The Wedding Party

The Wedding Party is the culmination of a busy day of preparations.  Once the groom and his family and guests have arrived, the groom is ushered in to wait with the bride in private while the rest of the guests are sat down to eat – men and women eating separately.  When everyone has eaten they settle down for the visual feast to come.  Over the next four hours (or longer) the bride and groom will be paraded in front of them.

Once they have been ushered in they will sit together in a special throne and everyone will have their photo taken with them.  Depending on how much has been spent on the wedding, this can be repeated several times with the bride wearing a selection of differently coloured kaftans (single piece dresses) or takshitas (a two piece outfit, usually a satin under dress with a top layer of lace or voile embroidered, beaded and sequinned), adorned with silver and gold head-dresses, necklaces, breast plates and earrings. In between appearances the crowd will get up and dance (men and women separately of course) or sit and chat.  Early on in the proceedings the bride and then the groom may be carried around on the “Marria” an ornate silver platform.  This is symbolic of the time when the bride, sitting on a small round table, was carried to the bedchamber for the consummation of the marriage.

Often the crowd’s favourite moment is when the bride and groom are dressed in Berber costume.  The bridal head-dress with its multi coloured fabric, tassels and silver coins is both exotic and enchanting.  For the first time all the guests come together and dance.

berber costume

Nowadays the final change of dress is the western style white wedding dress.  In this costume, the bride and groom share a drink of milk and feed each other dates.  They then swap rings –silver for the groom, gold for the bride and the groom often gives other gifts of jewellery.  The happy couple then throw sweets and small bags of herb to the guests.

At last the moment of departure has arrived and the groom takes his new wife away from the shelter of her father’s house and into the domain of her new mother in law.  This must be a terrifying moment for a young girl whose whole world has been in her parent’s home with her mother and sisters.  Her future happiness will depend on how well the relationship with her mother in law works out as much as how well she gets along with her husband.