Ramadan and me.

Last year I posted a modest explanation of how life changes around here in the holy month of Ramadan, please read it here. I thought it would be a good idea to shine some light on the traditional and cultural aspect of this month- especially for those reading this back home! This year is an altogether different story because I am pregnant, hormonal and hungry all the freaking time. So my routine has not really been effected by the fact that Muscat has succumbed to the sleepy, slow, quite days of fasting.

Luckily no one in my office fasts (well except one guy who is on his annual leave now) so I have not locked up my snack drawer that is filled with Oreos, almonds, waffles and crackers. I munch away the entire day. We haven't even moved the water cooler from the room because my Omani colleague said it does not phase him- even when he is fasting. So, we took his word for it.

I am however cautious not to eat or drink anything whilst I am outside (which actually isn't that often these days). This has proven to be difficult because my pregnant brain is always exploding with one stupid idea or the other, such as "Why don't you eat a tomatoe while driving from home to work?".

And as far as silly situations go, my oven ran out of gas while baking a few pizzas at home and had to resort to asking one of my neighbors if I could perhaps use his oven to finish dinner? Now if this happened in the afternoon I don't think my fasting/Egyptian neighbor would appreciate the smell of two gigantic pizzas bubbling away in his oven...and it would also be virtually impossible to get the gas service to deliver during the day in Ramadan.

Just this Friday me and Is This Serious were getting some much needed shopping therapy in City Center Seeb when we realized that we are frightfully thirsty. I also needed sugar. A chocolate of some kind. We ranted a little in one of the stores and an expat woman overheard us and offered her sympathy.  Except we couldn't eat it anywhere! As a last resort we bought the goods and headed....to the bathroom. I sat on one of the sinks devouring my Bounty and gulping down my Ice Tea. Seriously, it was sad. I felt a little sorry for my pregnant self. That should teach me stay home till 6pm from now on!

On a more pleasant note I was thrilled to find out that Oman Dive Center still serves beverages and food (not sure about alcohol!?). Alex decided to try out diving this weekend and I was a little worried about him getting a heat stroke or collapsing from dehydration- you know, because there is no food anywhere!!!! It turned out to be fine.

Oh and after we were done with the shopping I sat in my car and ate a freshly baked baguette with some cheese...luckily no one was around. Either way that sandwich was absolutely worth going to jail for.

Oh! The similaries

Day 61/Project 365. Disclaimer-I am not stalking...this is research!

                                  Oman                              Uzbekistan



Population                   2,845,000                      27,606,007
Area                           309,550 km                      447,400 km                  
Religion                       Muslim                             Muslim
Language                  Arabic, English             Uzbek, Russian

The similarities may not just jump at you in the most obvious way possible, but I would like to argue that Oman and Uzbekistan are more alike than different. I am not going to compare histories, battles, rulers or statistics (who am I kidding?). I am simply going to say that the local people of both countries are made of the same mould. Take for example the house below:

This is a view from outside my sitting room window. Every morning as I am having my coffee, I hear their rattling engines and noisy footsteps. An Omani family of about 10-15 people lives there, most of them are children. Small, active, noisy children  Every Friday a bus (and I am not exaggerating) drives them off to visit relatives, or brings their extended family to their doorsteps. There is a grandfather who sits on the steps every afternoon with his cane an yells at the youngsters to be cautious with their football. There are women who scatter around the grounds with bundles of laundry, carpets and containers frequently leaving them outside to wash or to dry. There are proud mothers with their toddlers who come out every morning before the weather gets too hot, and rest the in the comforting shade gossiping away. During festivities the house is lit with lights, alive with crowds of men and filled with delicious aromas that sip into the street.

The given scenario is a déjà vous of a typical day in the life of an Uzbek family that lives in a big house with their extended family. It is also common for children to continue living with parents after they are married, which often results in 3-4 families living together. Women are also always busy with housework; they are friendly and closely knitted. Whole neighborhoods known as “mahallas” are supportive of one another both in festivities and in mourning. The cultures overlap not only due to a shared religion, but because of a general kindness that links these nations. I have time and time again heard that Oman has the most hospitable locals; funny how every expat would say the same thing about Uzbekistan…

Project 365. Day 32-37

Day 23. A quick visit to Nizwa, the largest in the interior province, was the capital of Oman in the 6th and 7th centuries. Today it remains one of the most popular tourist attractions with its historical buildings and imposing fort built in the mid 17th century. Now that I am done copy pasting from Google, I can tell you what Nizwa is really like. Tucked away, about 250 km from Muscat, it a an immediate town center, full of life, busy shop keepers, curious tourists and extravagant Omani displays. After driving for two hours, on a road that seems to melt under the tires (did I mention is 48 degrees here in June?) you find yourself amidst Toyota Showrooms, Happy Bunny food outlets and hundreds of little stores. The most famous attraction is the fort- which has the magical ability to always be closed for lunch when I visit (I've been to Nizwa 4 times, only managed to get into the fort once- again, because Cynthia was with me!). It breathes history. The thick yellow, worn-out walls are enticing and inviting. The 50 meter deep (torture holes) wells are frightening. It’s a must see :) and since you took 2 hours to drive there you might as well pop buy the silver souq, check out antiques, silver wear, handmade crafts, traditional dresses and other souvenirs. Be sure to stop by the fish and veggies market, where Tashkent-style Lorries are unloading tons of strawberries, melons, kiwi fruit and fresh veggies. These are a lot cheaper than in Muscat, negotiations are also accepted and the quality is undeniable. Wouldn't I make an awsome tour guide?
Two thumbs up for Nizwa- I am in love with how quite, modest and intriguing you are.

Picture of the day. An old mud house close to the Nizwa Fort.

The longest 45 mins...

My husband is not the most religious man in the word. He does not pray (at least to God), neither does he put the fear of God into himself or other people. He does however wear the cross, since the day we wed. He treasures it as he does his wedding ring, or his bikes. This is his choice. The church wedding was a necessity, the reasonable and the right thing to do. Having not stepped into church for over 10 years, he was right to be nerveous about it. All the wishfull people out there wailed about how long the ceremony is, how tired you get, how dizzy you get and how it never seems to end.... and they were so right.

I do not remember all the details, there was family, and wine, and candles, and icons and wedding bands and vows...doesn't sound too bad does it? What has ruined the experience however is that another couple was getting blessed at the same time, sucking the uniqueness right out of the experience. Alex was a nerveous wreck, not knowing when to kiss the icon or when to say "I promise, I do, I will" and I was doing my best not to break out into giggles while hearing Cynthia fiddle around behind me. Cynthia and the best man had a very special task. They had to hold crowns ABOVE our heads. We are taller. And I am wearing heels. So the new measure of friendship is the amount of time you can hold a heavy crown on an outstreched arm, 50 cms above your head.

There is also a point in the ceremony, where the couple together with the crowns above their heads are supposed to follow the priest in circles around a basin. I didnt know that. Neither did Cynthia. But at least I speak Russian. She had to supress her exclamations of surprise, untangle my veil from under her shoes and try to keep the crown above my head as I walked ahead. She managed to contain herself througout the experience, but I heard plenty about it the momment we stepped out of the holy house of God...Casualties aside, the ceremony was breath taking, my then 5 year old brother, behaved unbelievebly well, aside from the casual tagging and nagging for me to talk to him. The icons were blessed and instructions were given to keep them nearby wherever we may go.

You've already won me over...

...in spite of me

Dont be alarmed if I fall head over feet

Dont be surprised if I love you for all that you are

I couldnt help itIts all your fault"

(Alanis Morisette, Head Over Feet, lyrics)

When I heard the honking of car horns around 10 a.m, I knew that he was close. The bikers were coming to take me away from my grand mothers house-but it was not going to be as easy as they thought. My girls devised a cunning and particularly cruel maze of questions and dares that would have to be fulfilled to their satisfaction. They came up with such witty riddles and never done before tricks, in about 24 hours! They did such an amazing job. I still consider this to be the best part of the day. It all started as they greeted the bikers about 20 meters from the door...

They stood holding hands as 3 bikes roared towards them. Alex was riding together with the best man and my bouquette. The other bikers, were close friends of ours. They got off their bikes when they reached the girls and the first challenge was to cut the ribbon behind them to let them pass. The girls presented them with a tray which had 3 types of scissors on them. They had to pay to buy a pair. The next trick was to step on the footsteps laid out on the ground, and pick up the paper footstep and read the dare on it. These ranged from "dance the little ducklings dance", "name 4 britney spears songs" to "scream as loudly as you can". At this point, Alex screamed "Olga, I love you more than anything in the world". I know. Anything. Thing. Ok. I told myself-anything-means bike. He loves me more that his bike. I can live with that. Other memorable moments included when he had to dress a baby doll in just 20 seconds, he had managed to put one of the legs into the pants, and then as he had 3 seconds left, he stuffed the doll upside down, inside his jacket. Which kind of works, because at least the poor thing was warm! At the door of the building, another unusuall challenge require bows and arrows. He had to shoot at the reason he married me, he shot three times, and mostly got "The party has ordered me". Inside the hall, he had to guess the outline of my hand trace, and the color of my lipstick. He guessed neither :) Alex them bravely drank 1 ltr of very questionable water to pick out the key to the house. He guessed the key from his first try! The last task included finding the room in which the bride was awaiting him. Alex had a choice of 4 rooms, my room, my grandmothers room, the bathroom and the toilet. I ofcourse hid in my grandmothers room. Biker people kept yelling "pick the room with the baloons!!!" but ofcourse I wasnt there. Instead there was my grandma with a white scarf over her head, yelling "You have found your bride!!!" it was hilarous! Alex them unsuccessfully peaked into the bathroom and the toilet, found me in neither and went for my grandma's room. I was standing there, trembling, listening closely to the commotion outside. And as the handle of the door turned, my heart stopped beating. He walked in,tall and handsome and his eyes opened wide in amazement. He hugged and kissed for the longest time-unable to believe our luck...

On the other side of town the groom was...

...hitting he snooze button until screams of panic reached from the adjoined room. "Wake up, you can't sleep through your own wedding" shriked an emotional Liya,who's boyfriend is Alex's best friend. She woke them both up around 8:00 am,prepared coffee ad some breakfast to calm the nerves. Alex got dressed and soon his mom reached our aparment. After a few minutes of "Awws" and "Aaahh" she put herself together and began helping with the preparations. Soon after the photgrapher arrived, and began taking pictures of Alex getting ready for the big day. Followed by Kirill and Nadya, fellow biker mates-who all crowded in our tiny apartment.

I was sure to leave good guidelines for Liya, foreseeing the chaotic preparations so early in the morning. There was an A4 paper stuck to the fridge which contained instructions similar to the following:

"Don't forget the bowtie and the rings. The rings are in a box on top of the TV, the TV is in the sitting room"

The list had a few more vital bullets to help locate the bridal bouquet,the golden cross, the ribbons and balloons and emergency contacts. Liya later told me, that if it wasnt for the list, Alex would have probably forgotten all about the bouquet and the rings, thats how nerveous he was.

You are probably wonderig, and where is the best man during all these events? Oh, he was home-sleeping :) he did eventually wake up and flew to our place at the speed of light (or a honda bike...) to help get ready. The most important task, before they were to pick me up, was to tie ribbons and balloons around the bikes on which they would ride to my house. Yes. Bikes. My husband rode a bike to our wedding. In his suite. With my bouquet. Both survived.

Having decorated both the groom and the bikes, the party was on their way to pick up the bride. The camera man traveled alongside the bikes in a rented car, and shot the whole 15 minute journey into an amazing video soundtracked by System of a Down's "Arials"...

A bride at 6 a.m

Although we moved in together a few weeks before the wedding, we tradionally spend the night before the wedding apart. He was in our new apartment (refer to "the stripper who slept over" post), and I was with my mom and my maid of honor who crashed with us,because she flew in from Oman for the wedding. There I was at 12 a.m franticly trying to organize last minute details, counting my pairs of shoes, checking that my nails didnt fall off, checking on my dress every 15 min. I was obsessive to say the least. Was I nerveous? Or scared?Not even a little bit. At least not about getting married. I was nerveous the photographer will forget additional batteries, that the cake will fall down,that the kids invited will be jumping in the pool...but I was not nerveous about spending the rest of my life with Alex. I didnt have a single doubt.

On the 19th of September, I woke up around 5:45 am, by 6:am my hairdresses was supposed to come over to do my hair an make up. Because we were on such a tight schedule it was impossible to go to a salon (which wouldn't be open so early in the morning).

Albina, my hairdresses was late. She lived right next door, so actually coming over didnt take that long-waking her up did! But once she was over at our place, everything went smoothly. Myself, my mom and My Cynthia were up for hairstyles and make up. I went first, and after an hour later my hair was done. I considered extensions for my wedding day, but had to shake off the idea. I find brides with glued on nails, hair extensions and fake eyelashes too superficial. I can just see them taking it all off the next morning and giving their husbands the shock of his life, ya this is what I really look like. I hoped to be as natural as possible.

I wouldn't tolerate any glued on hair, bright red lipstick or eyelashes that created wind currents when battered. I did opt for the glued on nails though, it was a nice change from my usual bit off/injured nails, so I had them painted light pink with white flowers the day before the wedding. My make up stayed neutral too, smokey eyes effect, good foundation, and some lipgloss. I never undrestood it when brides put 2 kilos of make up on their face making them literally unrecognisable to the public! Before I knew it, it was already 9:30 a.m. and it was time to rush off to my grandmothers house, where Alex would "buy me away" from...

P.S I didnt pay a cent for my hair and make up. It was a present from a hair dresser. I ve been a loyal customer for 5 years, and she was more than happy to help me out on my wedding day :) I am surrounded by lovely people this way :) Thank you honey!

Bride for sale

There is an absurd Russian tradition to "buy out the bride". The idea behind it, is to give the groom as much trouble as possible before he reacher his wife-to be. I believe this all originated in some classical ideology of the man demonstrating his strength/wit/masculinity for all to see. In the more modern version-it is just there for laughs. The bridesmaids usually greet the groom, before he enters the house/flat the bride lives in. The "buying out the bride" procedure presents every groom a unique opportunity to show his love for all to see. Whether he will need to scream "Darling I love you" for hundrets to hear, or to say 15 compliments about his bride- this is his opportunity to show that the sky is the limit. The bridesmaids also have a field day, because this one day-they are able to get the groom and his friends to do whatever they please.With all possible tricks and games, they try to get him to pay as much money as possible, in order to get to his bride. Some of the most common dares include:



1) The groom is offered three containers,filled with clear liquid. One of them contains sugar, the other salt and the third something bitter. The one the groom picks and tastes is supposed to signify their marriage-would it be sweet or biter.

2)Every stair has a flower laid on it, as the groom picks up the flower he is supposed to say a kind word about his bride (beautiful, sexy, funny), if he runs out of words he pays up.

3)The groom is supposed to spell out the name of the bride with cash notes on the ground (lucky someone called Veronika, or Aleksandra!)

4) A tub of water is put before the groom, and he is asked to put the that which the bride cherishes the most in it (the groom needs to be smart enough to take his shoes off and step into the tub himself)

5)The groom is required to answer all sorts of rediculous questions, ranging from "what was the colour of the dress that she was wearing when you met" to "what is the star sign of the future mother in law"

6)A poster is prepared,covered in kisses of different colours. The groom must correctly guess which colour lipstick belongs to his bride (or pay money!)


The list of competitions and tricks is endless. They are always fun and make it onboard every Russian wedding. I can assure you my girls had a fielday getting bikers to sing Britney Spears Songs.. :)

How we got carried away...

Wedding preparations are bound to get the best of you. I doubt there is a single couple out there, who had a calm, fight-free,fit-throwing-less wedding preparation. Unless they hired a planner. Or got married spontaneously. In our case, we spend two months getting ready for a wedding, that flew before our eyes in minutes. We were so exhausted from looking at ribbons, choosing baloon colours, tasting cakes, trying on clothes, signing invitations, looking for a place to live... This all sounds like great fun when you read it, and you are probably thinking "Eh, what is she complaining about", but try joggling wedding preparations, a full time job, and a full time family. It was difficult. And unbearable at times. And that is mostly why we scaled down so much. There were no ice sculptures, no famous singers performing, to wedding album even-we did as much as we could, and we were happy with the result. Some way through Alex concentrated on proving us with a home, and I took care of the wedding preparations, we would meet up daily and discuss what has been achieved. I received a lot of help with the preparations, My Cynthia has organizing the bachelorette party and the wedding in the Bar, My Foosa was responsible for an unforgettable "giving-away" the bride routine, My Lyu was coordinating the above mentioned procedures and made everything as easy as it could possibly be. The moral of the story is; don't turn away help with wedding preparations, if your grand ma is unsatisfied with the receptions menu and wants to make some of her famous chicken pie-let her, if your in-laws find you a great wedding dress tailor-give her a try, if your parents decide to bring 10 last minute guests in-take it with a smile. They are a part of your wedding to. A wedding is a family affair. It is never about you and your husband alone. That would be too selfish. It is about two families uniting their children and becoming one, and if they want to get lost in the process-so be it. Let them. Enjoy it.

Why it pays off to be demanding

The wedding should be as close to perfection as humanly possible. If that meant being difficult, demanding, whiny at times- I had no problem being so. When you have a certain vision of the big day, it is much easier to relocate your resources to match up. Next to the hotel, the camera man gave us more trouble than we could handle. I initially had a DVD of our friend's wedding for 3 months. I would watch it over and over again, to try and notice the little things that i disliked; like the camera man recording people next to unwanted scenery, such as the sound system or a bare wall. The food on the table was also given a lot of emphasis, as were hyper kids who ran around the wedding hall. Often there was footage of the bride chewing large chunks of food, or the guests dancing barefoot (and a zoom into their feet).
Watching that DVD also provided me with a template of what a wedding should consist of, and the chronological order of events. Typically in a Russian wedding the following occurs:

1. The bride gets her hair and make up done early morning at her house/salon
2. The groom gets ready with the help of his best man and other pals
3. The groom's party decorates the cars/motorbikes with baloons, ribbons and flowers
4. The bride's family prepares a light table with drinks and snacks
5. The bride's friends prepare traps and tricks for the groom to pass through
6. The groom picks up the bride's bouquette and arrives at her house
7. The groom groes through the traps set up by answering questions, or paying money
8. The groom successfully enters the house with flowers for the mother/grandmother or the bride
9. After a few toasts, the party leaves for the city hall
10. Rings and vows are exchange, marriage certificate acquired, usually parents do not come to this part of the ceremony
11. The bride and the groom, followed by friends, visit monuments and historical sigths to lay flowers in respect
12. During lunchtime, the church ceremony takes place, where the rings are blessed and the whole extended family usually attends
13. There is time to take photographs at breath taking locations after church
14. The bride and groom arrive at the hotel, while the organizers put the finishing touches to the banquet hall
15. Make up is touched up, shoes are pollished, and guests begin to arrive
16. Half an hour after all the guests have gathered, the bride and groom arrive at the hall
17. Throughout the night, toasts and words of congratulations are exchanged, there is a lot of dancing and ultimately-drinking
18. The bride and groom cut the cake, say words of thanks to their parents and leave to their suite.

Keeping in mind the casual order of events, the wedding video is typically over three hours long, and if not edited and shot properly can easily turn out to be a disaster. And after looking at the works of a number of cameraman, by sheer luck we stumbled upon one whose work took our breath away. The wedding he did previously was different, fun, loud, energetic, and atypicall. We decided to entrust him to make ours special as well. And considering that we have System of a Down as a soundtrack to our wedding video- I can se he did a great job!

The invitations

Since the place was decided upon, we could safely choose and print the wedding invitations. We took our sweet time deciding on the place, so we lost of luxury of having custom made invitations, which i would love to have embedded with the Biker theme! We had to settle for what was already on the market. Typically wedding invations in Tashkent cost between $2 and $10 dollars. They do come in all shapes, sizes and colours and there are a few to choose from. Definetly some are outright ugly,and the golden colour is over abused. We decided to settle for something neutral, a white and light golden colour and focused on making the text unforgettable. There are a few custom shops for wedding invitation in Uzbekistan, most can be found in the local bazars or near post offices, and couples always have the luxury of designing at printing their own wedding invitation at the closest design studio. Most invitations are printed in Turkey or Syria and the chosen text is added later on in Tashkent. The text we chose to print came in a rhyme and lousely translated from Russian was something like:

"Having decided to unite our paths forever
We invite you to share our happiness this evening
To say words of congratulations/wisdom
To say "cheers" (and not once)
We would be unmeasurable happy
To see you at our wedding"

(Except in Russian, the above text rhymes beautifully and received a lot of "Awws" from the recipients).

Below the rhyme, there was the usual text of Dear_________ We invite you to our wedding which will take place on the 19th of September, at 19:00 hours, at the Sheraton hotel. We will be glad to see you, Alex and Olga

Another unusuall catch that was unique to our wedding invitation is the little tag, hanging from the envelope. Completely custom made. The idea behind the tag was simple- we did not want to receive pans,glasses, bedsheets,hoovers,plates,and clocks as gifts. We decided it would be a lot more usufull if everybody gave us money istead :) We were planning to move adbroad at some point after the wedding, and having some financial back up made sence to us at the time. So there was the rhyme "Don't stree, make it easy, put your present in the envelope". Attached by a golden ribbon, to the invitation it looked absolutely wonderfull. Those 10 words or text, politely conveyed the whole messege. And I am happy to say we only received 1 painting, 1 set of coffee cups and the rest came in bank notes :)

Church Ceremony Must Have's

Tashkent City has a few nice churches, both catholic and orthodox. We were going to have our ceremony in the orthodox church and hence were carefull to book it in advance. The church will only wed those who present a liable wedding certificate issued by the state, hence the city council ceremony always takes place before the church ceremony, even if its just a few hours before.As I've mentioned before, September is crazy on weddings-both Christan and Muslim. The ceremony is not complex one, it is however long and heavy on the details. There is a list of specific items that the bride and groom must have during the ceremony, and must cherish throughout life. The list is fairly easy to obtain, and is available on the information board at the entrance. Here is a list of items:

• Icons (Jesus and St.Mary)
• 4 big hankerchiefs
• A big white towel or cloth (2 m)
• Weddin Rings
• 2 big church candles
• Crosses on a chain
• State wedding certificate
• Bride and groom should be baptized

The ceremony takes about 30 minutes to complete and cost at that time 50,000 soums which is approximately $30. It is essencial to book a slot at least a week in advance. The items mentioned are held or worn by the wedded during the ceremony. Both husband and wife shouls be wearing crosses, and holding lit candles with a hankerchief as not to burn one self. The ceremony consists of the pope walking around the couple, blessing their union, blessing their rings, the icons and performing other rituals. The best man and the maid of honor (will be called 'My Cynthia' from here on) have a vital part in the ceremony. They remain close to the bride and groom at all times and hold crowns over the heads for about 15 mintues. The icons that are then meant to travel through life with the family were brought from a church in Ukrain, as well the hankerchiefs and the cloths we stood on as husband and wife before the church. I will provide more details and the hilarous moments we managed to have during a 'formal', 'tradition', 'quiet' ceremony :)

Lords of the rings

I didnt need a big diamond ring to ensure that my husband loves me, and I made that clear from the very beginning. I could not care less if I wore a rubber band on that finger for the rest of my life. All I wanted was loyalty, a happy home and a soulmate who will stand by me as we grow old together. I am blessed, for I can assure you that I got what I asked for. I also got the ring I asked for. A simple, thin-band, classy, old school wedding ring. It is made of yellow gold with a white golden strap along the middle. Our rings are identical.

Buying rings in Tashkent, is quite a challenge. They are have just been introduced to the trend of matching rings for the bride and the groom, and most styles are heavy and far from European. My mom's initiative was to have our rings ordered from Dubai, but that was one plan that went horribly wrong. To cut a long story short-we send 2 pairs of rings back. They were redicuously expensive and vertually took up half of our wedding budget! And although our parents encouraged us to splash out on something that would remain with us throughout like, we did not give in. We bough something we both liked, and those rings were special because they have a story-they were so hard to find. Two weeks before the wedding, amidst the panic and the chaos, there they were; simple and perfect. And although they arent designer and dont equal to the state budget of a small European city, they are the rings we are proud to wear as husband and wife.

Handmade and unique

The idea of having a dress sewn and designed especially for you would warm the heart of any bride. However not many go to such troubles, because then like me, they would need to spend their work lunchbreaks, after work and before work hours at the tailor's. Being hands on with the fabric, length, material, style and beads designs is definetly fun-but boy is it time consuming! Luckily the tailor was a good family friend, and she was very friendly with myself (Bridezilla) and patient. She shared my vision of stearing away from tradional, typical hoolahooped dresses that looked more like a rain tent. A few hours and 10 magazines later, we managed to communicate the vision for THE DRESS. It was to be white, lights, strapless, tight in the waist and flowly from the bottom. Sleek and classical. Comfortable and manageble. I've heard stories of brides who fainted because corsets were too tight, threw tantrums because they were unable to go to the toilet without assistance and who generally grew tired under the weight of their dress. I did not wish to remember my wedding day as such. I wanted to be able to walk, and dance, and jump and enjoy my own wedding-hence THE DRESS had to be fitted to those requirements. I found it accidently, in a casual evening dresses shop, it was hanging under a plastic cover, simple, white, strapless and just pefect for me. It fit me perfectly and we got it right away. A few weeks spend on it working the tailors magic, sewing in a coret, fluffing thebotoom part, installing layers and nets, resewing it because I lost weight due to wedding stress-and it was comleted. THE DRESS was ready.

How the dress came to be...

A typical, classy, modern Uzbek groom. A strict suite, no flowers, no flashy colours. Traditional and modest.






A typical Uzbek styled dresses and a typical "modern" Uzbek bride. Gorgeous.

Photoes by Alisher Irismetov, my wedding photographer.

Every girl dreams about having the perfect wedding dress.
Although the idea of "perfect" is highly indivudal and bound to include the most controversial of choices. Most wedding dresses in Uzbekistan are very traditional: a puffy white dress, often strapless and hoolahooped at the bottom. These dresses are certainly beautiful and are available in a range of fashions; with rose petals scattered at the bottom, with golden glittered stuck all over, with gems and cristals on the corset or another typical design is huge sparkly stones all over.

Over the years a few exceptionally good wedding dress salons have become available where prices range (for rent) from 300 to 1500 dollars. As for purchase, prices range from 1000 dollars to infinity :)

I began the wedding dress research 5 weeks before the wedding, a great friend of mine, Lyu has kindly offered to visit a salon with me and patienty nodded or shook her head at each dress. My husband drove us there and waited patiently for 45 minutes as i sneaked in to try them on :)

Most available dresses were creamy in colour, which made them look quite dirty in day light, and the white ones looked like someone accidenty dropped a gallon of glittered all over them.

I tried on three dresses and fell in love with one. It was sleek, it was comfortable, and i could even see the ground when i looked down :) It was not poofy, and hence i didnt look like a snowball in it, it didnt have a single gem/cristal/glitter particle on it and that made me ever so happy. The price for the purchase of that dress was 1.200 dollars, way out of our budget, hence I had to find other ways to get the dress of my dreams.

There was also the issue of not wanting to rent the dress, because I consider it to be an item of too much importance which cannot later be passed on to god knows who to be worn on their wedding day. I wanted it to hang in my closet and get dusty instead :)


























These are some dress styles that I had in mind...

Church weddings-survival guide

It was important for us to have a church wedding. And my us I mean my family and me. My husband on the other hand was rather cold to the idea. However we decided to go through with it and to establish ourselves as husband and wife before god. The ceremony needed to be booked in advance at our local church and costs (!) 45 dollars. Much to our amazement two wedding were allowed to go on at the same time. The prerequisite to the ceremony is that you have to be already married by the city council in order for the church to marry you. There is also a long list of must have's consisting of: candles, icons, towels, hankerchiefs and a special cloak you stand on as husband and wife. The icons you hold as the priest blesses your marriages must remain hangin in your bedroom through out yourlife, reminding you of the promises you have made before god.