The bride wore ....

I haven't had the use of our camera for more than a week. Tom had to use it at work for a big project he was involved in. Besides that, the weather has been awful so I wouldn't really have had much of a chance to get out and take new photos, anyway. I would love to have a photo of a typical wedding shivaree that they have here. They have the bride in one car with several other women, the groom is in another car and they are driven from the ceremony to the bride's new home. It's difficult at first to figure out which car has the bride because any women who attend the wedding will wear their wedding dresses if they got married in the last year or so. Economical, huh?

Usually, the bride joins the household with her new mother-in-law. This is bad news for her on several fronts. The worst of it is that she becomes her mother-in-law's "slave"....literally. She has to perform all the chores in the house including laundry and cooking. If she is married to one of the younger brothers in the family she is really in for it, because in all likelihood the other brothers and their wives live in the household, too. She had just better hope that there is a younger brother to get married someday so she can get off the hook.

Anyway, here is a photo of a traditional Albanian wedding dress. The brides I have seen all wore gowns much more similar to what we see in western countries.

I'll get a photo one of these days of a wedding shivaree. Oh, another interesting deal ..... all the cars have towels stuck under the windshield wipers. I thought at first that they were gifts for the bridal couple, but it is the other way around. The bride gives the towels to the guests. Don't ask me.....I don't know, either. But at least it's something a guest can use ..... not like those little tissue bags of Jordan almonds you get at weddings in the States.