Wedding show highlights popular trends

The ongoing 2nd Abu Dhabi Wedding Show 2003 showcases the luxurious theme weddings commonly staged in the Emirates


Nature and Roman-styled weddings, exquisite wedding cards in large-sized gold-lined boxes, exclusive bridal gowns in unusual material, elaborate flower decorations, wedding planners on hire and more seem to be the dominant trends at weddings in the UAE today.

Browsing through the stalls put up at the ongoing 2nd Abu Dhabi Wedding Show 2003 at the Abu Dhabi International Exhibition Centre, it seemed that the exhibition was emphasising the "themed and larger-than-life weddings" so popular and common over here.

Says Hashim Al Marzouki, managing director of Las Flores, a Dubai-based first-time exhibitor involved in wedding stage decorations, "We just did a huge rainforest themed wedding where we converted the entire wedding hall into a rainforest. The entire hall was transformed including the carpet flooring, the stage, the table decorations into a rainforest and we also had special dancers and a UAE singer thrown in. It was a big project costing around Dh600,000."

Money is no bar here. Adam Zayyat, fashion designer of the well-known Adam Couture boutique in Abu Dhabi pointed out that one of the gowns he is unveiling at his fashion show on Friday will cost more than a million dirhams!

"The brides of today are looking for something different. They don't want simple cuts anymore," said Zayyat, who fuses delicate material like chantelle, ziberiline, embroidered tulle and organza among others, in his wedding gowns.

Zayyat, a specialist in bridal wear, is showing 53 gowns from his collection here. "I don't just design the gowns, I also organise the bride's hair, her henna night and other elements of the wedding because we work as a team for the bride."

Wedding planners are also slowly moving into the frame today. Said Haya Dabbagh, managing director of "I do weddings", a company which organises weddings from start to finish, "Wedding planners are still a new concept here. But, there's a need for them. I know of a bride who recreated her wedding after she had returned from her honeymoon because the video camera had missed out her entry into the wedding hall by three minutes. Wedding organisers can avoid such mistakes."

Haya Dabbagh who set up her business one-and-half years back added, "Wedding planners are seen as a luxury now, but we are a necessity today."

Themed weddings remain in fashion, although young brides want romance and candlelight-kind of weddings too, said Dabbagh. The themes vary dramatically - "I just did a wedding with Dubai city as the theme where we reproduced landmarks like Burj Al Arab," she said.

Representatives from Las Flores, a company in business for 21 years, emphasised that wedding themes are eclectic and varied - "we have demands for Roman style weddings or a replica of an English or Japanese garden or even a jungle all of them made in styrofoam".

Said Aksam Kaseem, graphic designer at Color Lines wedding cards which recently opened an outlet in Abu Dhabi, "We make conventional wedding cards with different designs; but we also do unusual and elaborate ones like a wedding card in a box. People always look for something different."

Around 20,000 marriages are held each year in the UAE, with more than 9,000 nationals taking their wedding vows every year according to statistics released by the organisers. The wedding season in the country usually lasts from January till April/May.

The very first evening of the wedding show saw a number of young starry-eyed national and expat girls moving from stall to stall, taking in a fashion show of bold gowns by Abu Dhabi-based fashion designer Nicolas Jebran. Their parents, meanwhile, religiously picked up brochures.

Along side Ikea, Jacques Dessange beauty salon and Yves Delorme, stalls have been erected by banks and channel providers too, prompting a comment from a national girl. "What's a bank and a TV channel provider got to do with weddings?" she asked. "This exhibition is way too basic and minimalistic."

"Where are the wedding caterers, tent companies and event coordinators at this show?" asked another visitor. However, the complaints were limited to a handful of visitors, with a majority of the crowd happy with the arrangements.

Gushed the stall bearers at Studio Khalidiya which specialises in taking photographs of weddings, "There's 75 per cent more people at this show than the previous time."