A Kuwaiti Wedding, Part 1
Last Friday, I had the opportunity to go to my first Kuwaiti wedding. One of my student's aunts was getting married, and her mom invited me to go. Now, nothing about the Kuwaiti wedding party resembles a western wedding ceremony and reception, except for the fact that there is food, music, and a bride in a wedding dress.
First, I had to go buy a ball gown/cocktail dress/party dress. I opted for one somewhat quickly, because I knew that nothing I bought would be even close to the outlandish/lavish designs that the Kuwaiti women would be wearing. Imagine the richest people in the world each having their own designer dress specially made for this occasion...so, I found a decent black dress at Debenham's that looked like this one, and paired it with a black shrug, black heels, and a silver and black clutch purse. You can't go wrong with black here.
Next, I drove to the city center to the Marriott Courtyard complex, which holds the Al Rayya shopping center and the Al Rayya ballroom. The wedding "started" at 8:30pm, I arrived around 9:15pm, and a lot more people arrived after I did. When I got to the front door, there was a giant Arab doorman (read: bouncer) that asked for my invitation. When I said I didn't have one, he said, "You are Stephanie." I was like, "Uh. Yes," thinking, I sure hope that's ok. He told me to go in, so I walked through this elegant set of curtains into an extremely, ornately decorated foyer and the entrance to the ballroom. After a second's thought, I walked quickly to the bathroom to check out how under-dressed I really was. When I decided it was ok, I ventured out to find Latifa (my student's mom) and see what to do.
Then, after about an hour of Arabic music and servers coming around with gourmet chocolates, Arabic tea and coffee, and bite-size desserts, most of the guests had arrived and started dancing. Mind you, all of the guests at this party were women, and the "dance floor" really was a runway of white carpet stretching around 1/2 a football field, where the women do a simple dance that is more like walking along a runway. And yes, it did look like a runway, because the rest of the guests were seated on white leather bench-type sofas on both sides and facing the runway for easy watching of the "dance floor."
Sound complicated yet? I'm doing my best to describe all this because there are no cameras allowed! Besides the official, professional photographer, no women take their cameras because everyone is generally covered in extremely modest clothing or an abaya (loose dress) and wearing a hijab (head scarf). At weddings, the women are free to wear whatever they please because there are only other women in attendance (including the servers, photographer, videographers, etc.). Here are a FEW of the types of dresses that I saw:
It was a little overwhelming at first, but once I got to know some people, I started to have a goof time. And, that was before the bride even came around 10:15pm.
(to be continued...)
First, I had to go buy a ball gown/cocktail dress/party dress. I opted for one somewhat quickly, because I knew that nothing I bought would be even close to the outlandish/lavish designs that the Kuwaiti women would be wearing. Imagine the richest people in the world each having their own designer dress specially made for this occasion...so, I found a decent black dress at Debenham's that looked like this one, and paired it with a black shrug, black heels, and a silver and black clutch purse. You can't go wrong with black here.
Next, I drove to the city center to the Marriott Courtyard complex, which holds the Al Rayya shopping center and the Al Rayya ballroom. The wedding "started" at 8:30pm, I arrived around 9:15pm, and a lot more people arrived after I did. When I got to the front door, there was a giant Arab doorman (read: bouncer) that asked for my invitation. When I said I didn't have one, he said, "You are Stephanie." I was like, "Uh. Yes," thinking, I sure hope that's ok. He told me to go in, so I walked through this elegant set of curtains into an extremely, ornately decorated foyer and the entrance to the ballroom. After a second's thought, I walked quickly to the bathroom to check out how under-dressed I really was. When I decided it was ok, I ventured out to find Latifa (my student's mom) and see what to do.
Then, after about an hour of Arabic music and servers coming around with gourmet chocolates, Arabic tea and coffee, and bite-size desserts, most of the guests had arrived and started dancing. Mind you, all of the guests at this party were women, and the "dance floor" really was a runway of white carpet stretching around 1/2 a football field, where the women do a simple dance that is more like walking along a runway. And yes, it did look like a runway, because the rest of the guests were seated on white leather bench-type sofas on both sides and facing the runway for easy watching of the "dance floor."
Sound complicated yet? I'm doing my best to describe all this because there are no cameras allowed! Besides the official, professional photographer, no women take their cameras because everyone is generally covered in extremely modest clothing or an abaya (loose dress) and wearing a hijab (head scarf). At weddings, the women are free to wear whatever they please because there are only other women in attendance (including the servers, photographer, videographers, etc.). Here are a FEW of the types of dresses that I saw:
(to be continued...)
2 comments :
cant wait to hear the rest!
ew
Where is the green dress from? I love it! I have been living in Kuwait for three years and have been to a few mixed weddings but never a traditional all female wedding. I would love to see what they are like. Thanks for posting :-)
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