Nuptuals

We’ve been to a few different weddings in our years here, each with a different feel.  Still, there is a general way that weddings are carried out here…

-Bride and Groom enter a big hall filled with women and children and loud Arabic music.  Guests are dressed in a range of clothes from full hijab to modern outfits.  The women in the bride’s family have usually spent the day at the salon getting decked out.

-The bride and groom dance and the groom gives the bride gold jewelry while the women look on and then later join them for dancing and greeting them as they sit on throne-like chairs.

-The bride and groom cut the cake with an ornate sword (at a recent wedding, the cake was lowered down out of a round hole in the ceiling of the wedding hall!)

-Meanwhile the men are grouped in another hall nearby, dancing and smoking and also eating cake.

– The women cover, including the bride who adds an ornate sleeve attachment and hood to her sleeveless dress.  Then, the men enter (first his family and then hers) to greet the bride and groom.

-In some weddings, a big co-ed dance party ensues with all ages holding hands and dancing the dabke….  We love this part!  The family might make a special effort to include us, the foreigners, in the center of the dance circle.

-The wedding party drives the bride and groom to their home in a loud, horn- honking procession, kids hanging out the windows and sun roof, waving and yelling.  Sometimes, a gun is shot into the air as the bride and groom are dropped off at their house.

Here are some photos of our outfits and the boys bogeying down…