A walima dress is the gown a Muslim bride wears to the walima, the reception the groom's family hosts after the marriage, and it is usually the biggest dress of the wedding: fuller, more embellished and more colourful than what she wore to the nikkah. In South Asian families that has traditionally meant a red or deep-pink lehenga or gharara; in Arab and Turkish families a white ball gown; and across the diaspora, increasingly, a white or jewel-toned gown with a cape, a train and a hijab. This guide covers what the bride wears, what colour is worn, what guests and sisters wear, what a walima dress costs, and why the white walima gown has come back.
What is a walima dress?
The walima is the celebration, a meal the Prophet encouraged even at its most modest: he told a newly married companion, "Give a banquet, even if with one sheep" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5167). The walima dress is built for a stage. Where the nikkah dress has to work seated in a small room, the walima dress has to work standing in a hall, under lights, in front of a photographer and a few hundred people who will mostly see it from twenty feet away. That is why walima dresses are heavier: more volume in the skirt, more beadwork on the bodice and sleeves, a cape or a train that reads from the back of the room. In Pakistani and Indian usage the word covers a full bridal outfit, most often a lehenga, gharara or sharara with a heavily worked dupatta. In Arab, Turkish, African and Western Muslim usage it is nearly always a gown. Brides searching for a walima dress today are usually looking for the second: a gown that gives them the scale of the traditional walima outfit with a high neck, sleeves and a hijab that sits cleanly. If you want the overview of every event first, read what a Muslim bride wears.
What colour is worn on the walima?
Red, maroon and deep pink are the traditional walima colours in South Asian families, with gold, rust and emerald as the modern alternatives. White is the traditional colour in most Arab, Turkish and North African families. The two traditions have met in the diaspora, and the result is that the walima now has the widest colour range of any wedding event: a Pakistani bride in New Jersey may wear white to the walima because her mother's generation wore red to everything, and a Syrian bride in Toronto may wear burgundy for the same reason in reverse.
A few patterns hold. If the bride wore white to the nikkah, the walima is where colour comes in. If the nikkah was in colour, the walima is often the white gown. If the nikkah and walima are the same day, one gown does both and it is nearly always white or ivory. Gold and champagne sit between the two: bridal enough for the stage, neutral enough to satisfy a family that wanted white and a family that wanted colour. Our guide to red wedding dresses covers the reds, and the Arabic wedding dresses collection is the white walima gown in its Gulf and Levant form.
Why are white walima dresses back?
Three reasons, and they show up in what brides pin and search for. First, the nikkah has taken the colour. Many South Asian brides now wear a coloured or pastel outfit to a separate nikkah and save white for the walima, which reverses the older order. Second, the walima is the event with the professional photographer, and white photographs under hall lighting in a way that deep red does not: the beadwork shows, the hijab and veil read clearly, and the pictures sit alongside the couple's friends' weddings on the same feeds. Third, a white gown is the one dress that works again. A red lehenga is worn once; a white gown with a cape is worn to the walima, then again to a sister's nikkah with the cape off, or altered for an anniversary.
What does the bride wear to the walima?
Whatever the colour, the walima dress follows the same shape: a fitted or gently structured bodice with the embellishment concentrated there, long sleeves, a high closed neckline for the hijab, and a skirt with enough volume and length to hold the stage. The details that make the difference from a distance are these.
- A cape or sheer sleeve panels. They move when you walk in, they fill the frame in photographs from behind, and they give the hijab something to sit against. Most of the gowns in our cape wedding dresses were designed for the walima entrance.
- A train. A sweep or chapel train reads from the back of the hall and can be bustled or held for the dancing. Walima gowns are the ones where a train earns its place; nikkah gowns rarely need one.
- Beadwork that catches stage light. Jeweled embroidery, crystal beading and sequins work under hall lighting and flash; matte lace can disappear. The Aniya in gold and the Asma in navy are the gowns built entirely around this.
- Volume with support. A full skirt needs a hoop or a petticoat, and the hoop should come with the gown so the shape you saw is the shape you get. The Asma is the fullest skirt in our collection and ships with its hoop skirt.
What do guests wear to a walima?
Guests dress up more for the walima than for the nikkah, and a long formal gown, an embellished maxi dress with sleeves, or a formal shalwar kameez or lehenga are all right. The rules are the same as for any Muslim wedding: covered, long, and not white, and not the bride's colour if you know it. Because the walima is the largest and most photographed event, guests can wear jewel tones and metallics that would feel like too much at a nikkah. Men wear a suit, sherwani or thobe depending on the family. Our guest guide goes through the options event by event, including what a non-Muslim guest can wear.
What do the bride's sisters wear to the walima?
Sisters and close cousins usually coordinate: one colour family across the group, chosen to sit beside the bride's dress in photographs without competing with it. If the bride is in red, the sisters are often in gold, champagne or dusty pink; if she is in white, they are in a single jewel tone. Long modest gowns with sleeves in a lighter fabric work well, and the Dua ($799), Beyda ($950) and Safa ($1,800) are the gowns in our collection that suit the role: formal, covered, and quieter than a bridal gown.
How much does a walima dress cost?
A made-to-measure walima gown costs $1,600 to $2,800 from us, and that price includes the custom sizing, the lining, the matching hijab on every gown in this range and the veil on most of the white ones. Designer Pakistani walima outfits start around $500 for a lighter set and run to $3,000 and beyond for heavy hand-worked bridal, before shipping and duties to North America. Catalogue gowns from large online stores are $200 to $400 before alterations and a hijab. Boutique ready-to-wear altered for coverage lands at $2,500 to $3,500. The full comparison is in how much a Muslim wedding dress costs.
Can you wear a simple dress to the walima?
Yes, and a simple gown in a strong colour or a clean white often looks better on a stage than a heavily worked one, because the shape carries from a distance and the beading does not have to. If you prefer simple, put the scale in the silhouette instead of the embellishment: a full skirt, a long cape, a train. The Husna ($1,750) is a plain white lined gown with the entire beaded cape doing the work over it; the Maryam ($1,600) is smooth satin with beading kept to the collar, cuffs and belt. Both are walima gowns without being loud ones.
One dress for the nikkah and the walima?
If the two events are on the same day, one gown is normal and the only question is which. Choose a white gown with the embellishment on the bodice and a plain lined skirt: covered and calm while you sit for the contract, full and bright once you stand for the entrance. The Zehra ($2,100) and Almas ($1,750) are the gowns our brides choose for this, and both include the hijab and veil. If the events are weeks apart, most brides split the budget unevenly: a lighter nikkah dress at $499 to $1,000 and the walima gown at $1,600 to $2,800. Our guide to what to wear to your nikkah covers the first half of that decision.
Ordering a walima dress in time
Walima gowns are the ones with the most work in them, so they are the ones that need the most lead time. Standard production on ours is 8 to 10 weeks, with express and rush options at checkout; order the walima gown first if you are buying two. Every gown is sewn to the ten measurements in the measuring guide, ships free in the US and also ships to Canada, Australia, the UK, Ireland and 14 countries in Europe (any import duties or VAT are paid by the buyer on delivery), and the product page lists the price, what is included and the timeline. Start with the Muslim wedding dresses for white and ivory, the red wedding dresses for the traditional colour, and the Arabic wedding dresses for the cape-and-train gowns built for the entrance.