Like their Arab and North African neighbors, the Egyptians share many similar wedding customs, which are also dictated by their individual religious beliefs. It has been claimed the symbolism of the wedding ring, as a perfect circle, is said to date back to Ancient Egypt. Wedding rings represent a union as being ‘without beginning, without end’. Today in contemporary weddings around the world, wedding rings are exchanged as a visible symbol of that eternal promise.
Once a match is made and agreed upon by the couple’s families, the man proposes formally. A Muslim couple would have a small intimate ceremony usually with only the family present; on that day the bride sits on one side next to the father and the groom is seated on the other. The groom puts his hand on the bride’s father’s hand and they read the ‘Fatha,’ which is the first Surah in the Qur’an.