Amna and Taimur

Large photographs, a single column and the words you want remembered.

Saturday, 12 December 2026

Before you read

A tune to read it by

Put it on, then read the letter below. Tap once to play and again to stop.

Plays only when you tap

Read this first

Written by both of us

Saturday, 12 December 2026

We wrote this the week after the walima, while the house was still full of flowers. It is less an invitation than a thank-you letter with the photographs attached.

She wrote the first half. He wrote the second and then changed hers.

Amna & Taimur

The groom kissing his bride's forehead at night

The two of us

The bride in red and gold bridal jewellery — Amna
wrote the first draft
Daughter of Yasmin & Kamran Ali
Keeps every card anyone has ever given her, in a box her mother keeps threatening to throw out.

The groom in a white sherwani before a wall of flowers — Taimur
edited it twice
Son of Azra & Shahid Malik
Reads the last page of a book first. Has read this letter more times than either of them will admit.

Five chapters

The letter

November 2023
The string of lights
A friend's mehndi, a power cut and a box of fairy lights that would not untangle. They untangled it together, badly.
February 2024
Under the chandelier
Their families met at a hotel neither could afford, and everyone ordered the soup to be safe.
September 2025
Side by side
Six months of small decisions made together, and the surprise of how easy that turned out to be.
March 2026
The candle
He asked at home, at the kitchen table, with a candle because the bulb had gone. She said yes before he finished.
December 2026
The lights again
Three years later, the same tangled lights, strung over the courtyard for the mehndi.