Southern California has been chosen as the site for more than one Persian wedding. Orange, CA has seen its share of such weddings. This particular California city underlines the one element that appears at almost any Persian wedding. Orange, CA, in fact, contains an abundance of that one element. That element is fruit for the guests, with oranges being the most frequently used fruit.
Indeed, throughout the entire County of Orange, bridal advisers have found that Persians want to serve lots of fruit to their guests. They like to see bowls of fruit placed at every table during the wedding reception. The writer of this article was thankful for that fact on one Sunday morning during the summer of 1985.
On that morning one young Persian girl was marrying an American law student. This writer and her family had been invited to the wedding. Orange County was the site of that wedding, so the writer, who lived in Los Angeles, had spent the night at a friend's home in Lake Forest. In the morning the writer had to concentrate on both her own attire and the attire of her 2 and one-half year old son. She also tried, but failed to get her son to eat some breakfast.
It was not long until the writer's son found that he regretted his decision to forgo breakfast. He began to get hungry. Fortunately for the writer one bridal adviser, perhaps an Orange bridal adviser had come to her rescue. That adviser had arranged for a bowl of fruit to be placed at each table. The young son of this writer happily enjoyed one of the bananas from such a bowl.
That same wedding had another element that one finds at almost every Persian wedding. Orange, CA bands are no doubt familiar with this second element. Persian weddings normally contain lots of music and lots of dancing. At that Lake Forest wedding the bride had one objection to the video taping of the dancing guests. The video man, acting at the request of the photographer, used extra tape to include plenty of shots in which the camera had been focused on the photographer dancing with his wife.
Why had the bride allowed the photographer to bring his wife to the wedding? Orange County did not have another photographer who could give the bride and groom such a great price. The photographer and the bride had known each other in Iran; their fathers had traveled together to Saudi Arabia at one time.
The photographer had hoped to send to Iran a copy of that taped Lake Forest wedding. Orange County might have taken-in even more Persian immigrants if that tape had reached Iran. That tape had shown just how lovely Orange County is. But that tape was not sent to Iran, because the groom mentioned a non-Muslim religion.
Twenty one years after that wedding, Orange County finds itself the scene for more and more Persian weddings. Still the guests are sure to get lots of fruit. Still the guests enjoy plenty of dancing. And still the ruling government in Iran makes it impossible to consider sending a video tape on which someone has mentioned the same, non-Muslim religion.