Melissa Gets Married in Egypt!

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Well, it's done...I'm married! And wow, what a process you have to go through here in Egypt to get it done.
It all started last Monday, when my then fiance and I went to the Canadian Embassy to fill out an affadavit. Good thing he came with me, because it had to be done in English and Arabic. This seemingly simple form had a couple of misleading parts to it, but we filled it in as best we could. After handing it in to a rather rude Canadian lady at the counter, we went off to have lunch.
Today, we decided to pick up the affadavit (which takes about 2 days to process anyway), and see if we could at least get to the stage of getting the marriage contract drawn up. So, we picked up the affadavit (the same lady as the other day was there, but she seemed much friendlier today), and then we asked the Egyptian doorman about where to go next (the instructions from the Canadian embassy are not totally accurate). He told us, and off we went to Mohandissen to get the affadavit legalized.
We drove into Mohandissen and the taxi dropped us off at this strange place. There was a little shack-type building with windows and people (men's line and women's line) waiting at two of the windows. I called my friend Kala (also married to an Egyptian) if this was really the place, because it didn't look very official. She told me that this was the place. There was a little yelling when Ahmed was told he couldn't wait with me in line (I mean, I don't speak Arabic, so how will this get done???), but I got in line, and just gave the man the paper, and then it was passed to another man and I moved to another window, where I paid a mere 11 LE and then it was passed to a third window where I picked it up (it was stamped).
So, then we were off to the Ministry of Justice downtown. We climbed up to the 4th floor (elevator was too crowded), and were met with a crowd of people. We pushed our way through to an office and handed in the stamped affadavit to the man, who also took my passport and Ahmed's ID card. Then we were sent out again into the sea of people. We wondered why so many people were here to get married; why weren't they at a mosque or somewhere else? There were a few other foreign women like me there, too. After waiting for like 2 hours, we started to get worried; we found out that on Thursdays, the office closes at 1 pm! We paid off a couple people in the office, and eventually we got in to continue the process.
The next bit is a blur...we went to one office, where the man started to fill in the contract. Then we went to another room where we paid some money to get the contract drawn up. Then we went back to the man we saw when we first arrived where, much to our surprise, we would be signing the contract TODAY! Unfortunately, we had no witnesses as we weren't expecting this to happen today. I got upset because everyone Ahmed asked didn't want to sign as witnesses ("What kind of country is this? No one helps anyone else" I thought). Eventually, Ahmed found 2 men to sign for us, we both signed, and, well...we were married.
We have to pick up the contract in one week, and then we have what we need to travel together and to do whatever else we want. This is certainly not how I wanted my "wedding day" to be, but now I am Ahmed's wife and he is my husband, which I guess is all that matters in the end.
Bye for now!!!!!

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Comments

[Reborn]

:)
Interesting blog :)

[G.A. Oliva]

You go girl!
I wish to get married to my Bolivian girlfriend in ubekistan, wish me luck. Oh, and you rock because your marriage was on ancient soil and you are not from the land, your marriage is blessed.

[donna]

BIG HELP
Melisa i have just read about you getting married i am soon to be getting married in egypt to lovley man. And i thank you for putting this on the internet now i know a little of what to expect its very different than england. Thank you again

[amina]

Hi
Yes, I went thru the exact same thing just two weeks ago. A few days later we had some pics taken .

[lesley]

hi milissa i got married to in egypt
hi milissa i got married myself there last week in the justice office the same as yourself the stuff we needed to go through but i must say it was well worth it now i was only there for just one week my husband is picking up our marriage cert today im back home now miss him terrible going back to see him in 6 weeks i didnt expect our wedding day to be this way but when he comes here to ireland we are going to marry in the church here so good luck to you and congrats feel free to email me anytime for a chat lesley bye

[KARON]

de ja vue
Wow Melissa thats exactly how it is..... I could of been writing it (only I'm British) ha what a fiasco. Hope your still married and everything is still as wonderful as it was in those heady days of falling in love with a Egyptian. I.ve been married three years and am still blissfully happy just applied for a visa to get him to UK so fingers crossed.

[sherina]

OMG!!
OMG!! I'm sooooooo glad i saw this page, i'm also getting married to an egyptian man in December and didn't know what to expect but reading this has been a slap in the face! I though it would be like it is at home(UK) when you do it in a registry office, a private intimate affair. I'm knocked now as to what the hell to wear as i cant now turn up in a traditional dress with all of that hussle 'n' bussle going on! I cant stop laughing this is just too much!

[anonymous]

awe congrats! i just wanted to say thanks cos me and my fiance are getting married today in egypt and this helped alot!!!!(hes egyptian and im canadaian)

[Jessica]

Great Information
Melissa, Thank you so much for all of that wonderful information that really helped me out a lot. For some reason or the other I though that the process wouldn't have been that complicated but, boy was I wrong. Thanks girl!! I hope to be married to my wonderful fiance by the summertime. Wish me luck!!!