A Muslim wedding ceremony is the celebration of a sacred bond between two souls and their families. It is alleged to be one of the core concerns of a Muslim as it would subsequently lead to the preservation of their religion and culture as their family grows. Just like any other South Indian wedding, Muslim marriage in Kerala is obviously unique with the glitz and glamour of traditional customs. Most Muslim communities encourage arranged marriages and believes that it is the responsibility of parents, especially for Muslim matrimonial brides in Kerala to find a suitable match and they mostly get in touch with brokers or marriage bureaus in their locale. Later this system was replaced with the advent of Muslim matrimonial sites in India enabling users to make use of advanced search options to find the most perfect match effortlessly. Islamic wedding rituals are explicitly grouped as the pre-wedding rituals, wedding rituals, and the post wedding rituals.
Beholding the elegance and grace of the typical Muslim matrimonial sacraments, if we explore the scintillating pre-wedding practices, the ceremony starts with valayidal where the two families formalise the alliance between the prospects. Mother of the groom will give a gift for the bride – probably some gold bangles and other gifts. As the next step, both families gather at the groom’s house for naal nischayam or date fixing. This is followed by the manjha ceremony, like the haldi ceremony, which is traditionally performed to enhance the glow of the Kerala matrimony bride to be. The bride is supposed to wear yellow or shades of yellow for the ceremony. Friends and relatives of the bride gather and apply a fresh paste of turmeric on the face and body so that she could have a glow for her big day. Then comes the mylanchiyidal or Mehandi function, which is an inevitable part of Muslim marriage across Kerala and is done a day or two before the wedding. There are a wide variety of Henna/mehandi designs from Kerala matrimonial girls for marriage like Indian, Arabic and Indo-Arabic designs. Some popular designers create amazing elements of the great Indian weddings along with the structure of the bride and groom. Traditional programmes like oppana and mappilapattu enhance the charm and energy. After this event, the bride is expected to not leave the house until the evening.
As any other south Indian brides, Muslim matrimonial brides in Kerala fuse tradition with vogue and go for wedding attires and accessories that would enhance the charm, elegance, and style. Though in many cultures, the traditional attire for the Muslim bride is a saree paired with dupatta to cover the head, brides nowadays opt for heavily embellished dresses like, lehenga, Anarkali or customised party wears with flaunt stone or thread work, embroidery etc. Popular Muslim wedding planners’ states that distinct light mutes or deep bright colours, contemporary brides choose pastel hues to customise their dress like kurthi with Mughal lehenga, long choli with lehenga, kameez with ghararas or sharara, bridal dress with dupatta, zardozi Muslim wedding dress, saree etc. Apart from traditional necklaces, bangles and rings, Muslim brides wear a nose ring on the right side of her face, which is an essential part of the Muslim wedding dress, that is to be replaced with a nose pin after marriage. The nose pin is a must for Muslim married women, but this practice is not a ‘must’ in Kerala. Customs may alter as well as the influence of different cultures, but the Muslim Nikah have the best of all worlds blended into.