Wedding in Saudi Arabia

Good Luck for the Bride
In Saudi Arabia, when men and women want to get married, they prefer to buy new clothes and throw out old ones. They say this is a new life, so the couple need new clothes.

On the wedding night, the man dresses in white clothes and a long cover called a Bisht, and the woman dresses in white. At the end of the wedding, the man goes with his father and relatives to his marriage room and sits to drink some coffee for a few minutes. Then they leave.

Then the woman comes with her mother and relatives and do the same thing. This removes the stress of the man and the woman, so they are together to start a new life. The morning after the wedding, the man gives a gift to his wife.

The Cutting of the Cake
When the bride and groom start walking to the wedding cake, all the wedding guests move out of the way and look in anticipation at the bride and groom. Then the groom holds the bride’s hand carefully and together they hold the knife. After they cut a small piece of the cake, the groom holds the piece of cake and the bride eats a bit of it. After that the bride holds that piece of cake and lets the groom bite another bit of the piece. Then the attendants start cheering and clapping for them. The cutting of the cake symbolizes that the couple have started taking care of each other and looking after each other.

Who Took the Bridegroom?
In my country (Saudi Arabia), after the wedding ceremony, the religious man says that the bride and the bridegroom are man and wife. Then the bridegroom goes to a party hall–a special hall for weddings–near his house. His friends follow him in their cars and honk their horns and flash their lights, so the people know that there is a wedding party.