Ahh the times are tough aren’t they? And Romance? Who needs romance when you can finally get that 150 m2 apartment your impending wedding has been on hold for? And so what if you can’t afford to furnish it or heat it up during winter. Or what about that 700 invite Habtoor royal wedding you just couldn’t imagine affording? Thanks to this wedding package, the preposterous real estate prices in Lebanon are no longer the enemy so instead of moving in with their mothers’-in-law and kissing all prospects of a drama-free new beginning away, couples can now sell their souls and the souls of their future kids the devil. Yup, think 30 years of mortgage payments, unstable, ever-changing interest rates and did I forget, your life‘s worth of savings in a down payment just so you can say “I do” in style. So do you really wanna kiss that banker? Bisoux
Ivy’s Sweet Summer Pies
Ivy Loves Shankaboot!!
Beirut: Sex And The City Meets South Beach.
You seem to carry a lot of anger/resentment to banks. Not that I don’t share the feeling, but is there something you want to talk about Ivy ? 🙂
Wait until you see the open letter to Bank Audi I’m working on 🙂
I knew it.. One day you and I should sit around a cup of coffee and have a Bank-hatefest or something 😛 I got a lot of cool stories I’m sure you’d love.
Cheers !
Sometimes (read at least in 90%) you get the impression that Lebanese weddings aren’t anymore about two people celebrating the fact that they found in each other the person they want to spend the rest of their lives together and start a family. Instead its all about money and showing off. But this doesn’t only start with wedding preparations or real estate investment, it starts even before the two spouses to be are introduced, among the first questions asked (directly after which sect/ family does (s)he belong to) comes how much do you earn. And ehhmm hello? in your 20s you’re still in the beginning of your (hopefully successful) career, so please my fellow wanna be brides don’t reject a good guy just because he doesn’t yet earn at least as much as your daddy and can’t provide you with a nice villa in the mountains AND a posh and spacious apartment in Ras Beirut (for which, of course, you would need several maids)
And unfortunately, adds like this only enforce this kind of behavior, even worse, they help to ruin the couples future. Shouldn’t they save the money for something better, let’s say their kids’ education??
Ivy, thank you so much for your blog and your lovely posts, and helping me to believe that there are still some ‘normal’ people left in Lebanon who dont go along with this wedding craze 🙂
I wonder who ends up with the bill if/when a marriage fails….
Honestly though, this happens everywhere to some degree. In Canada, most people have a 25 year mortgage- debt up their ass (ye3ni sorry 3al language), we start working out of our mama’s tummies (16), we are expected to be everything we ever could dream of by 25-30, to save and be happy. This sounds elitist- to some degree it is but for the “average” middle-class Lebanese, its life to get a mortgage and blah blah- and same here. So its not just a Lebanese thing. We all suffer.
omg did you hear that commercial on the radio about the guy being bored and then some dude suggest he gets married… WTF!
This post reminds me of that 😛
also, Lebanese weddings are ugly. Lebanese brides forget about the marriage part they’re only focused on “THE WEDDING” and about being a princess… inno habibteh you do know that a marriage isn’t just about the wedding right? They spend SO much on the wedding (which still looks cheap, and too over the top for no reason) “ma fi zo2” sometimes comes to mind.. they forget about the cost of living after the wedding.
yea.. sorry for the rant. I don’t like weddings, at least what they’ve become 😛