Renad Ghanem

Saudi Gazette



JEDDAH — The curfew imposed by the Egyptian government from 7:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. has forced many Egyptian families planning weddings to change the time or the date.



Some of the families were forced to cancel their weddings until the political situation is more stable. According to the Egyptian government, the curfew is to last for one month only. The curfew was revised recently to 9:00 p.m. local Egyptian time until 6:00 a.m. the next day.



Most Egyptian families tend to hold their weddings during summer. It did not occur to many families planning their weddings that clashes between police and protesters would reach the current state. It is after Ramadan that many families planned for their weddings.



Mariam Wagdy, a 26-year-old Egyptian bride, was forced to change her wedding from nighttime to day because of curfew.



“I live in UAE along with my fiancée. We booked our wedding three months ago and we applied for a one month vacation. We arrived in Egypt a few days before the clashes took place,” she said.



Mariam wasn’t able to delay her wedding, which took place last Wednesday, because she had no more vacation time. “I was forced to hold the wedding in the afternoon which is unusual in the Egyptian culture because all the weddings take place at night. I had to chance the time from 8:00 p.m. – 12:00 o’clock to 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.,” she said.



She said that the hotel where the ceremony would take place refused to refund the money saying that they can only change the date.



“The cost of my wedding is very high and unfortunately did not go the way I wanted and dreamed it to be. Few people attended my wedding and it was limited to family and close friends,” she said.



Sorayaa Ahmed, another 27-year-old Egyptian bride, is planning her wedding coming Thursday. It did not previously occur to her that the date of her wedding will land during the curfew period.



“I wanted to delay the wedding to a later date until the political situation is stable but my fiancée cannot take another vacation from his work in Saudi. If I wanted to change the date, then it means delaying the wedding for at least another year,” said Sorayaa.



She said that she is afraid that the situation might worsen in the coming days. She hopes that on the day of the wedding no one would block the roads or create any problems. The hotel where the wedding is taking place is located on a major road that is monitored by police and the military.



“The wedding has cost about 120,000 Egyptian pounds and it’s not refundable. I am not happy with it because of the curfew. It is not going the way I wanted.  Many of the guests told me that that they will not be able to make it to the wedding, some even from my family,” she said.



Shorouk Abdullah was the luckiest of all because she managed to get a refund of all her money from the hotel after the curfew was announced and is now planning to hold a small wedding at home.



“I’m planning to hold small ceremony in our garden for family and close friends only. I am lucky because most of my family lives in the same neighborhood,” she said. She was initially planning to invite more than 200 guests at a total cost of more than 30,000 Egyptian pounds. She managed to save most of the money after the cancellation and limited the guests at her home to 50 only.



Christina Azzer is a 29-year-old Egyptian who had delayed her wedding indefinitely. She was planning to hold her wedding at a church in Cairo but canceled the wedding because of the violence.  “The wedding ceremony was supposed to start at the Church and then we go to the banquet hall at the hotel for the reception. I was forced to postpone the wedding until a later date because of the curfew,” she said.  “Many churches were targeted recently in the series of violence and my family saw the best in postponing the wedding until the situation is stable.”



“We lost a lot of money because we booked our honeymoon trip and the money was not refundable. It’s frustrating to delay the wedding especially that we’ve been engaged for three years now. I hope that everything settles down so that people can get back to their normal lives,” said Christina.