Saudi bridegrooms who can not afford staging their wedding concerts have their problem solved through a newly-launched centre that will finance such parties and get back the funds in monthly payments.
Abeer Hassan said she had just opened a wedding funding centre in the western town of Madina with the aim of helping Saudi men meet soaring wedding expenses and encourage them to marry Saudi women.
“I started by organizing wedding parties for low-income people in return for relatively low prices…the idea then developed into a project to finance weddings and let bridegrooms pay back in monthly installments,” she said.
Quoted by the Saudi Sharq newspaper, Abeer said her project followed reports that wedding costs have sharply risen over the past few years and that Saudis are turning to foreign spouses. One study estimated there are around 1.5 million spinsters in the Gulf Kingdom and they could rise to four million after four years.
“The studies showed that the main reason for this high number of spinster is that many Saudi men are turning to foreign wives because of high wedding costs and dowries (money paid by bridegrooms to their brides),” Abeer said.
“The exaggeration in dowries and wedding costs has prompted me to think of such a project, which is the first in Saudi Arabia.”
Abeer said her project would also fund wedding involving foreigners, adding that one condition stipulates the party must not include more than 300 guests.