Ok so, the wedding was a lot of fun. There were things I liked about it, things I didn't like about it, and things I thought were interesting. In critical thinking class, we like to "PMI" a statement, which stands for "Plus, Minus, and Interesting."
The statement is:
"I should do my wedding in the style of a traditional Emirati Wedding."
First, the plus:
All my (lady) friends get to eat a ton of great food and dress up like it's 1999 and dance to some sweet arabic beats. Also, there's no boring ceremony. We get straight to the partying.
The minus:
I, the bride, don't really get to participate in the party. I have to waddle in, weighed down by my tremendous voluminous ornamental dress, after all the dinner is finished, and slowly... SLOWLY... CAREFULLY... make my way up the aisle to the large baroque couch on the large baroque stage, where I will perch and not move (I couldn't if I wanted to, what with the dress) while all the partygoers come greet me and congratulate me and take photographs of me.
The interesting:
The groom arrives at about 1 in the morning, when the party is winding down, escorted by his male brethren, and the bride must be fully covered in a big white cloak with just the sparkly fringe of her grievous burden peeking out the bottom. while they come in and walk him up there and snap a few pictures. After all the male brethren leave and the groom remains, she is uncloaked. I guess it's because they aren't supposed to see her? I didn't quite get the purpose. I will have to ask the bride later exactly what that was all about.
I could expound on the interesting all day. That wedding must have cost at least $40,000, and that was only the ladies' half! I have no idea what the groom was doing during this party; I believe he was having his own party, which I imagine must certainly have been of comparable or greater scale. We had table service in a ballroom fit to hold 300, and there was a staff of probably 40 running around bringing us strawberry juice and little pancakes and salads. There were teams of 2 carrying around giant hefty trays of chocolates, large enough that a single person could not bear the load, to each table to offer the guests. We had a delicious dinner of kebabs, three kinds of rice, heavenly hommous, harees meat (blech), chickens, biryanis, who knows what else, all served with a nice waiter to dish your food onto your china for you. Then desserts, and assorted sweets, and teas, and all manner of nonsense. I was wise to take only tiny samplings of each thing.
There were adorable little children running around in marvelous little dresses, and the gowns, the GOWNS! It was better than a fashion show. And some elder lady in the family threw lots of money in small bills of the stage so the adorable little children could all mob-rush each other in an attempt to grab the loot.
Logistically speaking, there were few errors. I went with my galpal and, despite having no idea where this event was taking place, we managed to get there without a single wrong turn. It went something like this:
Me: "Are we going to right way?"
Her: "Follow the signs."
Me: "I don't see any signs."
Her: "Pull over and ask this guy."
Me, pulled over in crapulator, to Guy in expensive suit, manning security post for a bunch of Ferraris and Hummers: "Excuse me, do you know where the wedding is?"
Guy: "There is no wedding here. Try the next building."
(At the next building, after turning into a random multi-story carpark and reaching level 3)
Me to the valet: "Do you know where the wedding is?"
The valet: "Yes. Park on the 3rd floor. Go down the lift. Turn left on exit. Hall 5."
Cha-ching!
Furthermore, a pen burst in my purse at dinner, nearly causing a conspicuous inky disaster involving my outfit and a variety of fine linens. Luckily, I was able to control the damage and make it to the bathroom like a secret agent without damaging anything or having anybody notice.
The cream on the cake? When we turned in our paid parking token on exit, at 1:30 in the morning, we were told... "free!"
Another minus: being to work at 8:00am the next day.
First, the plus:
All my (lady) friends get to eat a ton of great food and dress up like it's 1999 and dance to some sweet arabic beats. Also, there's no boring ceremony. We get straight to the partying.
The minus:
I, the bride, don't really get to participate in the party. I have to waddle in, weighed down by my tremendous voluminous ornamental dress, after all the dinner is finished, and slowly... SLOWLY... CAREFULLY... make my way up the aisle to the large baroque couch on the large baroque stage, where I will perch and not move (I couldn't if I wanted to, what with the dress) while all the partygoers come greet me and congratulate me and take photographs of me.
The interesting:
The groom arrives at about 1 in the morning, when the party is winding down, escorted by his male brethren, and the bride must be fully covered in a big white cloak with just the sparkly fringe of her grievous burden peeking out the bottom. while they come in and walk him up there and snap a few pictures. After all the male brethren leave and the groom remains, she is uncloaked. I guess it's because they aren't supposed to see her? I didn't quite get the purpose. I will have to ask the bride later exactly what that was all about.
I could expound on the interesting all day. That wedding must have cost at least $40,000, and that was only the ladies' half! I have no idea what the groom was doing during this party; I believe he was having his own party, which I imagine must certainly have been of comparable or greater scale. We had table service in a ballroom fit to hold 300, and there was a staff of probably 40 running around bringing us strawberry juice and little pancakes and salads. There were teams of 2 carrying around giant hefty trays of chocolates, large enough that a single person could not bear the load, to each table to offer the guests. We had a delicious dinner of kebabs, three kinds of rice, heavenly hommous, harees meat (blech), chickens, biryanis, who knows what else, all served with a nice waiter to dish your food onto your china for you. Then desserts, and assorted sweets, and teas, and all manner of nonsense. I was wise to take only tiny samplings of each thing.
There were adorable little children running around in marvelous little dresses, and the gowns, the GOWNS! It was better than a fashion show. And some elder lady in the family threw lots of money in small bills of the stage so the adorable little children could all mob-rush each other in an attempt to grab the loot.
Logistically speaking, there were few errors. I went with my galpal and, despite having no idea where this event was taking place, we managed to get there without a single wrong turn. It went something like this:
Me: "Are we going to right way?"
Her: "Follow the signs."
Me: "I don't see any signs."
Her: "Pull over and ask this guy."
Me, pulled over in crapulator, to Guy in expensive suit, manning security post for a bunch of Ferraris and Hummers: "Excuse me, do you know where the wedding is?"
Guy: "There is no wedding here. Try the next building."
(At the next building, after turning into a random multi-story carpark and reaching level 3)
Me to the valet: "Do you know where the wedding is?"
The valet: "Yes. Park on the 3rd floor. Go down the lift. Turn left on exit. Hall 5."
Cha-ching!
Furthermore, a pen burst in my purse at dinner, nearly causing a conspicuous inky disaster involving my outfit and a variety of fine linens. Luckily, I was able to control the damage and make it to the bathroom like a secret agent without damaging anything or having anybody notice.
The cream on the cake? When we turned in our paid parking token on exit, at 1:30 in the morning, we were told... "free!"
Another minus: being to work at 8:00am the next day.
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3 comments:
After Stanley and I experienced the... um... "interesting" flavor and texture of harees meat in that restaurant I had read that it was mostly prepared for special occasions (like weddings). I'm glad you got to try it yourself. =D
Sounds fun- you should have taken a sick day! Is it commen to have a wedding mid-week there?
I haven't the faintest what's common... I was wondering about that myself. I know it is definitely common to not even start until 9:30 and not even see the bride until 11:30 and not even see the groom until 12:30 or 1:00. =) Not like these pansies who start their wedding at 4pm. Ha!
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