My Big Fat Turkish Wedding

(title inspired by my dad). So, Melissa and I went to another Turkish wedding last night (Melissa's first and my second) and to answer the question already brewing in your mind, no, we did not have a police escort this time, nor did we get to ride in police car. Pity for Melissa, I'd already been there and done that, though. This is our pre-game picture in the elevator getting ready for our night out on the town! Not really. We felt a little funny. The sun is setting earlier here and it's just not really culturally appropriate for us single girls to be out late at night. But last night was a special occasion so we found ourselves leaving to go out in the dark for the first time in many months for me. We'll come home in the dark escorted, but we rarely leave to go out in the dark for an evening out--life is just different here culturally, but we're adjusting--but now the sun has been setting at 7:06, thanks to our Ramadan countdown that starts today. (I'll blog about that later this week, but Ramadan started today and there are no weddings allowed during Ramadan, so there have been lots of decorated cars driving around to weddings this past week.) And a Turkish wedding probably won't start until 8 o'clock--and the bride and groom certainly won't be there until later than that!

We played a little game called the 'trust' game because Melissa got the directions and well, I just trusted her to get us where we were going...and she did great. Our wedding was in a new part of town for me, about 45 minutes from our house the opposite direction of our discovered territory (the opposite direction of the mall from our house). Weddings here are usually at a wedding salon. It's a big room equipped with disco lighting, lots of tables and chairs, and a concession stand. Must have a concession stand because other than wedding cake, nothing was served. Melissa bought us some drinks at the concession stand. We even debated popcorn--yes, they were selling popcorn, too! It's also where we bought the confetti to throw at the bride and groom as they entered the salon. Here's Melissa buying our refreshments!

We felt so privileged. Our friend invited us to help usher in the bride and groom to the room. We stood in a line as the lights were dimmed and we raised our sparkler bearing hands to give them a proper arch to enter under and confetti to run through into the salon, filled with waiting Turks. Here's their grand entrance and our friend in the other picture is the very dressed up looking girl. Family wears very fancy prom dress looking outfits and then the other guests wear whatever, basically. Some were dressed up and then some were just wearing jeans.
And then, the dancing started...and boy, was there dancing. The lights dimmed and the music got turned up and everyone started dancing. Turkish dancing has a style all to it's own--which involves a bit of belly dancing, some snapping and flailing your arms around, and definitely some hip shaking, but no touching of the opposite sex. The dancing took a short break to cut the cake and then started up again.

What did we do after the cake was cut? Good question. We danced some more! Finally, when it was time for our blue bus to turn into a pumpkin and stop making runs in that part of town (much before midnight), we said we had to leave and got to pin our gift on the bride early, before the ceremony began. Most guests will bring a quarter piece piece of gold (I don't know what it's a quarter of) and pin it on a red sash that the bride wears. There was also a money dance. We only brought gold. But at one point at the wedding party, the bride and groom danced and their parents and some older guests came up while they were dancing and threw money at them. No, really, they threw money at them. They made sure to throw it right in their faces so it almost touched them. Then little children who had been assigned, ran around and collected the money. Here we are with our friends' sister, the lovely bride.Then we headed home, but of course the adventure didn't end there. We missed the blue bus we were suppose to get on--not because we didn't chase after it though--so our friend helped us flag down another bus and told him which bus we needed to be on and where we were going. For the next few minutes our driver kept honking and trying to flag down our appropriate bus, but with no success. So finally, we ended up at the end of the road. I've never been to the bus depot before, but we went last night. It's the final stop, and all the buses break here and turn around, I guess to do their route again. Our driver ordered everyone off the bus. We started to get off the bus and he said the name of the place we needed to be. This is the interaction that took place: Bus Driver: (says the name of the place that we need to go). Me: We don't know how to get there. We're lost. Bus Driver: Don't be lost. Get back on the bus and sit down. Me: (Well, at this point, we were on a city bus, so I felt like we were safe. So, we got back on and waited while our drivers had their tea break with the other buses breaking.) Then, sure enough, they got back on the bus and we started the route again. And they not only took us where we needed to go, but waited with us until the bus we needed to be on came and they never charged us for their delivery services. The nature of this hospitable culture. We definitely had our guardian angels in action last night. So, we got on our bus and headed home. With all the adventure, we got home a little later than we wanted to, but it was a great night and our friend was so excited that we came.