With all the very beautiful ME/NA gowns woren weddings, thought we made a thread, to share what our dresses looked like (you need not be in the dress for safety reasons) or any other traditional dresses woren at ME/NA weddings.

Mine was something like this, but a longer train, and the Embroidery on the top was around the bottom and around the bottom of the train. I wanted something simple and elegant.

I am not sure this really is a wedding dress. I found it in Setif last year when I was there. It is a champaigne color. I thought it was beautiful to get married in though.

Meriem

What an awesome thread! I've been wondering what kind of dress I'll end up doing. I want a big traditional American wedding with Moroccan influences...then we'll go back to Morocco and have a Moroccan wedding there. I'm still deciding whether to go with a Western style dress for my wedding here....or do a Kaftan. Anyway, If anyone has websites with gorgeous Moroccan style gowns.. HOOK IT UP! Or know of any top designers in Casablanca? Love yours, Meriem!

I really like that dress Meriem

Here's another on of us. Of course I whited out our faces d/t never know situation ..hahaha

I wore jeans and a sweater.




Trust me, you did NOT wanna dress up at the dirty gross office we got married at!!!

Keep the traditional ME/NA dresses coming ladies.
Here is mine pictured here (but without the accompanying belt and crown):

Some more examples of Algerien style wedding dresses
Traditional Algerien dresss


More modern Algerien wedding dress

Doodle I wore Jeans and a Sweater for my islamic marriage, but my picture was during our Wedding Party which was days after our marriage.

Some more examples:















Tradtional blaghees (this is more simple then most i have seen in DZ)

i'd love something like this in white. hotttttt!

Oh for our little luncheon I wore this:

here's one that nessa was considering



this is the one she chose which i love

ugh it won't let me link to this website
but

femmesdumaroc.com has AWESOME kaftans!!!!!!!:D

That is a very elegant dress, Charles. Great choice.

Meriem

The bride is the spectacle, the star of the show, and the focus of all attention. Depending upon the means of the family, the bride may appear in as many as seven different dresses, including her “robe blanche” which is always a traditional Western white wedding gown and usually worn at the end of the evening. The bride is also loaded down with gold and diamond jewelry - forget understated, forget restraint. This is an occasion for her to go all out and display her personal collection, family heirlooms and gifts from the groom.

Constantine style dresses:


Abdelwahab Abdaoui holding this beautiful piece of traditional Constantine embroidery in gold. This will form a wedding dress - one of 9 changes of dress that an Algerian bride wears throughout the day.

Traditional Kabylie wedding dresses:

Wow they are nice!

ty meriem, it was one she had in mind a long time ago. was lots of fun finding it. i called every store in kansas and the smallest we could find was a size 10, even the manufacturer was of no help in finding one. nessa started in missouri and found a size 6 out by st louis and then was able to work closer to columbia, so we went to columbia for it. and it was only $350!

i actually have a picture of my dream dress i cut out of a bridal magazine years and years ago. and its still my favorite! if i go with a western style dress, i'll get that one custom made somewhere. if a moroccan kaftan then well ....i don't know where i'll get that. i should go look on my next trip.

I still can't quite get my mind around people doing this. A marriage is about two people, not about how much money you have. I don't want to be a spectacle anywhere, least of all in public!!! I hate gold and I don't own any diamonds.

As for me, it will be much the same as Doodle since I'll also be getting married (insha'allah) in a dingy office.
I will have a nice skirt/top to wear for going out to dinner after or something but that's it. If we have a bigger wedding party one day when all of his extended family and friends can come, then I may wear something nicer, but still nothing extremely fancy.

Yeah I mean the way I figured it, I did the whole belle of the ball thing the first time around with the long white cathedral train and all that. I actually enjoyed how we got married much more this time, even though it was stressful and dingy. We were all alone right after and got to just be "us" for a whole day before we went out with a few of his friends and his sisters. In my first wedding I don't even remember seeing my husband until we were on the plane to our honeymoon!

there is no rule saying you have to have a wedding like the one Henia posted. You can opt to have a small reception with immediate family only or the big wedding party or no party, but if you get married Islamically you still have to announce your marriage somehow to the public.

Well traditionally it is the only time for women (I am going to only say Algerie, but probably pertains to other MENA countries as well) time for women to be in the spotlight, wearing any type of dress she wants, be amoung the males and show much of a diva she is...LOL. I personally, found my wedding (in which we did not do all of the Algerien traditions) personally humilating, as i had to endure days of dresses, parties, make-up and gossiping. Maybe if I would have known more people it would have been different, had my side of the family/friends and have a more active role in the wedding planning its self I would have enjoyed it more. But its ok, I am married now...to the man literally of my dreams... and even thou both of us were against doing a traditional gaudy wedding his family came in and just did what they wanted... so least I feel they loved and cared about me enough to do this.
Also like to add, many of the women who attended my wedding were rather disappointed by its scale. We had 200 ppl in attendance and it lasted for days.... I personally would have did a much smaller ceremony, I would have been in the same room when they did the nikah and had a small intimate dinner with the family. I would have left the wedding parade, the men's and women's parties out...LOL

I understand that. But telling people that we're married has nothing to do with dresses and "spectacles".
It's just my opinion that it isn't necessary. Obviously some people love it. Good for them.

Just another note: I attended 1 wedding, 1 circumcisn and a baby shower while in Algerie. All of which were more gaudy and bling-blingy then any red carpet event in Hollywood Algeriens love their bling.

Melly: I think it has more to do with culture. As I said, many times it is only time for women living in the MENA to be the center of attention, they are trained from birth for this day. Brides, even before the age of marriage are planning their weddings. On average, in Algerie (I personally oppose this) an engagement lasts for 3 years. The time it takes for the men to save all the money needed for the wedding, his gifts to the wife (not included in the mahr) and her family, her dresses, make-up, hair, the bedroom furinture set and maybe times a house.

Okkkkkkk.

But having a big wedding party or even a small one in the middle east is the way to tell people you are married.

Melly: I think it has more to do with culture. Traditionally, the more money spent on a wedding, the prouder the family will be. As I said, many times it is only time for women living in the MENA to be the center of attention, they are trained from birth for this day. Brides, even before the age of marriage are planning their weddings. On average, in Algerie (I personally oppose this) an engagement lasts for 3 years. The time it takes for the men to save all the money needed for the wedding, his gifts to the wife (not included in the mahr) and her family, her dresses, her gown for the first night together, her crown, jewelry, make-up, hair, clothes, kitchen and household needs for the woman, the bedroom furinture set ,wool to make mattresses for the man. and maybe times a house. These items are called a shoura.This is a sign of love and respect for her and her family.
The latitude of choice and multitude of food offered at the wedding are the testimony to the parents’ generosity; otherwise people would consider them stingy, which is shameful.
After the party, the bride leaves her parents’ house in a fancy car followed by other cars, including some which display her shoura. This shows all people how greatly she is loved by her family and husband.

Sorry, I think I need to get outside and get some fresh air.

I only meant to say that I don't understand the cultural aspect of all that.
To me, a woman should dress up and be prettiest for her husband and no one else.
There's nothing wrong with looking nice or decent on a day to day basis (around other people) but the really nice stuff - I just think it should be saved for the couple only.

Especially confusing is how all this stuff could be considered Islamic. Because aside from announcing that you're married, all this stuff seems like it would be wrong Islamically. I could be wrong about that of course.

YEs, of course I agree with you. A women should be pretty for her husband. That is why I did not particularly like what my husband's family planned for my wedding. But in the end, I took it as a sign that they loved me and wanted me in the family.
ANd on your second point, I agree it is against Islam. Buuuuuut I just wrote what they traditionally do in my husband's country. I agreed the money spent on the wedding could be used for more particular things.

From the weddings I saw in Egypt, egyptian brides tend to wear 80s esque poofy gaudy western style wedding gowns. When we have a wedding party in Egypt for my husband's family, and a party here for my family, inshaAllah I'll have a much prettier, more modern western wedding gown with butterfly/poet sleeves.

For our religious ceremony, I wore a black, gulf style abaya with a purple scarf:




And for our ceremony here in the US, I wore a white abaya:

Pretty Rahma.
The one thing that I'm most disappointed about is not being able to have our ceremony in the mosque while in Egypt.
I mean I guess we could have some kind of ceremony but the legal one is in that office building.

Well, we didn't register our marriage ceremony in Egypt (I know, fornicating whore that I am, and shameless pimp that my husband is), so we just got married in a masjid.

Will you be having a wedding party though? That's the fun part. I got to see several wedding parties in Egypt. The street we lived on in Cairo the first time around had weddings for a week straight, until 6 am, lol. inshaAllah DH and I will have one of those someday when we can scrape together the $$$$. We already have the place - the fanciest restaurant in my husband's hometown, all outdoors, with giant, movie theatre sized screens to play music videos, a stage and a dance floor. I daydream about it all the time I'm hoping to stop off in Turkey first to pick up a wedding dress. Or, maybe the hijab craze will continue in Egypt and I'll be able to find a decent dress there:

http://www.brudekjole.net/products.asp?cat=15

Advertising your sins in public is not proper adab.

That reminds me, on New Years Day night (that sounds weird), we were on that big bridge that crosses the Nile and we saw four bridal parties walking the bridge. The women wore big poofy, but pretty gowns.

Guess I'll see on the Day of Judgment how Allah (swt) judges my husband and I for our actions. I don't feel I have anything to worry about in that regard. Too bad everyone else will be so worried about their own impending judgment that someone won't be there to see the results




Now, what is really concerns me is if we should have the faux ancient egyptian wedding procession that the restuarant offers

Wow, do you have any pictures to share of that? I can't imagine what that would involve.

Oh is this true confessions? I could tell you all things that would make your hair curl!!!

Gaudy but gorgeous

Wait wait wait!! Let me cover my eyes first!!!

Advertising your sins in public is bad adab. Allah's law, not mine.

Unfortunately not. We were having dinner at this fancy outdoors restaurant with my MIL and SIL when the wedding started up. They were wearing kinda stereotypical faux ancient egyptian garb, lots of gold lame, white loin clothes, palm fans


Saudi Aramco did an article on Egyptian weddings awhile back - http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/1995...gs.in.egypt.htm

yes nice dresses... i like these alot... simple yet pretty
ANd Rahma uh oooooooo get ready for forincator comments LOL (hmmm reminds me of my wedding last Sept )

Rahma I love this one... awwww I wish I could had this dress

i can imagine

I felt I had to come out of the "fornicators'" closet. Couldn't let you and Layla have all the fun

Aren't those dresses gorgeous? Turkey has the best hijab friendly fashions in the ME, imho, a lot of stuff that is easy to wear on the streets of the US. I *heart* north african caftans and ME abayas and jelbab, but they're quite a sight out on the street.

WOM you are always cracking me up with your pictures. That one was perfect.