- Ishraq's and Richard's Wedding -

Ishraq Mohamed Gharib
and
Richard Corcoran Neergaard

celebrated their marriage at 6:00 PM on Saturday, May twenty-ninth, 1993,
in the Menial Palace, Cairo, Egypt

 
The official registration of marriage took place Wednesday, May 26th, 1993, but by tradition the real marriage happens at the time the wedding is celebrated by friends and family.

[ CLICK ON A PICTURE, OR ON UNDERLINED TEXT, TO SEE THUMBNAIL PHOTOS OF THAT EVENT;   THEN CLICK ON A THUMBNAIL TO SEE THAT PHOTO FULL SIZE. ]


Richard's parents, his sister Sue, and his two brother, Arthur and Peter, arrived in Cairo a week before the wedding.  Five of Richard's friends and fraternity brothers from the States accepted the invitation (hand-painted on papyrus!) and also flew in - Jay and Sam Byrne, John Toohey, and Howie Allen for the week, and Rainer Garger, for just the day of the wedding.

Our group of groom's-folk went sightseeing together around the Giza monuments, toured Cairo, visited museums, went shopping in the soukh, and were felled, some of us, only for a day or so, by the Pharaoh's Revenge.  Richard's friends injected enormous fun into the occasion, coming up with a stream of such insightful comments as, on learning that Butros means Peter in Arabic, Ghali must translate as Pumpkin Eater;  and the realization that the pyramids are, in fact, not deflated at night.

- a week of touring in the desert
- and sightseeing and shopping in Cairo
Early in the week, the patriarch of Ishraq's family, one of her many uncles, Machmud, the retired government minister of Egypt's railroads, hosted a luncheon for the closer relatives of the bride and groom, at Cairo's Royal Automobile Club, providing the opportunity for the families of the bridal party to meet.  It was a most pleasant and cordial affair.

On Wednesday May 26th, the official marriage contract - a legal document which specifies (and taxes!) the settlement terms of a potential eventual divorce - was unceremoniously signed in a dilapidated back-street municipal office which could have been a movie set for Dusty Cairo.   This event is seen in Egypt as having no social significance, and Richard and Ishraq's family and friend's accompanying them to it was regarded as, well, quaint.   From the community's point of view, a marriage is deemed actually to take place not when the contract is signed, but on the occasion of the wedding party, which is given only once the groom has secured a home for the couple (in the interim they live apart, and celibately).

- The entourage at the Registry
The following day, Thursday, Richard had his bachelor party.  The celebrants gathered by the pyramids at dusk, then rode horseback into the desert to where Ezana Raswork had arranged for a barbecue to be set up, with not only food but entertainment:  Nubian musicians (who make a LOT of noise), and a pair of, er, substantial, belly dancers.  After a most amusing evening there (not just the dancers but the round of joke-telling which followed), the group retired to a obligatorily disreputable night spot in downtown Cairo, and raised a beer or two to declare Richard's bachelorhood to have completed its useful life.
 
- Richard's unforgettable bachelor party, on horseback, into the desert by moonlight, under the pyramids
Richard and Ishraq's actual wedding - that is, their wedding party - took place the Saturday, May 29th, in the Menial Palace, a 17th century royal resort, now a hotel located in a park in downtown Cairo.  For the first time, the bride's (very large) extended family met and mingled with that of the groom.
 
When the arriving attendees, sipping fruit-juice nectar "cocktails", had mingled long enough to have become acquainted.....		  
..... the bride and groom made their grand (and it truly was!) entrance.
They arrived in a flower-bedecked carriage, drawn in stately fashion by a flower-bedecked horse, coming slowly down a long avenue of majestic, arching trees, toward the assembled company.  Their procession was truly a triumphant moment, and triggered a well-deserved ovation from onlookers as their cortege passed.
 
Between dinner and the cutting of the cake, diversion was provided by a Whirling Dervish.  Incredible as it may seem, it is indeed possible for edge-of-your-chair theater to be created by a man doing nothing but rotating on a stage for 15 minutes, with variations introduced only by his arm motions and the odd bit of juggling.
The ice fully broke when Lois was pulled up onto the dance floor by an uncle with the bride, to participate in "Egyptian Dancing" (for "Egyptian Dancing" think Belly Dancing with the undulations toned down a bit).  Lois, being quite good at extemporaneous dancing thanks to her natural grace, ballet training and ice skating, performed credibly and, more important, enthusiastically, getting a huge hand.  At this point, the atmosphere blossomed into cordiality.
Later, the dance music moved from East to West, and Richard led Ishraq out onto the floor where, before the admiring throng, they waltzed their first waltz as a married couple.
The next evening, after a last, winding-down day making our final visits to Egypt's antiquities, we all got together for a romantic felucca ride on the moonlit Nile where it flows through the heart of Cairo, sailing gently between the night skylines on either bank.
- - What a glorious episode it all was!  The guests came away with a lifetime of treasured memories, and the bridal pair were splendidly wed, a most happy omen for their lives ahead.