"Inass" set the date for her daughter "Reema"s wedding on the 11th of July.That was one week after the final exams.The reason for choosing this date was to give time to the bridegroom to finish correcting his students' papers.

At the same time all the relatives had time to drive or fly over to Al-Khobar,where the wedding was to be held.The other reason was to make sure everybody could attend before they went away for their summer vacation.

  My neighbors and I decided to give Inass a hand with the final preparations for her daughter's wedding,seeing there was no time left before the final exams.Already her sisters in Riyadh and Jeddah were in charge of the tissue boxes and candy baskets which were to be decorated in white and gold crepe-paper, her cousins in Dammam,were in charge of the dishes used to present the pastries and nuts,and her other in-laws were in charge of the "tafaseer"*.

  We went to her house every day for ten days,from 8:30 in the morning to around 1:30 in the afternoon,glueguns and all. As usual ,I was the leader of the gang,I started to organize as soon as we got there ,telling each one what to do.Having already decided to use glue-flowers for the decorations,we proceeded in making them. There were 17 tables in the wedding-hall,so there had to be 17 bowls(each held a candle floating in water),which were to be decorated with the glue-flowers and some dried "baby's breath"*.We spent four days in making the glue-flowers which were 118 pink roses,plus about 220 tiny flowers used as fillers called"bouvardia"(bridesmaid).Of course we had to wait until they were completely dry,before we could color them(which wasn't too long,for we were having a couple of real hot humid days,)anyway they dried during the weekend! Now getting the right shade of pink was the real problem,because two of us insisted on a darker shade,the rest,I being one of them prefered  the lighter shade,and since I was the leader.I kind of got my way(don't I always,wicked me).The next day we were supposed to have them varnished,so I had to get  out of the way seeing that I have developed some sort of allergy from the varnish a few years back(when Inass first taught us how to make the glue flowers)..So I took the tiny flowers to the living-room and started putting the tiniest gold dot in the middle of each, the color-theme of the wedding was gold and white,the pink was to liven up the tables.

    On the day we had to start the actual flower-arranging,we found that "Inass" couldn't get the dried flowers ,so we I told  "Amira"( a friend and a relative of mine)to go downtown ,. to the flowershop to get us some fresh baby's breath and some green leaves that would dry 'pretty' ! Meanwhile we got the bowls set on the kitchen table ,we had  cut the excess length of from the wires of the flowers and we had our glue-guns ready.As soon as "Amira" arrived,we atarted to work.We made wreaths of the roses and and flowers and the leaves that she bought! When I tried to use the fresh baby'sbreath as a a filler

,I couldn't get the real  final look of the arrangement because I knew they would dry and look different,so I told the girls to call it quits for the day and start the next day,giving the baby'sbreath time to dry,it was already 12:00 noon anyway,and while "Inass" got some refreshments ready,we went to the living room to pray our afternoon prayer.

  The next day was supposed to be the last,and we had an extra helper that day,her name was "Iqbal",she was one of the funniest,I mean she could turn the worst situation into the most hilarious.

Now that day to their bad luck and mine,I was real cranky,for I couldn't sleep the previous night because of a spell of coughing ,which would go on for such a long time that it makes me stay awake all night.

    "Iqbal" and "Amira" were supposed to put the baby's breath into minute bunches and tape them together with the florist's tape .They were taking their time...talking together and cutting the flowers,when "Fatma" and I finished glueing the wreaths to the sides of the bowls.We had our glue-guns in hand the glue already melting,ready to put the fillers, we found some bunches ready to put the fillers, we found some bunches ready and put them in place,then when we reached out for some more,there were none , for our friends were engaged in a deep discussion about something or other and they were working so slow that I just screamed:"What's wrong with you,I mean we really have to finish this thing today,and look at you,as if you have nothing to do."Come on make it snappy,this glue is being wasted!!"They both started laughing and said;"Come on don't be so serious,we're supposed to be having fun around here!" But being of a very serious nature,especialy when it gets to getting work done,what they said really got me angry,so I unplugged the glue-guns and "Fatma" and I proceeded to bunch the flowers ourselves,and after a while everybody else got the message and stepped up the work,so we were able to go back to arranging and glueing.

  We had this other real funny friend,"Badria",who started to give me every single bunch she made in my hand,calling:"Here "abla" Widad,take this!"(abla is used here for older sister or teacher,it is originally a Turkish word meaning:older sister)and she kept working so fast,everybody had to keep up with her.So everytime "Badria" gave me a bunch,"Iqbal" (who can mimic our dialect so well,she being from the eastcoast,speaks in a different dialect than our hijazi dialect),woud call me saying:"Ya Widaad"with a nasal sound (typical of the dialect of the west parts of saudi arabia)exaggerating our dialect so much that everybody started laughing,and put us in a merry atmosphere back again.

Notes:

*baby'sbreath: really minute white flowers used in flower arrangements.

*tafaseer:  the old tradition in the hijaz region,for the older women to use during wedding parties,especially after supper,consisting of one mint candy ,one clove,a piece of cane sugar and apiece of chewing gum and something called "fofal"to to help digestion.All are put in a tiny parcal of "tulle"often tied with ribbon and a little fabric flower,or whatever,according to what's new..

*ya: is a letter of calling,when you want to call someone you add ya before the name,like o'  so-and-so!!