Emirati Wedding

The wedding I went to last weekend, though a great cultural experience, was kind of a let down as far as weddings go. I was dismayed to discover that Emiratis are among the only arab nationalities who do not dance at their weddings! Even the so called "uptight Saudis" bust a move at their weddings.

The setting of the wedding itself was lovely, in a huge sparkling ballroom. The wedding parties are gender segregated. The women usually have a bigger more extravagant party then the men do. But like I said, this wedding felt more like a formal dinner, with some entertainment. 

We arrived at about 10:30 pm and took our seats at one of the hundred or so dinner tables. Since 8:30 the 500 or so guests have been arriving. In the middle of the ballroom was a huge catwalk with a fountain in the middle. All the tables were surrounding this. Around 11:00 a troupe of ballerinas began to dance along the catwalk. See the videos at the bottom of this post! After the ballerinas came the lovely bride! Of course I could not take photos of her, because this is against the cultural norms. But she had a unique designer dress that was absolutely gorgeous. A sparkling, glittering ball gown. She had her hair done in a very old-fashioned, classic style. Now the use of the catwalk became clear as she slowly walked around for almost 30 minutes modeling herself and her dress. The way they walk is literally: one step. feet together. pause. and repeat. For 30 minutes... She then goes and sits on a love seat and throughout the night and meal people go to sit with her to talk with her and congratulate her. I have a picture below of the area she sat in.

After that, we finally got to get up and get our food! Which was a large buffet (see photos below!) All the dishes where Eastern/Middle Eastern dishes! Very yummy! Ladies walked around serving Arabic Coffee and juices. Basically then we just waited around chatting and eating food. Then around Midnight the groom and the bride's brothers and father came into the wedding hall for photos and to cut the cake. The actual official marriage ceremony had taken place before which is not public. This night was basically just a giant reception to make it all public and official. After that the party kind of dies down. So we left around 1am to go home. A very interesting experience overall, check out the photos I took below!

Front of the invitation. The picture doesn't quite capture how big it was.

The Arabic side of the invitation

English side. Ali and Shatha's wedding.

This was at the entrance of the wedding hall. Large jars of perfumes for the guests to
use before they walked it. There will be no B.O. at THIS wedding!

Buffet area. This was just the desserts and the starters, outside was the main dishes. I couldn't get a picture of it because it
was so crowded with people and you aren't supposed to take pictures anyway :P

The bathrooms! Random picture... but I couldn't take pictures of much else, so I took pictures of what I could! 

This is where the bride would sit, on that couch, during the dinner and where her and her
husband would sit at the end of the night.

A picture of some of the kids and the flower girls. That large white thing with the fountain is the giant catwalk that the
bride walked down. This is also the reason I believe there was no dancing, because she needed a huge catwalk...

I tried to get a little bit of everything, it was all so delicious! I forgot to get a picture of all
my appetizers before I ate them! Sorry! But they were very cool and delicious!

Desserts!!! Sorry again... I started eating before I got a picture...

Sorry for the horrible picture quality, but it was a quick shot from my iPhone. That is the cake.
Six tiers (you can't see the last one cause its hidden by the ladies head). This cake was
literally just for show. Everyone had already eaten desserts. They just had it for the
bride and groom to cut a piece of it then leave. On top is the letters A and S intertwined
and the cake was decorated in gold icing. Very beautiful.... but kind of a waste.

Layal and I right before leaving for the wedding!
this is my only picture of me that uploaded! For some reason the pictures I took on my camera
won't upload onto here. :(

Lastly, Here are a few videos of the ballerinas that danced before the bride came out!