How did you find your perfect dress?

I went to a specific boutique that sold Galia Lahav because I had two dresses in mind that I had to try. My dress wasn’t either. But, after trying on, and loving the dresses that were on my list, the bridal attendant told me she had one more dress that she had pulled and that she thought that was going to be the one. “It just came in,” she said. So, I tried it on. The last dress. And it was the one. My mom cried, so I cried, and that was it. That was my dress.

What moment from your wedding will you never forget?

There are a bunch of things that I’m never going to forget, but one thing that was especially different than weddings we have in America was our pre-wedding celebration, the day of. Traditionally, in the Turkish culture, the groom and his family and friends come and get the bride from her house. There’s a huge procession with horns blazing, drums and clarinet players, flares, dancing…All I remember hearing, when I was almost finished getting my hair done, was the horns of the cars approaching the house. It was endless, loud, and exciting. Then the drums started, the dancing…they lit flares in the backyard as I walked down the stairs and waited in the room for Batu to come. It was just something else.