10 Things You Should Know Before Planning Your Wedding In Lebanon

There aren’t many places in the world where you will witness such elegance and extravagance. From the hair and makeup, the high-end designer bridal wear, the carefully selected flower arrangements, the loud and spectacular array of “zaffe” entrances, and the downright ridiculous amounts of cash spent on it all. It can be a whole lot of fun mixed in with a whole lot of stress.

Here are a few pointers to help you through the process :

1. Don’t be a people pleaser.

Rest assured that even if you arrange to have crystal chandeliers hanging above every table and an award-winning chef serving every platter, people will still find something to criticize. A Lebanese is one tough cookie to satisfy; some may criticize out of envy, others have simply taken it up as a hobby, and some just use criticism as a substitute for small talk. Basically, don’t go about planning the wedding with the thought of pleasing or impressing everyone in mind, just be sure to do things the way you and your fiancée like.

2. Your budget will look very, very different by the time you’re done.

Most couples go in with a somewhat clear picture as to how much they want to spend on their big day. But this is one of those time where it really gets difficult to exercise financial responsibility. It’ll get drilled in your head that it’s your big day, you aren’t going to experience such an important event ever again. The pressure, the dreaming, and the high expectations all start to bring out the extremely picky perfectionist in you – and your attention to detail goes into over-drive. Perhaps you need to add some more flowers, maybe the buffet should be expanded slightly, and you just have to have THAT dress. Initial budget? History.

3. You may come across as Bridezilla.

You might think that such beings don’t exist at first, until you meet one, or even worse – turn into one yourself. For some women, planning a wedding really brings out their competitive side. From trying to keep floral décor from other brides to paying a substantial amount more just to be the first to wear a wedding dress, all bets are off when you’re dealing with Bridezillas. Yep, it’s a scary wedding battle out there.

4. It may get nasty when it’s time to pick, choose, and seat.

The trickiest part of this whole ordeal is the inviting and the seating. Both your parents and your spouse’s parents will want to have a say in who gets invited. This includes sorting out which friends and relatives have invited you or your parents to past weddings, which friends are considered family friends, and whether inviting that one person will mean inviting a whole other circle of people associated with that one invitee – it’s a circus. Between the parents, you, and your fiancée, keeping the number of invitees at bay is no easy task. The worse part comes when you’ve made an initial list of guests and you now have to seat them.

5. Glamorous, no matter how simple.

There is no denying it, there aren’t many places in the world where weddings consist of some glitz and a whole lot of “zaffe”. Know that even if you opt for a simple and modest wedding, it will still be fairly lavish and grand compared to weddings outside of Lebanon.

6. Celebrations galore!

Since we just love to have a reason to celebrate, we made sure to keep the old Lebanese traditions, and added to them a whole pile of Western-style celebrations. Basically, you can expect to have a pre-wedding party, a bachelor(ette) party, a big family gathering the night before your wedding, and whatever other celebrations your family/village are used to. It’s basically a whole month or two of partying in honor of your wedding.

7. It’s one day, an entire year in the making.

Keep in mind that a whole year’s worth of planning, dreaming, visualizing, and spending (several years of spending actually) will all pass in literally a few hours. The reception, which is where most of the planning and spending would have gone, is a maximum of 4-5 hours that will feel more like 4 or 5 minutes. It can sometimes leave you feeling a little low (especially if you broke the bank) after all that high. Think things through.

8. Reservations should be made almost immediately after you propose.

Churches, restaurants, photographers, make-up artists…all of them become fully booked so very quickly. It may be a good idea to reserve all your vendors as soon as you’ve gotten engaged because wedding seasons get seriously jam-packed in Lebanon. It is partly due to the large amounts of Lebanese expats that come back to Lebanon just to get married here. Also: want to have your wedding on a weekend? Double the difficulty! Getting all the components of the wedding to be free on one magical day is not as easy as you think.

9. Your names will change to “3arous” or “3aris” until further notice.

You can forget about your first name from the moment it becomes known that you are planning your wedding right until a baby bump shows up. You are 3arous or 3aris for now – deal with it.

10. You may discover several odd traditions.

You’re probably prepared for all of the neighbors to give you a “zalghouta” while tossing tons of rice at you. But you may not be aware of some of the more peculiar traditions around Lebanon. For instance, as the bride, don’t be surprised if some of your groom’s friends start stealing random things from your house, as apparently it is tradition. And if you are the groom, beware of that fun tradition of “kidnapping the groom” before the big day.