My dear friend and former language teacher, Jamie, just got married a few days ago. Here are some of the pictures from her wedding events. And I know most of you are about to ask whether or not I did her hair and make up for her wedding. No, I did not (as you will soon see that she had little need of a hair dresser because of what she wore.)
BUT, I did do her highlights 3 weeks before her wedding. See???
This is Jamie and my roommate L on Jamie's Night of Henna (the evening before her wedding). You will soon see where the henna is involved.
Some of the bride's relatives on their rooftop:
When the groom's family arrives, it becomes, well, chaotic to say the least. There's a lot of dancing and yelling, but only from the groom's side of the family. All the bride's side stands back and just watches.
The groom's family only stays about a half hour, but, besides the dancing, they cover the bride's pinky finger in henna and wrap it up with money (and then a pretty cloth so the henna doesn't get everywhere).
PS. All that gold is real!
After about an hour, the bride (and other guests that chose to put henna on their pinkies) will wash off the henna and her finger will look something like this:
Now we move on to the actual wedding day: The bride, one of her sisters, and two of her sister-in-laws headed to the salon around 1pm where she and they got their hair and makeup done, got dressed, and arranged Jamie's head scarf (called a dersuk) so that it wouldn't budge. L and I accompanied them for this, and I watched closely to see some of the techniques that the stylists use. Then L and I headed back to the bride's house to hang out with her family members:
For many wedding events, they love to dress the small girls to look like brides too. Hence the two sisters below had almost matching bride outfits. They (and their brother) LOVED getting their picture taken. I probably have 5 or 6 photos that look almost exactly like this one:
And finally, the main event: The Wedding itself. The groom came to the bride's house about 7:30pm with some of his family. They tied a ribbon around her waist and danced and yelled some more as they escorted her out of her home. Meanwhile, she and her family break down sobbing as they are "losing" their sister (never mind the fact they'll probably get to see her next week.) The groom, bride, and all of the groom's family head to the wedding hall and spend the rest of the night taking pictures with the hundreds of friends and family members (of the groom's family, not the bride's) that come to celebrate.
I always remember Jamie and I hope that her new family will be kind to her and that they would be a group of people beneficial to her well-being. I also am remembering L as she will be continuing language lessons with Jamie in a few weeks. I hope that her language lessons will be profitable and truthful and that L would make some good relationships with the members of the groom's family.
