Emirati Wedding

I had the opportunity to go to and Emirati wedding a few weeks ago with some friends. hey have an all men's party and an all ladies party, separate from each other. There were probably 500 ladies at the wedding. They all wore the most fashionable gowns I have ever seen. I invested in something with some beading and sequins so I wouldn't be too underdressed, but theirs, I am sure they spent thousands on. It looked like a Vogue fashion show. 

When you get to the wedding, they have a perfume bar, and you can choose your scent for the evening. I opted out. I came pre-scented. They love their smelly good stuff here. You usually can smell a local before you see them. They had a photo booth where they get their individual glamour shots done. My friends and I went for a group shot shown above. They weren't quite equipped for a group shot. They struggled to get us all in the frame. 

The wedding party was held in a big ballroom in a hotel room. There was course after course. They brought out carts with heaps of their traditional rice (biriyani) on them and camel bones sticking up out the heap. It was good. Just tasted like roast! The music had a heavy beat and was SO, SO, SO loud. My ears were ringing afterward. They DJ was female. Very entertaining. A lot of the younger girls got up on stage to dance. An older lady, using body language, commanded us foreigners to get up on stage and dance. It was embarrassing but they were entertained.

The bride arrived a couple hours in to the party. There were Filipina ladies constantly fluffing her very poofy dress out in front of her so she wouldn't step on it. It took her a good 20 minutes to make it down the aisle and up on stage. She looked just so nervous.

When the groom arrived, all who weren't immediate family members quickly covered up in their black abayas and shaylas. So interesting. He came very late in the evening. The party started at 7 and he came around midnight. It was very interesting to see their first interactions. I was told that they had never met or seen a picture of each other. The bride looked like a deer in the headlights. The groom slowly walked down the aisle where all the women looked upon him. He stared straight forward at the bride. An older woman, perhaps his grandma, followed behind him with smoking incense and hollered "aye yi yi yi yi!!!!" into a megaphone. When he finally made it up on stage, he stood next to her for a photo, but because of how poofy her dress was, their shoulders were probably 2 feet apart. After a few photos, he kind of kicked her dress over and scooted in. He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead, and then made her hold his hand. I think she would have preferred to hold on to her flowers. Can't imagine how that must have been for them where they have had no contact at all with the opposite sex except for family members. Very interesting. A great cultural experience.