First experience of an Emirate wedding

I thought I had missed this wedding because it was suppose to be on while we were on vacation. However it was postponed and lucky for me, my friend Mina still wanted me to be her guest for the wedding :-)

Here we are just getting ready to head out.  All dolled up!

But 4 hours prior to that.... 

I had a friend of mine paint my nails earlier in the day but after some shoe shopping and picking up the boys, I had already managed to ruin the paint on some of my nails! Grrr... so anyhow, the boys helped me in picking out the glitter as well.  The wedding is at Emirates Palace so I definitely needed some extra bling.  Charlie wanted some bling too! HAHA!

I have been so out of practice as to what to do first. After the nails, it was a quick shower. Well, the nails didn't dry properly so some of the nails were smudged AGAIN!  And then, I couldn't find my concealer, so I had to send Bobby down to the supermarket downstairs. Not once but twice! Thankfully he was being very supportive (and patient!) and it was so cute when he told me that the lady staffs in the supermarket were helping him out as well when it came to picking out the shade :-)

I was going to curl my hair but in the end I just tied it up in a pony tail. Quick and simple! Plus I was running out of time. And thankfully I didn't stain the dress with my semi-dry nail polish.  I ended up borrowing a nice black dress from another friend at the very last minute, as I was only given a day's notice (gee, thanks Mina :-P).  Quick photo before the boys are off for movie night at the pool. I felt so tall!!!

I was already running late but Mina called and said that the wedding only starts at 9pm! Soooo... I kept my shoes on anyhow so I wouldn't ruin my nails again while trying to put on the buckles on the heels. I had a few more nails to retouch.  I am such an amateur!

Oh, by the way, new high heels for the wedding!... which made my right ankle ache while I walked. Who ever that invented high heels ought to be shot!  (That and underwire bras!!!!) Okay, reading up on it and seems like heels less than 2.5" is considered "low heel" and 2.5 to 3.5 inches is considered "mid heel".  So I guess I need to make that correction of actually just wearing Mid Heels or perhaps they were only Low Heels. YIKES!

Once we arrived at the East Wing of the Emirates Palace, which was spectacular as well - we made our way to the entrance of the ballroom.  Oh, there was a professional photographer taking photos for a small fee, which me and Mina took advantage of as well. I think the photos turned out quite well! Thank you Mina for paying my share!

The ballroom was massive!!! There were seating for probably 1000 people. Oh, I forgot to mention that this is only for women.  The groom and bride host their wedding receptions separately and whenever there is the presence of men in the ballroom, the local women would have to cover up with their Abaya.  The most interesting part of the ballroom was probably this shiny runway that was situated in the middle of the ballroom - literally like something out of a fashion show.  And this is where the women would dance on - mostly the single women. There were 2 rows of seats on each side along the runway where older women would get a chance to scout out a potential daughter-in-law for their son(s).  True story!!!

I couldn't take a lot of photos as you sort of had to protect the local women who were "unveiled".  So just photos of me and Mina and our food :-)

Here is our table setting. So lovely with so many individually cut orchids surrounding the candles!

Here's our appetizer or cold mezze. Looks so nice!

And oh, did I mentioned how many little cups of tea I had? And there were so many different types! Pistachio tea was interesting, chai, and some other ones which I had no idea how to pronounce in Arabic:

And there were a lot of different servers as well with different uniforms on. There were ladies dressed in lace head-covering carrying the coffee and tea pots. And right behind them were ladies that held a tray for the tea and coffee cups. And then, you had servers that helped serve our food and drinks. And then, you had those that cleared the table - which I learned are really quick to take your cup even though you are not quite finished with your tea!

Can't get enough of these beautiful tea cups:

 I am guessing all gold-trimmed, similarly to the plates:

What was also interesting is that they served sweets first (maybe that's why lots of coffee and tea early on!).  And then, the bride showed up around 10pm and the stage/runway was set for her to walk slowly up and down. And once more up to the end of the runway where she sat and took photos with her guests. Dinner was served at 11pm and by midnight, the groom and his entourage showed up for a brief moment for some photo taking.  Not long after, it was our cue to head home.  

What a night!!! The venue, the ladies and their gowns and glittering jewels, the variety of tea and coffee, and the delicious food.  I think we were the only 2 Asians by the way.  I don't think we stood out too much :-P  Thanks again to Mina for the invitation!