Congrats, Laura and Oliver!

While I’m congratulating, can’t forget my former VIVA editor Laura and hubby Oliver! She gave birth to a precious baby boy yesterday! The new Abu and Um Omar were beaming, delighted and delightful to see, as they transition from ‘couple’ to ‘family’! May the Lord bless your son with a heart like His, dear friends.

Congrats, Nadine and Tareq!

My dear friend and partner-in-crime/blessing Nadine married her long-time sweetheart Tareq yesterday. The wedding ceremony was held in that same church in Khilda, the Sacred Heart Of Jesus Christ as the Dozan wa Awtar performance, and it was just as lovely a venue for a wedding as a baroque celebration.

I’ve been to many weddings here, but this one was the most special of all. Everything was picture perfect, done in classic elegance with not one OTT  blip.  Some weddings seem more like funerals, or desperately-searching-singles-magnets, with lots of frowns and a little too much thigh revealed. Too many stiffly coiffed ladies with husbands old enough to pass for their fathers, checking each other out sizing one another up. Not this wedding. It was different.

The reception was at the Dunes Club, not my usual venue. I wondered if they would let me in without a recent pedicure or  Gucci bag. In spite of winter indulgence,  I had manged to fit into my little black dress (modestly little, with a little black jacket and silver embroidery). I have about four wedding-suitable outfits, which I rotate depending upon season, who has seen it and level of conservatism of the family. Safe with the LBD,  I added the black pumps, some bling, swooped up the hair and did the make-up thing. I passed the ‘boy’ test, and they declared me lovely and glad I hadn’t worn that scary eye-liner ( I forgot to tell them I gave it to the lady who comes to ask for clothes and toys every month, she was thrilled)

It was beautiful beyond my experience. Flowers and tulle cascading down the double-stairs to the ball room, it was a Disney-princess entrance for everyone. Nadine’s mother sat me with a sweet family, the wife who, I discovered, was the aunt and her daughters cousins of another good friend! No problem making conversation, and the conversations seemed animated and lively at every table. Soon we heard the unmistakable drums heralding the arrival of the wedding couple and their entourage. Hands clasped and waving overhead to the beat, they sashayed down those stairs in perfect united rhythm and began their wedding dance along the way to the dance-floor.

It was times like these I took those belly-dancing lessons from Laura, so that I could actually join in the dance without being dragged in by the mother of the groom. I managed pretty well,  and was amazed at how ‘group’ oriented it was. No one jostling, no narcissistic woman in red  over-doing the hip and shoulder action to the point all are embarrassed . We all clapped an moved in unison and enjoyed Tareq and Nadine’s first dances as a married couple. I felt that Arab one-ness thing, the unity, the collective conscious thing, and it was a joy. There was not a face that was not split by wide smiles of genuine joy. No polite half-smiles, even when the camera came around.

The group then formed a line and created the longest debkah procession I had ever seen. It was fast and complicated, this particular version, so I returned to my seat to marvel at a perfectly executed desert version of River Dance. There were two American guys who obviously had lots of practice and had it down pat. I lost track of the kick-step-back-slide even just watching. (I’ll have to ask Laura about Debkah lessons, now that seems like too much fun).

The food. Oh, the food. SO MUCH FOOD! A buffet of everything one could want (except TexMex maybe) in as much quantity as they felt they could indulge in.

This was the happiest wedding I have ever attended, and is most certainly a reflection of the hearts of the bride and groom. Nadine and Tareq, thank you for a glorious evening, full of symbolism for me of another future wedding. May the Lord bless you, and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you. May He be gracious to you, and give you peace.