A Saudi Wedding

A Wedding Spectacular

Autumn and I ready to go

I finally figured out where you see those beautiful red carpet dresses on sale at the shopping malls here in Saudi Arabia.  You see them at Saudi weddings!  I wish that I could post pictures of the dresses that I saw that night, but as a non-Saudi, I wasn't allow to take pictures at the wedding.  I was fortunate enough to even get an invitation.  So, I'll have to try to describe in words what it was like.  I'll post a picture of Autumn and I AND the shoes I wore that night!

AJ and I were invited to attend the wedding of his co-worker.  He went "on the market" this past spring to begin the process of finding a wife.  This is a process that involves the entire family.  Because he was now making a good salary, this made him eligible for his family to start finding options.  His family began looking at the girls around where he is from, meet them and their families, and see whom they would like as a match.  When girls are chosen, he is allow to meet one at a time, to see if they like each other.  He is allowed to see her without the abaya which is a huge deal.  Even if they choose not to continue the courtship, there is no harm with this.  Once he chooses someone and she is agreeable, they begin to have supervised dating with family around.  In June, he and his wife signed a marriage contract.  This is a formal process overseen by a religious person.  At this point they are considered married and can date without chaperones.  By most opinions, sexual intimacy is also acceptable at this time.  According to the groom, they chose to date because the wedding party wasn't going to be held until October and she didn't want to be pregnant in her wedding dress.

Bekah wanted to come.
Unfortunately,  she would
have fallen asleep before
arriving.

My shoes for the evening

In Saudi culture, there bride and groom have separate parties for the wedding.  AJ, Zach, and Dallin attended the groom's party while Autumn and I attend the bride's function.  The party for the bride began at 9:00 pm.  From what I have heard, this was an early start.  We arrived and, after some problems with trying to figure out where to go, finally made it to the ballroom of a hotel where the wedding was being held.  We were greeted at the door by immediate family members of the bride and groom.  They were very gracious and glad that we were there.  They spoke little English so they had a friend who spoke English well talk/translate greetings.  We were greeted like everyone else with kisses on the cheek and blessing said.  It was like we were part of the family.

Bride and Groom's names in chocolate

We then entered the room and found a place to sit.  We talked a little with those who could speak English, but mainly we got to people watch.

Arabic women are so beautiful.  They were dressed very fine.  Although, there were a few dresses I questioned and wondered how the wearer was talked into wearing it.  From what I learned, preparations for attending the wedding begin very early in the morning.  Great care is taken with hair, nails and makeup.  Some dresses are specially designed for the event.  Some parts of the wedding celebration reminded me of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".  There was A LOT of makeup on some guests, dresses that didn't quite fit body types and outrageous hair styles.  I also learned that hair pieces are used in some cases to make the hair look fuller.

Names in chocolate again

During the evening there was lots of dancing, eating chocolate and little pastries, drinking fresh juices / coffee / tea, and chatting.  There was a live musical group playing.  The female members were in the room with us while the male members were in another room hidden behind a partition so they could not see what was going on.  The singers would communicate by talking quietly over the PA system.  I wish that I knew more of the language because some songs seemed to excited the women and girls more than others and was wondering what the songs were talking about.  I have to admit that, by the end of the evening, all the music sounded the same and the beats were all similar.  I really need to learn the language!

The Bride finally arrive at 12:30 am.  Autumn and I had been talking about leaving but we really wanted to be able to see her before we left.  We were glad to have seen her.  She was dressed in a beautiful white dress and veil.  When she came in, they burned incense and women covered their heads with their veils.  Then people brought the incense around to each guest to waft toward their faces.  I am still uncertain about this bit of symbolism.  I do know that incense is burned at any gathering as a greeting.

About 1:30 am, there was an announcement that dinner was going to be served soon.  If it wasn't for the fact that Autumn was falling asleep in my lap, I might have stayed just to see what dinner was going to include.  So, about 2 am, we called AJ and began our 3 hour journey back to Riyadh.  I was glad that AJ took a nap while we were at the party.  We made it home safe around 5 am and promptly went to bed.