An Egyptian Wedding

Here are Selwa and Amro with their bridesmaids, at their wedding in Alexandria on 27 October 2008.

Sue and I can take the occasional reasonable landscape photo. We are not much good at indoor or 'people' photography. But we (mainly Sue) did our best, whilst many others did likewise, and a professional trailed around with a ladder, and an assistant to carry the heavy electrical cables for his powerful equipment. So Selwa and Amro will have a video of the entire proceedings.

Our own video is a little shorter, and comprises mainly of 'stills'. It concludes with the lengthy Cake Ceremony, which may stretch some of your attention spans...

Here it is:


It was raining as we strolled over to the ballroom venue! We found our table and conversed with amiable strangers from Manchester. After a while the band struck up and we returned to the vast atrium to see Selwa and her father come down the stairs, to be greeted by Amro and his father, ascending. Swathes of white cloth adorned the balustrades. Everyone swapped around and Selwa and Amro continued to the bottom of the stairs together. We all stood in the atrium, whilst the band played noisily, before adjourning to our tables in the ballroom.

Selwa and Amro sat on a bench on a stage, again backed by swathes of white material. Then they danced, surrounded by billows of dry ice, then joined by lots of the guests. Music was contrived from a mixture of Arabic and Western influences.

Sometime after midnight we ate, from a buffet of salads and hot food - a fine selection. It had been a long time since lunch! Selwa and Amro were brought food at a table set for two, in front of the stage. Photos were taken (that took some time) and the cake cutting ceremony was then undertaken. The 5-tier cake was erected on what looked like a pile of cardboard boxes in one corner of the room. This involved the pair climbing the precarious construction, slicing each layer of (sponge) cake, and feeding it to each other. All very serious and amusing at the same time.

Next came a live band with a macho singer who insisted on solos from Amro, then Selwa. Then more dancing before proceedings wound up at around 2.30 am, actually rather earlier than we had expected!

It was good to meet the guests and see everyone having such a good time. We enjoyed it a lot.

A long lie in was most welcome before we checked out next day at 11.45 before enjoying an indulgent breakfast of brownies and coffee in the Plaza.

Then it was back to the station,where we had plenty of time to wander amongst ornate lamps in the gardens opposite, and to admire the stained glass windows of Masr station's canopy.