Oriental engagement in Montpellier

Oriental engagement, Oriental wedding, almost the same thing!

Between Nîmes and Montpellier, at the end of 2014, they decided to marry religiously. In Arab-Muslim culture , a religious wedding is nothing like a Western religious wedding. No church, no mosque, but the presence of an imam is imperative, and there are moments of prayer and blessing. The similarities end there, however, because an Oriental religious wedding can either be held in a very small gathering in a restaurant or apartment, or on the contrary, can be on the scale of a real Western wedding. This is usually done a few months before the civil wedding day (engagement), or sometimes on the same day as the civil wedding during the evening (wedding). The preparations for an engagement are just as extensive as for a real wedding: dresses, make-up, decorations, cakes, reception hall, photographer... In other words, it's like a Western wedding, but without the town hall and church.

Preparations in Montpellier

For this important day, Nadia, herself a hairdresser, got ready in her salon with her colleagues in Montpellier. The atmosphere was inevitably both funny and emotional, as all her colleagues were present around her. The make-up was done in the immediate vicinity of the salon, which saved us a considerable amount of time.

Nîmes for the festivities

We joined the gentleman just outside the reception hall near Nîmes for the religious ceremony. The imam's speech was striking in its form and content, reminding us of the importance of marriage and love in Islam, as well as of openness to the culture of others, to science and to integration as a full citizen in French society. After the speech and prayer of the "Fatiha" (the equivalent of the "Our Father") and the invocations adapted to marriage, we joined the other guests to move on to the festive part of the engagement.

During the evening there was the henna ceremony, an essential part of any festive reception in the community. The hands of the bride and groom were joined for a few moments, linked by the ribbon surrounding and covering the henna that had just been applied. After the meal, the dancefloor was ablaze with Oriental, Berber and Western pop-rock dances.

The early-morning couple session

I stayed on the estate until the next day, and in the morning I did a little couple's session with the newly engaged couple. A few months later I returned to Montpellier, but this time it was for the real wedding, the one where you go before the mayor before heading off to celebrate. There's an article on my photography blog about this wedding too.

Here is my selection: