'Tis the Season to get Married

Like ice cream, there is a season for weddings. Though I have only been to two weddings this summer, and hopefully no more, there have been a countless amount occuring.
Peace corps staff tried to prepare us for these bled weddings by organizing a mock wedding for us during training. So I should have expected what came my way on that first wedding that i attended right? Oho! I knew that these affairs ran pretty late, but i didnt realize I would be eating dinner at midnight and going to bed at 4am while the party was still going on in full swing. I expected more variety in food, but alas they serve the same thing at every special occasion. We were fed the same thing that is given at a funneral or sadaqa: a couple rounds of really sugary tea, a course of sheep meat in all its juices with a sprinkling of olives, and fianlly a giant dish of couscous topped with chickpeas and a chunk of sheep meat. As many of you know I am still a vegetarian, and luckily I have managed to skip the sheep meat without too much argument.
Ok, so after we have eaten until we can't anymore, we go outside and mingle...with only those of the same sex, of course. This is also some that our mock wedding didnt prepare me for; the separation of the sexes. Men eat their meal in one room while women eat theirs in another. The same applies with dancing; girls and women dance together while men keep to their side and dance ensemble there. The only room where i saw the mixing of sexes was in the room where the bride was kept for the majority of the celebration. They built her a quasi throne and people would go in and see her, but she didnt come out until after dinner to do the ritual wedding day practices. While she changed, before making her appearance, the crowd enjoyed the hired ahaydus group.
The bride is carried out piggy back style and is completely veiled. We never see her face during the ritual practices. After this is done, she is carried back inside in the same manner. At this point the other band (with many loud speakers) begins to play the traditional berber music (which many of us have grown quite tired of) and the crowd goes wild. So thats a bled wedding, well in my region anyways.