Weddings

I have been in the UAE for a little more than a month now and have already been to three different weddings. There is a lot of difference between the weddings here and in Bahrain. The weddings here are filled with food; since the time we arrive till we leave we eat. When you first take a seat, there are appetizers on the table; appetizers consisting of hummus, moutable, spring rolls, samboosa, salad, sweets … At the same time you have women walking around serving western coffee, Arabic coffee, juices, tea, hot milk with herbs, sweets, chocolates, perfumes …

Dinner is served around 10 pm; this includes different types of rice, harees, grills, salad and much more. After dinner the bride enters (usually alone) and walks around showing off her hair-do, make-up and gown (more of a fashion show than a bride walking to her seat). After she takes her seat, friends and close family go to her and congratulate her and take pictures. While this is happening, guess what is going around??? Dessert !!! Consisting of more than four to five different types of sweets.

One thing that is very different from Bahrain is that there is almost no dancing at the weddings. The women just sit around and chat and no one dances. Very rarely would you find a girl who is a direct family member dance.

So the first wedding I went to, I was very into the songs and had a huge urge to dance and so I got up and danced. It was a very stupid thing of me to do since I knew no one at the wedding and was just invited last minute to just see what Emirati weddings were like. Good thing I thought that no one knew me so it didn’t matter; next day at the college a girl comes up to me and tells me I look familiar. Turned out she was at the wedding and she made that clear by telling me that she saw me dance!!

Can’t wait for January to go back home for Bahraini weddings!!!