Qatari Wedding

This past Thursday, I attended my 1st Qatari wedding.  It was held at the Four Seasons hotel in Doha.  The woman's entrance (the women and men are separate) was adorned with a red carpet. Once inside,  my camera was taken.  No pictures allowed, except the professional photography, which only took pics of the bride.  Once inside, there was  a gold bench/thrown decorated with flowers at the front of the room with a runway running all the way to the back.  There were decorated tables and couches around the room for guests.  I went with a fellow American. We were the only two non-Qataris there.  Some of the Qatari women arrived without their abaya's. Instead they wore beautiful colorful gowns.  Their hair was done up in an 1905's style up-do.  The shoes! Oh, the shoes! I was so jealous. All I can say is WOW! 

We sat down at one of the tables to the side of the stage/runway.  When we sat down, nearly 1.5 hours after the wedding started, there was virtually no one else there. Another 2 hours goes by with being offered fresh squeezed juices (I had strawberry guava) and Arabic sweets before the room fills up.  Interestingly enough, no one sat by us the entire night.  The Qatari women passed the time until the bride arrived by dancing (no running man, chicken dance, electric slide or macarena here) on the runway to the VERY loud Arabic music playing. My understanding is that the women dance in front of the elder women in hopes to swoon a mom in anticipation of an arranged marriage.

Once the bride arrived, she was wearing a huge white wedding gown with a large headpiece.  She looked stunning. She stood in the middle of the runway as the women came up to congratulate by showing her with money. The sprinkled money from the top of her head and let it float to the floor. My understanding is all of the money is given to charity.  After several minutes of standing, the bride sat on the thrown/couch at the end of the stage.  From there, it was time for all the guests to start eating.  The bride does not eat. She says stoic on the stage. Once done eating dinner, the guests start to dance again on the runway.

This was the end of the night...no groom, no cutting of the cake, no 1st dance, no father daughter dance. Very different, great experience!

oh...I did get a ride home in Jaguar.  Very nice car, but not sure it was the worth the 2X Karwa price.