Although many Muslims stage a multiday celebration to mark a wedding, the traditional marriage ritual itself, called a nikah in Arabic, is simple and brief.

The Nikah can take place pretty much anywhere. An officiant familiar with Islamic law asks the spouses-to-be if they consent to the marriage and if they are marrying of their own free will. The couple signs the marriage contract or license, with witnesses observing. The officiant pronounces the couple husband and wife.

Days of lively parties often surround the muslim marriage and a typical Pakistani wedding, features a week of singing and dancing, often including the following events:

Dholki: The wedding celebrations often begin with the dholki (named after the dholk, or drum) one to two weeks before the actual three-day wedding ceremony. During this event, young guests sing and dance while beating on the dholk in preparation for the upcoming mehendi.

Mehendi: The mehendi ceremony typically takes place on the first night of the three-day wedding. Usually the most festive part of the event, it's filled with music and color, with women dressed in bright formal shalwar kameez outfits and saris, and girls sporting long skirts and blouse outfits called lehengas. The mehendi can either be held separately for the bride and groom or jointly. A joint mehendi lends to friendly guy/girl competition while each side takes turns to outperform the other. The bride traditionally wears a formal yellow or green outfit, and, as the name of the ceremony implies, has wet mehendi (henna paint) applied on her hands that day. Both the bride and groom are blessed by family and friends with decorated mehendi and sweets.

It's customary for the bride to be escorted onto the stage under a yellow color dupata, or large scarf, held up by six female relatives or friends. Her head is covered and bowed, and she doesn't have much makeup or jewelry on at this event. In joint mehendi ceremonies the groom arrives at the ceremony after the bride with his entourage of guests, called the baraat. The baraat typically plays loud songs while entering the ceremony hall and is greeted by two parallel lines of the bride's family and friends.

Nikah: The wedding day is less eventful than the preceding days. The bride typically wears a bright-red ghaagra, a heavily pleated skirt with a long blouse embroidered in gold. The dupata is hung low over her bowed head and wrapped around her shoulders in such a way that her heavy gold jewelry is not hidden. This outfit is the most elaborate of all the ones the bride will wear.

Grooms either wear a traditional sherwani with a turban or a Western-style suit. Some grooms wear a veil of roses on their head before the bride enters. As a game, sometimes the bride's young female relatives and friends will steal the groom's shoes, returning them only when the groom pays a bargained amount of money. At the end of the night, a procession escorts the couple to the wedding car and throws flower petals on the couple.

Valima: The groom's family hosts the valima, or the feast, typically the night after the wedding. The feast signifies the consummation of the wedding, and is roughly equivalent to an American wedding reception.