Green Wedding
In Green Wedding, I married the house where I grew up—a symbolic act of love, devotion, and reflection. This house holds so much of me: it’s where I experienced joy, play, and family closeness, but also the subtle tensions that shaped my family dynamics. It was a home filled with both warmth and complexity, as ten family members shared their lives under one roof. The house is layered with memories—both tender and difficult—and I wanted to embody that complexity in the most intimate way I could imagine.
Marrying the house was my way of getting as close to it as possible. I’ve always wanted a wedding, and this felt like the only way to merge myself with something I love so deeply. But marriage, for me, is also a question: What does it really mean? It’s a contract, yes, but it’s one we can always break. This wedding wasn’t just about permanence—it was about questioning that very idea, embracing the contradictions of commitment, and asking what it means to belong to something or someone.
On this day, I celebrated the beauty and significance of the act itself. I designed a green dress, purchased a gold ring with my father’s money, and invited close friends and family to bear witness. The ceremony unfolded with Persian wedding music playing, a symbolic nod to the glamour and festivity of traditional Iranian weddings. This performance became a way to celebrate myself and the house, both as partners and as reflections of each other.
By marrying the house, I embraced its imperfections, its history, and its role in shaping me. It became a way to reclaim and reimagine what home means to me—not just as a physical space, but as a reflection of the self. In this act, I redefined intimacy and explored the deep connections we form with the places that hold our stories.
As part of the ceremony, I wore a necklace crafted from a single piece of mirror, engraved with the shape of a flower taken from the Persian rug in the house. The mirror, resting close to my heart, reflected the house and its essence, symbolizing my desire to embrace it fully. It allowed me to take the house into myself—its light, its complexities, and its emotional weight. The act of wearing the mirror became a way to merge with the house, to reflect its story while accepting it as a part of me, both physically and emotionally.
Photos by Maryam Saeedpour
Digital Photos, 2020
Where the Green Begins
This video, part of the Green Wedding series, is a poetic meditation on memory, reflection, and belonging. Wearing a mirror necklace engraved with the shape of a flower from a Persian rug tied to my family’s heritage, I explored the deep connection between myself and the house where I grew up. The mirror, reflecting both the house and my heart, became a symbol of merging with the place that shaped me.
Accompanied by the evocative vocals of Mahboubeh Golzari, Where the Green Begins is a gesture of love and reconciliation. It honors the layers of memory and emotion held within the walls of my childhood home and reflects on what it means to truly belong.