Muslim Wedding Advice

[Kieran76]

I am off to a muslim wedding this afternoon. It is someone I work with and I just wanted to know what to expect.

Will the ceremony go on for hours?
What is borjatra? According to the invite it arrives at 1.00pm.
What is the protocol when saying hello etc.

If anyone can help out then I would be grateful. I must admit, I am mainly going for the food though.

[Spatial]

Always respect the cuisine.

[Kieran76]

No danger there. I am going without breakfast and planning to eat loads.

[charlesr]

Have a very small breakfast. Otherwise you stomach will be too small and will feel full too quickly. Trust me. I'm an expert. No idea about your questions though sorry.

[KIT786]

Well I'm late to the thread but can answer your first and last question (even though they will be of no use to you now!)

Q1. If you're taking about 'vows' bit that should be over within 1-1.5 hrs. If you're talking about the reception, that should go well into the evening.

Q3. Great people as you would at any other wedding you would be attending.

I can give a guess that Q2. if the arrival of the bride, but not sure on that.

If it was an asian wedding you can expect A LOT of delays, and nothing will go to the planned time schedule (well from my experience anyway!)

[Kieran76]

It was quite a strange experience for me. I got there at 1pm, and there was about 6 blokes wandering around, the rest of the place was deserted! So I hung around in the venue looking like a spare part for 20 mins, then a couple of work friends turned up so I didn't feel so stupid.
The bride turned up at 2.00pm, only an hour late! The groom then came in his horse and carriage about 20 mins later. When the groom tries to get in the kids from the brides family block the day and demand cash! He and his mates give them some money and then pushed past them spraying them with silly string! I was speaking to one of the brides brothers, it was her that we all knew, and he said these things are organised chaos and his own wedding started three hours late. I felt a bit sorry for the bride and groom as they never got to see each and there was a massive line of people waiting to have their photographs taken with them.
The food was tops though.

[endo]

Wasn't in Cov Garden/near Holborn was it? I was having a coffee yesterday and saw 4 different Muslim wedding parties go past in the space of about 20 minutes. Definitely seemed the day to be getting married.

[saif]

"Muslim" weddings can be quite different in tone as they are based more on geographical customs than anything else. Arab weddings are quite different from Bengali weddings.

Traditions can often look a bit dodgy these days I think.
The bit where the family block the groom is called the "gate money" when I have seen it. Can often be a nice bit of banter and is basically the family holding the bride hostage! I think they are usually planned beforehand (in terms of cash value) but we all like the drama! When I have done that, the money is then used for the entertainment of the bride's friend - dinner or something. I quite like it but if it was commented on by a feminist, I am sure it could sound horrific.

[Kieran76]

I enjoyed it, both familys were Bengladeshi. One of her brothers was telling me it was different depending what country or part of a country the family came from. I enjoyed it, but got a bit fed up of all the waiting around.

EDIT - The wedding was in east London. No posh Cov Garden party for me.