Moroccan Wedding

     One thing is for certain: Moroccans know how to party all night long! Our Moroccan landlord has given us numerous invitations to various weddings throughout the year. Most of these invitations had been given to us either the day before or the day of the wedding, and on a school night. Further, they had nearly all been invitations to the wedding celebration of non-relatives. These last minute invitations to a stranger's wedding were easy to decline... but then our landlord's niece announced her engagement.
    We were invited to this wedding at least 1 month in advance, and the wedding was scheduled for a Saturday.We had no choice but to accept. Our landlord lent Nicole a beautiful, black Takchita (a traditional Moroccan garment worn by women for celebrations). In addition, they picked out and purchased for Nicole some traditional Moroccan shoes that they said "matched the Takchita perfectly":

      At 8:30 PM, we drove off toward our wedding adventure with five people in our back seat. We were enthusiastically greeted at the banquet hall (around 9:00 PM) with countless cheek kisses, handshakes, awkward introductions, Arabic compliments that we didn't understand, and an obligatory cup of milk with a Moroccan date. We sat down to patiently wait for the arrival of the bride and groom, only to be immediately pulled up to the dance floor where we attempted to awkwardly mimic Moroccan dance moves (Nicole was constantly reminded to move her butt more and shake her boobs). Everybody wanted to dance with us, as we were the only white people there. We were able to catch a break from the dance floor only briefly, when our landlord took us outside to see the wedding vehicle.

     At 11:00 PM, the bride (Soukaina: 21 years old) and groom (Rachid: 38 years old) finally arrived in the wedding vehicle - which was chauffeured by our landlord! As guests of honor, we were invited to attend the arrival processional. A loud processional band and a crowd of chanting relatives trailed the couple as they exited the vehicle and made their way up 3 flights of stairs to the banquet hall. Once at the banquet hall, the bride was almost immediately positioned inside a Moroccan "Palanquin". Four men transported her around the room so that she could see everyone in attendance from above.

     After the elaborate entrance of the bride and groom, they left the banquet hall so that the bride could change into her second dress of the evening. Everyone, including ourselves, danced during this transition time. At around midnight, the bride returned in a bright yellow dress. The couples' return commenced the beginning of a midnight appetizer: tea and cookies.

     After tea, the bride and groom left so that the bride could be changed into her third dress of the evening. Yet again, obligatory dancing with continued blaring music filled the transition time. The bride returned in a beautiful blue dress, which she wore only briefly while the couple posed for pictures with the guests.

      In true African custom, the couples' subsequent departure commenced the staggered, slow start of "dinner time." Cups and napkins were brought out first. 10-15 minutes later, drinks were brought out. 10-15 minutes after that, bread was brought out. 10-15 minutes later (around 1:45 AM), the bride and groom finally arrived and they were quickly accompanied by the first course: chicken Tagine. The couple walked around the room to greet each table while we enjoyed enjoyed this communal Tagine (No utensils were brought: we shared the dish using solely our right hands). The bride was dressed, of course, in a fourth dress.

     At this point in the night, we were both so tired that we apparently stopped taking pictures as frequently as we had been. But the night (or rather, the morning) continued as follows:

• 2:30 AM - We were served the second course: beef and prune Tagine. This was also a communal dish, served exactly like the first course. Our landlord explained to us that it was cooked with the beef of a large cow, which they slaughtered themselves earlier that morning.
• 3:00 AM - We were served giant trays of fruit for dessert
• 3:15 AM - We started to communicate our desire to leave, but our landlord insisted that we stay for at least 3 more hours because there were still several big events on the agenda. Apparently, the celebrating was just about to begin...
• 3:30 AM - There was a dance competition between two men. Each of them took their turn dancing on a drum, attached to the loud speakers. They danced back and forth continuously as the audience argued loudly to determine who was the better dancer. They also stuffed money all over the men while they danced.

•  3:45 AM, the bride returned in her fifth dress of the evening, accompanied by a bunch of women dancing and carrying baskets of flowers. The groom arrived shortly after, accompanied by some "dancing horses". Unfortunately, we will never know what sort of act this was supposed to be because we were finally able to successfully insist to our landlord that it was time for us to leave. We will never know how many more dresses the bride had or at what time the celebrations finally ended. According to our landlord, the celebration was likely not to end until 7:00 AM!

•  4:00 AM - We drove off with five people in the backseat, again.

     We made it home 30 minutes later and went to bed immediately. When we finally woke up, we discovered that our hearing is still partially impaired from the constant blaring music. You should listen some Moroccan wedding music here. The only problem with that video is that it doesn't truly capture how loudly the music was playing...all night long.

All in all, it was a great cultural experience!

-David & Nicole