Najat's Wedding, Day Three

The final day was much like the first two, only magnified in scale exponentially.
The part I liked best was sharing a taxi with 10 other women and two toddlers (not counting the driver), careening across town to the hall where the party was held, all of us in high spirits.
The hall was a big room with banks of floor-couches and cushions, with a big sort of a throne in a platform in the middle of one wall for the bride. Like the previous two days, we hung out, all wedged together, drinking tea, chewing qat and smoking waterpipe. Only this was the BIG party: I estimate between 500 and 600 women, all dressed in the most amazing sparkle-dresses. The band was there, bigger, with two drummers, a tambourine, and a lovely girl playing an oud (like a lute) and singing. There were pairs of women dancing all over the hall. Najat made a fairly brief appearance in a white dress, which explains why this was called the "European style" party. She looked very serious. A member of her family videoed her entrance and procession to her throne, and it was interesting to watch the women around her veil up as the camera moved through the hall, a wave of black that bloomed again into color as the camera got a safe distance away.
In all the three days of celebration I never once saw a man. I'm sure there's a groom in there somewhere, but it's a mystery to me.
I was pretty tired, and only stayed about three hours.