So this post is out of date for sure, but I was waiting for pictures from this event. I still only have one low-quality picture, but if I find any more, I'll add them later!
A few weeks ago, we were invited to a wedding in town. The bride is a relative of Nejla's. Weddings are a HUGE event here! Going to any average-size town, you're sure to find at least one bridal shop with completely over-the-top dresses; the types of dresses little girls DREAM of wearing: saturated in sequins with layers and layers of puffy organza. There are also wedding shows on TV in the afternoons - similar to TLC's "A wedding story" or other types of shows I guess. On the show, there are several couples who actually are wed on the set of the show. Crazy!
In our town, because it is small, the entire town was invited to the wedding, basically. Festivities went on all day long: during the day there was a processional of sorts, where the bride is driven to her new husband's family's home with all her things. This requires multiple cars, so the cars line up down the road from her family's house to his family's house, carrying all her clothes, etc., honking their horns super loudly. Even today, in rural areas, often times men stay in their parents' homes and the wife moves in with his whole family. I think there was probably a religious ceremony at the mosque (maybe?) but we were invited to the public ceremony at the town hall. The bride's dress was CRAZY - she looked just like Nia Vardalos in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." The groom looked equally crazy - his tuxedo jacket, on the part where the satin stripes usually are, he had a row of rhinestones. I believe there may have also been something pink involved. I've noticed that in the small towns we've been to, typically the color pink or purple is used to make things look fancier or prettier. So even some formal menswear can have touches of pink or purple - but not like a tie or dress shirt - that would be way too subtle! Definitely have to have some pink stripes on your tux jacket!
The first part of the wedding was the ring ceremony and the giving of gifts. The ring ceremony, having watched it on TV multiple times now and witnessed it, still confuses me. Each ring is tied to one end of a red ribbon, the rings are put on the bride and groom by the person marrying them, they do not put them on each other, and then the ribbon is cut. It seems like if they would do anything would the ribbon, it would be tied? After the ring ceremony, the couple stands in the front of the room and all the men in the room go through a line, giving the couple money. The bills are pinned onto the groom's tuxedo, so afterwards the man was barely visible underneath all the bills! He looked like a strange Christmas tree. Here's a shot of the bride and groom and the money-pinning line:
Shortly after the ceremony was dancing. There was a men's group dance where all the men were in a circle (again, similar to My Big Fat Greek Wedding!) with arms around each other's shoulders, moving back and forth around the circle. There was another dance done in two lines facing each other where, from what we all could tell, you basically just have a "partner" of the same sex standing across from you, and you do some sort of foot shuffle and hold your arms up, snapping your fingers to the music. Some of the men had very fancy footwork going on! Women were allowed to take part in this dance, but only little girls actually did. Our bus driver (a HILARIOUS DANCER) dragged all of us onto the dance floor, as did Nuri and Nejla's husband. There were several older women in the front of the room, and when we left the dance floor, the women were trying to get us back up there to keep dancing! We figured all the locals were probably getting a good laugh.
Outside the social hall, there was basically a small street fair. There were food vendors selling Turkish pizza and other snacks as well as children's toys. The food provided at the ceremony was several plates of assorted cookies for each table and boxes of sour cherry (visne) juice! We got a good laugh out of that. Here's a picture of a few of us at our table with our juice boxes:
It was a really fun experience. Everyone there seemed to be really enjoying themselves. It was also cool to recognize a good number of people in the room from the market.
Uh oh! Bus is here, time to go!
Salaam alaikum,
Sarah
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