Private equity professionals Nadia and Shahriar met in Massachusetts when Nadia was a senior at Wellesley and Shahriar had moved to Boston after graduating from Wharton. While on vacation in Croatia two years later, Shahriar proposed on the way to dinner at one of Nadia’s “Hitlist” restaurants.

They wanted their June wedding—decorated in French blue, gold, white and warm pink—to be reminiscent of Versailles and the French Baroque period, with Eastern touches from their Pakistani and Persian heritage. A Persian Sofreh Aghd ceremony was the groom’s favorite part, and during the Arsi Mushaf at their Pakistani Nikah, they saw themselves for the first time as a married couple in the same mirror that Nadia’s parents had looked into 32 years earlier. Another highlight was the entertainment, including a harpist, a dance troupe leading traditional dances and the drum troupe lifting the newlyweds from the crowd at the reception. The sweet ending: a selection of Pakistani treats and a royal seven-tier cake.

The details

This wedding originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of The Washingtonian.

Editor for fashion and weddings

Amy runs Washingtonian Weddings and writes Style Setters for Washingtonian. Before joining Washingtonian in March 2016, she was editor of Capitol File magazine in DC and before that editor of What’s Up? Weddings in Annapolis.