I really was trying to hold out on the pictures but there have been so many requests I have to start posting them now!
So a little history about Moroccan wedding traditions. When a bride and groom agree to get married it is usually without dating and something more along the lines of a man knows of a woman, perhaps he has seen her a few times, knows her brothers or cousins or something of the sort. He tells his mom, sisters, aunts who do a little background work to find out if the girl is engaged, possibly engaged, not interested or looking or is ready to get married. They would also do a little digging to see if she will be a compatible match for their son. If all lights are green, then family represenatives and the son will approach the girls family and discuss the possible engagement. If things seem to go the right direction, the women of the brides family will do a little research to find out of the prospective groom is a good match for their daughter. If everyone agrees, including the prospective bride, then a meeting between the woman and man occurs. At this point they will move towards formal engagement, the groom will meet his prospective bride without any covering (hijab, niqab, etc) before they are legally married. If all parties are still in agreement, the will have a nika or formal engagement. However in the Moroccan sense an engagement is much more committed then in the United States. While either party can decide not to complete the marriage, it is not as loose as in the US. After the nika you are more or less married. It is after this time the bride and groom can meet together (chaperoned) to get to know each other better. After sometime the formal and legal marriage contract is drawn up, it is at this time a price is stipulated that the groom must give the bride, as an insurance in case the marriage ends up in divorce. There is also a sum written into the contract about the amount of money the bride will recieve in case of divorce. Any other important life points can be written in as it is a legal contract. This might include that the man can not take any additional wives, that the bride must be allowed to complete university studies, or anything of the like.
Once this is all done, then there is usually a HUGE party. Some parties can last up to SEVEN days, of feasting, music, and dancing. Some brides get 7 dresses or more if they want and can afford it. It truly is a time for the bride to be dressed like and treated like a princess. Brides are also adorn with henna before the party. Tradition holds that the bride is not allowed to do any housework until the henna has worn off and this can take up to four weeks!
These are the sheep that were killed in part for our party but also for something called an akeeka. The translation is roughly “naming ceremony”. In Islam two sheep are sacrificed for a male child’s birth in celebration and thanks (1 for a girl, that’s another tangent I don’t need to go on right now). So we combined this with our party because really two sheep is a lot of food!
The night before our party, the woman who does henna came over and did mine. I was sitting for a long time not moving so that it wouldn’t smudge and I was cold! Unfortunately I didn’t let it sit as long as I should have because Khalil was running around and I felt like Youssef was getting ready to lose it!
The hair and make up. Quite dramatic and I felt like a geisha. I don’t normally wear much if any makeup so looking in the mirror for the first time was a bit of a shock. The “salon” there is not at all like a salon in the US, pretty rustic, but it worked.
This was my first dress. They are called takschita’s in Morocco. I wore it with silver jewelry. The belt on this one is a stiff fabric because the material was delicate and if I wore the silver metal belt we were afraid that it would rip. Some brides purchase their own dressed. But for a dress like this one it can cost several hundred if not thousand dollars. They are all handmade and generally have a lot of beadwork and embroidary. One of my sister in laws had a new style dress, that looks much more like a ball gown and I’m sure was quite expensive (but it was gorgeous!). Because not all brides want to or can afford to purchase all these dresses, there are people who rent them for parties. It is much more practical as most of the female guests also wear these types of dresses. It would cost a fortune to buy a new dress for every party!
