mix of the modern and the traditional. While the guest list is made up of locals, it also includes many friends and family members who have flown in from Delhi and Mumbai. Accommodating 600 people at home was impossible, so the Khanyari family decided to host some of the festivities at Vivanta, owned by the bride’s Khala (aunt).