My best friends wedding! Heike n Baris got married!!

Yes Heike and Baris got married. And we had gone to Istanbul for the wedding.
Heike is once of my first and best friend in Germany, with her my friendship goes back to the time when we used to speak English with each other and since I learnt German we have been talking in German.


3.Oct.2008 ( my sister's bday as well)

The first day we reached there we met Heike's family (brother Rene and her mom n dad) along with her aunt uncle and 2 very sweet cousins(Desiree n Doreen). We all were staying in the same hotel very close to Baris's mom's home. We started our trip with a lunch together with all the family members at Baris's home. Baris's mom Seval cooks amazing food. Baris' family is also so warm n lovely, it was a pleasure indeed to meet Baris' mom (Seval), sister(Tutku)n brother in law(Mutlu) after 4 years.
After lunch we joined Heike n Baris n heike's family for a small trip to the bazaar. For Heike's family bazaar was different as they were not used to so many people and Heike's mom being a little claustrophobic, it was a different experience for them.I bought a very nice glass lamp and some huge tile coasters from there( very oriental and preytt).
In the evening, I had offered to make some daal for the entire family and I made it, which was eaten as soup :)first. then there was a session of drinking wine and all of us retiring to bed early for a nice sleep. The big joke at the dining table was that as we were always so many of us eating together on the dining table space was a limitation so Heike's d joked that its like eating in an aeroplane with very little elbow movement space:)

4th Oct (The wedding day and Heike's dad's 50th Bday)
We began the day with having an early breakfast(9.30am) and then joining Baris' mom and Heike's mom, aunt and cousins for the appointment at the hairdresser. We took the local tram, bus and metro and reached the place in an hour, the surprising part was that 6 of us got our hair done in just one hour. Heike's family found the part that there were only men hairdressers strange and amusing as in Germany most of the hairdressers are women. Here's a before and after snap.


Then we all came back and went for a small stroll with Heike's two cousins to a nearby mall before getting dressed for the wedding.

I wore a Sari for the wedding and all others were very smartly dressed in lovely dresses. The venue was also very nice with the beginning with cocktails and snacks close to the pool and the civil marriage ceremony organized at a table on a place higher to where everyone was. I was Heike's Witness (a big honor and pleasure for me)and Mutlu was Baris's witness. One of the lovely part was when the lady from the registration office asked something and I Was supposed to say Yes,noone taught me what I ad to say so I just repeated what Mutlu has said but apparently I had done that so well that there was a lot of clapping and Baris repeated so many times later on as well that I was great and had pronounced the word perfect. It was a very emotional moment for both the families which included some tears of happiness as well.
After that we all went upstairs where food was arranged. We shared a table with some if Tutku's college and school friends, one of whom was working for Mahindra and had been to Mumbai a number of times. All women were very smartly dressed in lovely dresses n high heels, was a pleasure to see such chic people.
Heike and Baris began with the first dance and cut a cake and we all ate and danced a lot and met many other Turkish friends.The music was really nice with some turkish songs and loads of 70's english songs and we all including both the families danced a lot. We also met one of Heike's friend who had especially come for the wedding with her husband from Jordan.
The best part was that the wedding was very short n sweet, it started at 7 pm and was over around 1 am. I really liked Heike's dress, she was looking like a princess and even Baris was looking very handsome! I wish both of them loads of happiness. Unfortunately I don't have some nice pic of Heike n Baris together, will ask her to send me some and will then upload those, the ones we clicked are all so dark (hmm time to buy a new camres is ist?)

5th Oct (Anurag's n Alexi's bday)


Our plane was at 3am on 6th, so we had another day in Istanbul! After breakfast, we all went for a walk to Bosphorus and wanted to take a boat ride, but unfortunatley it started to rain ( the only time when we had a little bad weather during the whole trip, so we just went to a cafe n had turkish tea,coffee n cake there.
Now as boat ride was canceled, all ladies and Baris and Heike's bro Rene decided to go to Hamam but I didn't want to go there and joined instead Vivek and Heike's dad n uncle to a trip to the biggest shopping mall in Istanbul. It was really amazing to see the big shopping mall, it has all UK, USA and European brands, I bought a coat from Marks n Spencers and Vivek also bought a Jacket. After that we joined everyone for dinner at one of the restaurants where Vivek enjoyed lovely big grilled fish. In fact we got to see another wedding which was being organised at the same restaurent. After that we all came back to Baris's mom's place and chatted till 11.30, till we left for airport.
I would say it was a wonderful experience for us to spend time with families of our two wonderful friends. I had always told Heike that I am eagerly waiting for your wedding so that I my see a bride in lovely white Wedding gown and this dream so finally came true. I am so happy for them! Wishing both of them a very happy married life!

Finally we came back on 6th and slept the whole day through and life has been the same old routine since then. will come back with another interesting post next week as we have something planned this Sunday as well.

Here you will find some general pics of Istanbul.