A live Moroccan wedding feast from A to Z: Part 3

    ... Then the bride and groom were off again to the dressing room to prepare for round three. Now, the reason that most brides rent all their dresses, is because like in the US, Moroccan wedding dresses cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars...and paying for 3-9 of them can become extremely expensive. However, the bride's third dress was hand-made especially for her by the groom's aunt who makes jelaba and kuftan for a living in a shop she owns in the medina in Rabat. The dress was a beautiful brownish maroon with intricate embroidery and complemented with gold jewelry. The groom was wearing a traditional Fesi jabador with matching cape or “silham”, crowned with a “riza” on his head, traditional Moroccan shoes called “belgha”, and a dagger (“khanjar”) at his side. He really looked like he stepped out of 1001 Nights or something.

Then we enjoyed Moroccan mint tea and some of the hundreds of wedding cookies. Some were like baklava, some flavored with orange-blossom water, many with marzipan, etc, etc. The finale of the evening was the brode entering with her last dress, a traditional Berber style wedding garb with accompanying bright orange head-dress and an abundance of Berber jewelry framing her face and neck. Somehow she pulled this very unique style off, and looked smashing once again.

A note on the Berbers: For those who don't know, the Berbers are the decendants of people who inhabited Morocco since Neolithic times. (Basicallly the equivalent of what we think of as "Native American" in the states). Amazingly, throughout Phoenician, Roman, Arab, French, and Spanish invasions, the Berber people have held on to their traditions and culture.

It was past 4:00 a.m. at this time, and we started saying our goodbyes, and ended up being one of the last guests to leave. Somebody told me that this was actually an early end to the wedding, and usually people don't leave until 7 a.m...at least in Fes. But the bride's dad was off to drive to Casablanca with his son and friends to catch his flight and we headed back to the Hotel Majestic. The couple were also to be staying at the Hotel Majestic (a wedding gift from his uncle ) but ran into some problems at the front desk. In Morocco, a man and women cannot share a hotel room without presenting their marriage licence. Despite all of us arriving at 5 a.m., clearly from their wedding, they still insisted on the certificate before letting the very tired bride and groom retire. But it was the uncle to rescue, who went to the groom's mom's apartment, located the certificate and brought it to them. When I was finally ready for bed, the sun was up and the bustling of the street below our balcony had already begun.

I lay in bed still exhilrated from the night's events, with one thing on my mind...

I love Moroccan weddings! )