BY YASIN ABU TAQIU
Doha: As ever-increasing wedding costs are making it difficult for expatriates to get married in Qatar, they are going back to their countries to tie the knot.
The cost of a marriage ceremony in Qatar has gone up sharply in the past few years.
In 2006, mid-range hotels were charging about QR30 for one guest. Eight years later, charges have gone up 10-fold, with hotels asking for about QR300 for one guest, citing inflation.
“When I got married in a hotel, I was charged QR30 for each guest for a plate of food and other services. Today, a couple is supposed to pay QR300 for each guest,” said Abu Sarah, an Indian who got married in 2005.
A moderate expatriate wedding, with around 200 guests, cost around QR6,000 in 2006. Now if an expat wants to have his wedding ceremony with the same number of guests, he will have to shell out QR60,000 or more, said an attendant of a hotel. She added that service charges and sales tax are not part of the ceremony costs.
In addition, couples wanting to tie the knot are required to pay at least QR10,000 in advance as a non-refundable deposit to wedding planners. The planners do not refund the advance if organisers cancel a wedding ceremony. And the remaining amount must be paid within two weeks before the event, if everything goes according to the plan.
However, marriage costs go up further if a person chooses to have the ceremony in a five-star hotel.
Mohammed Al Arabi, an Egyptian expatriate, said his cousin had to spend about QR60,000 on his marriage in a five-star hotel in Doha in 2009.
And Al Arabi spent about QR150,000 last year when he booked the same hotel for his marriage.
“Initially, my budget was about QR100,000 with all expenses, including wedding dresses, dowry and jewellery. But I was shocked to learn that QR100,000 was the charge for hotel services only. I had almost decided to cancel the ceremony.
“Then I enquired with other hotels but the quotes were almost similar with only a few pluses or minuses. It was only with the help of my office colleagues, family members and friends that we managed to host the ceremony,” he added.
Al Arabi is one of the expatriates who have lived almost all their lives in Qatar. His family moved to Doha in 1992 when he was 10. His wife, a distant relative, was born and brought up in Doha. The two have more ties with Qatar than Egypt and could not think of any other place other than Doha to get married despite the high costs.
Fareed Rehman, an expatriate who recently got married here, said expatriates incur less expenses on weddings compared to Qataris, but the expenses are still higher vis-a-vis their limited income.
He said he had to spend about QR18,000 on one reception in a hotel. He hosted two, one for male guests and the other for female guests which doubled his expenses.
He said even video shoot and photography were being offered in the range of QR8,000 to QR10,000.
Rehman said there are also hidden costs, such as flying in family members like parents from his country and accommodating them in a hotel in addition to expenses on jewellery and wedding dresses for the couple.
Nikkah or the Islamic marriage contract is the only service offered for free, according to Rehman.
For Muslims expatriates, nikkah is conducted by an Islamic elite. The wedding contract is often signed in the court by the groom and the bride’s father or his representative. There should be two witnesses.
The couple had to pay for two separate medical tests before nikkah and obtained results from two hospitals — Al Emadi and Al Ahli. Each test cost about QR1,200.
For the Christians, there is a resident Chaplain and a resident Roman Catholic Priest in Qatar to conduct marriages at their religious complex in Mesaimeer.
But most marriage contracts of expatriates are signed at their embassies or consulates as civil marriages.
The embassies charge between QR150 and QR600 for the service.
The Indian embassy, for example, charges QR185 for a contract. A small fee, but there are fewer expatriates turning up at the embassy to formalise their weddings.
According to Sasikumar, Second Secretary at the Indian embassy, about 22 to 30 people visit the embassy for civil marriage contracts every year.
The Philippine embassy, however, conducts a large number of civil marriages.
Ambassador Crescente C Relacion said the embassy completes about 28 to 30 civil marriages every month or about 360 a year.
He said most marriages are conducted in May and June. The embassy will formalise a marriage only if the bride and the groom are Filipinos. If one partner is of a different nationality, the embassy will not have the jurisdiction to conduct the wedding. It charges QR540 for a civil marriage contract.
Expatriates who go to their embassies to formalise their marriages also need to host big parties in hotels or small parties in their homes but the costs often discourage them from doing it.
Though high wedding costs is a problem, expensive marriages are popular among the status-conscious Qataris. And perhaps that is why the government is exerting efforts to make marriages affordable for its citizens.
It is building five wedding halls that are supposed to be used for free by Qataris. The marriage complex on Al Rafa Road spreads over an area of 260,000sqm and will have five halls, each with a capacity to host 500 guests.
In addition, there are about a dozen wedding halls which can cost between QR30,000 and QR150,000 for a ceremony.
The government is also creating awareness among citizens about the need to opt for moderate weddings and smaller dowries to ensure the sustainability of the institution of marriage.
Besides high wedding costs, there are other factors that deter expatriates from tying the knot in Qatar.
One is the high costs of a married life. The living costs like renting a family apartment or school fees for their children are much higher than the income of most expatriates.
Current rules require earning a salary of over QR10,000 for anyone to sponsor their spouses which have also made it difficult for expatriates to get married or lead a married life in Qatar.
Also, there are some companies in Qatar that have restricted their employees from getting married here.
Lizzie Wanyonyi, a Kenyan resident working for a civil aviation company, said her employer required them to stay single for at least the first three years of service.
After three years, an employee is supposed to seek permission to get married and even that is not easy to get.
“Many of my friends went back to Africa and got married because they were not allowed by the company to get married in Qatar,” she said.
“They also missed out on the benefits given to married people for two years until the company approved their status as married,” she added
The Peninsula
