CAIRO - In Cairo's poor neighbourhoods, tents, chairs and lights are often set up in the street for a groom and his bride who want to celebrate their wedding day like this, because they can't afford a wedding hall. This is the case for many lower-class Egyptians, who are searching for one way or another to celebrate their Big Day as cheaply as possible. All they want is to enjoy themselves without having to pay too much. In Alexandria, these street weddings are very common. The poor bride and groom, escorted by their families, parade around the streets of Alex and feel delighted with the clapping and ululation of their friends, neighbours, relatives and passersby, sharing their nuptial joy, while motorists conk their horns. It's common to see the bride and groom accompanied by a videographer walking along the Corniche, over Stanley Bridge, or round the Qaitbay Citadel area. "Wedding parties have become terribly expensive. On my wedding day, I had to pay a lot of money for the maa'zoun [marriage register] and the hairdresser, as well as my wedding dress and suit. I could never have afforded to hire a wedding hall," said Mohamed Abdel-Mohssen, a civil servant. "Instead, my wife and I went with our friends to a restaurant to eat koskosi. It was a lovely day and we thanked God for that.” However, if the groom is 'somehow' rich, he may invite his family out to a slap-up meal of fish and various meats, to the joy of the owner of the restaurant they go to. Another sort of street wedding is when the bride and his groom, escorted by family and friends, give a taxi driver a sum of money to take them on a tour of Alex's plush squares and streets. "On my wedding day, we paid LE100 to a cabbie to take us around Al-Montazah. We stopped in the park there and had a wonderful picnic. Everyone enjoyed themselves," says 26-year-old Menna Mohssen. Laila Abdel-Gawad did likewise on her wedding day. She and her husband, who are newly married, rented a taxi and spent the day driving round Al-Mamoura and Al-Montazah, while the people in the street applauded them heartily.
