Getting Fed, while they get Wed

I'm becoming a bit of a pro at Tunisian Weddings. And it's a jolly good thing too because they are a huge social focal point for most Tunisians, especially women. They are a prime husband hunting ground for young ladies who tend to spend most of their time cooped up at home, and are also a good opportunity to get dressed up in a spectacular fashion and dance to some of the craziest music you have ever heard.

My wool shop of choice is in the haberdashery zone of Tunis so I often get to walk past and admire all of the spectacular wedding dresses on display in the windows. You need sunglasses on for these bad boys, they are proper blinged to the max

 

Typically, wedding dresses are hired for the wedding and also for the engagement party. Unsuspecting guests can be a little confused at first if they are not familiar with the custom of wearing a giant meringue for the engagement party. 

My friend got engaged last year, and there's a rumour that after the official party and the fiancee had gone home, leaving her dress to be returned to the hire-shop, I put it on and danced around.  

Without photographs, it's unclear to me whether this could have possibly happened, she smiled.

But the real minefield at wedding is the food and drink. Typically no alcohol is served at functions like this and so my natural approach is to drink A LOT before you go (this is my culture, I'll thank you not to judge). With food, it's a complete game of roulette. Sometimes you will get a full, delicious buffet, sometimes just a small plate of Tunisian pastries and some wedding cake. You just never know, and the invitation doesn't help either. I've been to two similar weddings both starting at 9pm, one you got a full dinner, the other, just strawberry juice and pastries.

You can understand my extreme concerns when attending my colleagues wedding last Saturday then... and although my stomach can happily eat two dinners, to ensure social graces, I had selected a dress that really only had space for one. My colleague is Austrian so they went for the buffet option - fortunately I had not eaten, so I was ready to pack some good food away.

Do not be fooled by the leaves and salmon on my plate - that was the salad course. Tunisian buffets are all about the five courses, and if you don't handle them all, people look at you like you're crazy; pastry starters (lots of filo, egg and tuna arranged in different ways), salad (voila!), mains (cous cous, lamb, fish), pâtisserie (where you'll find me) and fruits (dates, oranges and the peaches are just coming in).

It seems that love is in the air in Tunis at the moment, as another one of my friends had a whole table of us cooing as he told the story of how he proposed to his new fiancee just last week - lots of lovely planning, pretending that there were no flights left to Lyon on Friday night so that she would have to fly the next morning and he had time to go ahead to the restaurant and get everyone organised... and they say romance is dead?

They are having an engagement party this Saturday - I wonder what dress she'll wear? 

Here is last week's happy couple, I won't name them, just in case they google themselves and get a surprise. But what a beautiful dress and happy smiles!

 

Mabrouk!!