We recently had the opportunity to attend a wedding in Azerbaijan. My colleague Huseyn was getting married and he invited our whole office to attend the reception. We had heard lots about Azeri weddings from friends and were excited to see and experience one for ourselves.
The first thing we noticed was the abundance of food. It is the custom in Azerbaijan to treat your wedding guests to more food than they could possibly manage to consume.
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| Table laden with fruits, meats, vegetables, bread, and more! |
Additionally, weddings are a time for gourmet menu items not eaten on a regular basis. Although Baku used to be a haven for inexpensive caviar, it is now more of a luxury item. We were delighted to find two types of caviar on our table!
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| Jeremy's ready to dig into the caviar |
Towards the end of the meal, there was a special ceremony for the final dinner course: plov or rice pilaf. A signature dish of Azerbaijan, plov is often eaten on a regular basis in most Azerbaijani households, yet is also celebrated at special occasions such as weddings. A dancer processed slowly through the ballroom with the flaming plate of plov before presenting it to the new couple.
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| Dancer presenting the flaming plov |
Another primary feature of Azeri weddings is music. We had been warned that the music would be ear-splittingly loud and never-ending. While the music did go on all night, it was kept at a reasonable volume and was actually a lot of fun. There was a live band, complete with a classy saxophone player. At one point in the evening, there were even dueling saxophones!
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| Play it again sax man! |
And with music, there was of course wedding dancing. Everyone got on the dance floor and showed off their Azeri dance moves. And us Americans even got a shout-out from the MC for giving it our best - who knows if the crowd was grinning with us or at us!
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| The bride and groom perform an Azeri dance |
It was a fabulous evening all around. Thank you to Huseyn and Fidan for including us on their special day and best wishes for a long and happy marriage!
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| Jeremy and Erica enjoy the loving atmosphere of the evening |
