*waves* Hello from Morocco!  Some of you know that we are here for a wedding and now all of you know that we’re here for a wedding!  I’ve been wanting to write a post about what exactly is entailed in a Moroccan wedding but have just been putting it off.  However my Twitter friend @SihamAl has graciously written all about it!  Let’s face it she’s Moroccan and has a much better understanding of all the steps than I do!  I’m going to break this down into a few posts so make sure you follow along!
 
As a Moroccan woman living abroad and married to a French man, I try as much as possible to give space for my culture and traditions so that I don’t lose connection with my roots. I love Morocco and everything that’s Moroccan: food, music, culture and people.
 
My husband and I married in France two years ago. We had a very beautiful wedding in a Château surrounded by the vineyards of the Alsace region. I had a gorgeous white dress on and everything went on just perfectly that day. My family came from Morocco to the wedding and brought lots of Moroccan food like stuffed dates, Shabakias, stuffed briouat with almonds and honey that I didn’t have the chance to taste, as all of the guests rushed to them as soon as the cocktails started! My mother made plenty of mint tea and it was amazing to see how people enjoyed the Moroccan touch in a very French wedding.
 
Though it was a very special day, that I really enjoyed, I thought that it would be great to show my in-laws, and my French and Canadian friends how we wed Moroccan style!  At the dinner during our French wedding, my father made a beautiful speech and promised –as soon as I’m done with my thesis- another big wedding party in Morocco. My husband and I were so happy and began looking forward to our Moroccan wedding party!
 
So here we are… the thesis is almost  finished and the wedding preparations started a month ago. Planning a wedding from outside Morocco is a bit hard BUT I’m lucky to have amazing parents who are there, and who are willing to bear all the stress of the search and negotiations to make everything go as perfectly as possible for us.
 
Finding the location
 
Finding a nice place was of utmost importance as the wedding will be in summer aka “wedding time” in Morocco!  That’s is why we decided to look for a place almost one year in advance, in order to book for the chosen date.
 

 
There are beautiful places in Casablanca that can hold a wedding. Big rooms at seaside and luxurious hotel ballrooms that any of the Moroccans would find very modern and fancy. But I was looking for a typically Moroccan place with typical ceiling sculpturing (Nakch), Zellige walls and big crystal chandeliers. Most of the places my mother visited were somehow small and could not hold the amount of guests we’re expecting (approx. 200). So, after almost a month, we set our minds on a very beautiful Moroccan villa not that far away from our home. It has all that I want plus a nice Moroccan fountain in the middle of a big garden….
 
Stay tuned for another post coming soon to continue this wedding story!