I attended my first wedding in this country on Monday night. The wedding was held in a wedding hall and about 700 people were invited. As we approached the hall you could hear the music playing outside. We handed our invitation to the man at the door and were ushered into the female side of the hall. Men sit on one side and women on another. There is a partition dividing the room in half and neither side can see the other.
The women's side did have a video screen that would periodically show what was happening on the men's side. There was a band, but again the partition surrounded them. The room was full with tables with plastic flowers as center pieces. As we walked in, we were ushered to a front table near the dance floor. On the other side of the dance floor was the "head" table. The head table is raised off the floor, the wall behind them was decorated with white linen, white plastic flowers, a green sash and white and green small lights. The lights looked like Christmas lights. The atmosphere was very festive and happy.
The tables surrounded the dance floor and one by one women got up and danced. Generally the women would dance in groups of 2, sometimes 3. They would be on the dance floor for a few minutes and then give another group a chance. The dancing was beautiful and graceful. Yes, I did dance. I didn't have much of a choice, my coworker pretty much dragged me to the dance floor. Thankfully it was only for a few minutes because my dancing skills are no better here then they are at home. I felt very silly but everyone was very kind and supportive as I gave it my best.
The women don't have to cover their heads since no men are present. Everyone gets very dressed up, there were lots of bright colors and lots of sequence. Some women wore gowns and others, like me wore a Punjabi. The wedding started at 5pm but we were told to come around 6-6:30p. Around 7:30p the bride and groom entered the room.
They roll out a white carpet. The bride is wearing a dark green dress and carrying red flowers. Her hair was pulled up and she had some flowers in her hair. Her lipstick had glitter in and it looked like some was in her hair. The groom wore a white suit and a green tie. They both looked sharp. They walked in and sat at the head table. For the next hour or so, different guests would have their picture taken with the bride and groom.
There are two parts to the wedding. The first part is called the "neka" and the bride wears green and she wears white for the wedding. If I understand it correctly, neka is agreement of marriage. The part of the wedding I observed was the neka stage. I think while we were eating, the groom meets with the mullah and the marriage is made official when he signs the marriage contract/certificate. The bride is not present for this part, I think this is when she changes into her white gown. We had to leave right after we ate, so I never saw the bride in her white gown. A few days after the wedding, the guests will bring gifts to the newlyweds house.
Around 9pm the food was served. It was a sit down dinner. One dish called kabuli pilau, which is rice, shaved carrots, raisins and meat was really good. This is very traditional dish. We also had ashak which is a leek filled pasta with meat sauce. That reminded me of a pirogi. I didn't enjoy this as much as the kabuli pilau. Other food dishes were served, one with eggplant and another chicken dish but I don't remember what they were called. They served coke to drink or orange soda. There was also grapes and bananas available.
I wasn't able to stay until the end. But it was a lot of fun and if you ever have the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it.
Keep Smiling
