Paper trail celebrations: Egyptian weddings of the 50s 

On 14 April 1955, Sayyed Ali Effendi, head of the Nile Cotton Ginning Company, and Mahmoud Mohamed, the major cotton trader, invited the residents of Tamey region in Fayoum and Eastern Dayrout in Assiut to the three-day wedding ceremony of their son Ali and daughter Mahassen. People gathered in the pavilion Sayyed Effendi set up in his garden to enjoy food, drinks and a band. The bride and groom had their photos taken in a studio.

“Mahassen was wearing a medium-length white dress. A band with a singer, a dancer and six musicians performed. They were paid LE20 per day,” says Safy, the bride’s younger sister. “Those were times when LE1 could buy enough meat to feed the family for a whole week.”

Read more about middle class weddings in the last 50 years in Egypt here.