A Palestinian wedding is rarely one evening. At Wedded Wonderland, we follow the celebration in the order a family lives it, tracing each of the Palestinian wedding traditions to UNESCO, museum collections and published sources. We also show how to bring these customs to a wedding at home or abroad, and it sits within our guide to wedding traditions worth keeping.
Palestinian weddings do not happen in a single day. Ceremonies often run over several days, sometimes a week, and families in the diaspora have adapted some traditions and created new ones. That flexibility matters if you are planning one in Sydney, Melbourne or overseas: there is no single correct version, only the version your families recognise.
Palestinian families include Muslim and Christian households. Where a custom belongs to one faith, we say so. Where our sources do not tie a custom to either, we present it as shared.
The customs also overlap with those of neighbouring countries, so it helps to read them alongside Arab wedding traditions across the Levant. Here they are grouped in the order a family would live them: before the day, then the wedding and its celebration.
Much of a Palestinian wedding happens before the wedding day itself. This stage moves from the formal asking and the marriage contract to the henna night, the embroidered thobe and the groom’s shave. Families differ on timing, so use this order as a guide rather than a rule.
Everything begins with the tulbeh, the “asking”. The groom’s family visits the bride’s family to ask formally for her hand. It can happen at any point before the wedding, it is the essential first step, and it is rarely changed even in diaspora communities.
The asking is made by an elder of the groom’s family and answered by an elder, respected figure on the bride’s side. The word jaha is usually given to this visiting party: think of it as the groom’s family, led by an elder, rather than a hired go-between. It is a small ceremony at home, mainly with immediate family, and tea, coffee and traditional sweets are served.
It is often told that the coffee is only drunk once the bride’s family has said yes. Treat that as family lore rather than rule, and ask your own elders how they did it.
For Muslim families, the katb al-kitab is the signing of the Islamic marriage contract. When and how it is held, and who is present, varies from family to family, so it is worth discussing early with the imam or sheikh who will conduct it.
If you are marrying in Australia, ask your celebrant and imam how the religious contract and the Australian legal marriage fit together, and plan for both. For the wider Islamic framework, our guide to the nikah, mahr and walima explains each part.
The mahr is part of an Islamic marriage contract: the groom promises it as a commitment to provide his bride with wealth in her lifetime. The promise is made to the bride herself.
How the mahr is set is a private matter between families, and it is not a figure to compare between weddings, so we give no amounts here.
The henna gathering is described as a gathering for women, centred on the bride and her closest female friends and relatives. It may be held at the sahra or on its own day, it is sometimes now folded into a bridal shower, and the women sing traditional Arabic songs of joy and love.
The paste is prepared on a tray decorated with flowers, then applied to the bride’s hands, while the women decorate each other’s hands, arms and feet. Many families see henna as a connection with the earth and with joyous occasions, and some couples press henna into the doorframe of their new home for luck before they cross the threshold.
In 2024, UNESCO added “Henna: rituals, aesthetic and social practices” to its Representative List as a multinational element that includes the State of Palestine.
Tatreez is Palestinian embroidery, and the bride’s dress is where it reaches its height. In 2021, UNESCO inscribed the art of embroidery in Palestine on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, nominated by the State of Palestine.
UNESCO notes that every piece of a woman’s village dress, from long dress to headdress and veil, carried motifs such as birds, trees and flowers. On the main garment, the loose-fitting dress called a thob, the chest, sleeves and cuffs are embroidered, with vertical panels running down from the waist, worked in silk thread on wool, linen or cotton.
The choice of colours and designs indicated a woman’s regional identity and her marital and economic status. Each cluster of villages had its own style, with colours, stitches and patterns distinguishing one region from another. The earliest surviving needlework dates from the early 19th century and is broadly divided into two regional styles, Galilee and southern Palestine.
Individual motifs are a different matter. A Glasgow Museums curator notes that despite many attempts to give motifs symbolic meaning, the patterns generally had no special meanings, though embroiderers named them to tell them apart. So if a family thobe carries a particular pattern, ask the women who made or wore it what it means to them.
The wedding is where the most ornate embroidery is saved. A bride’s thobe may honour her hometown, can include coins, jewellery and lavish fabrics, and is often made by hand by women in the family, with work beginning months or years ahead. Village girls were taught to embroider their own garments by their mothers from about age six, and a woman’s first complete set of costumes would have been her wedding trousseau. Bridal dresses were then worn on ceremonial occasions throughout the marriage.
Embroidery itself is social. Women gather in each other’s homes, often with their daughters, and the skill passes from mother to daughter as well as through formal courses.
The groom is shaved in public, in front of the guests, by his family, while everyone cheers and sings. The idea is simple: he should look his best on the wedding day.
It happens during the sahra, an evening party for friends and family between the asking and the wedding day that runs into the early morning. The two families may hold it together or separately, with food, dancing and music. Timing can differ between families, so follow your own family’s memory.
The celebration brings the families and their guests together for the procession, the singing and the dancing. Here are the customs most guests remember, from the zaffeh and dabke to the shared feast, plus a note on church weddings. As elsewhere, each family keeps its own version.
The zaffeh is the wedding procession, and it has its own music. Wedding processionals (zeffat) are one of the song types Palestinian wedding singers are described as drawing on, alongside henna songs and dabke songs.
The zaffeh is often told with drums (tabl) and a reed pipe (mizmar) leading the way, and it is often told that the groom is lifted onto shoulders. Neither is a fixed rule. What every zaffeh needs is a route, which is the planning point most couples overlook.
Zaghareet are described as among the oldest Palestinian song forms, traditionally sung by women at weddings and other important occasions. In the usual description, one woman opens with a call and a short poem or a few rhyming words, then the women join in a long, trilling ululation; they take turns, and there is no clapping.
You will hear it at moments of arrival and joy. It is not a performance to book; it comes from the guests.
In 2023, UNESCO inscribed Dabkeh, traditional dance in Palestine on its Representative List. UNESCO describes it as a popular group dance accompanied by traditional wind instruments and popular singing, performed at festivals, celebrations and events such as weddings and graduations.
Dancers stand in a straight line or a semicircle, clasping hands and shoulders to show cohesion, and the steps involve jumping and striking the ground with the feet. UNESCO describes it as performed regardless of gender. It can be danced by professional groups or spontaneously in squares and family yards, and the folk lyrics, sung in local dialects, express feelings tied to the occasion, such as courage, strength and love. Young people learn it simply by joining in at celebrations and copying the adults.
The dance is shared across the region, from northern Syria to the south; in Lebanon it is called the national dance. If your families span both, our guide to Lebanese wedding traditions shows where the customs meet.
Palestinian weddings have their own distinctive music. Traditional songs are described as having a set rhythm rather than set lyrics: singers, usually family members or close friends, make up the words on the spot, so the lyrics differ from city to city.
The sahja is described as a wedding song form with clapping in rhythm, sung to the bride by women or to the groom by men. In that account, the men gather in two facing lines or around the groom, and a lead singer, often a talented singer or close relative, improvises a verse that the group repeats. It belongs to the wedding celebrations, and families place it at different moments.
Two other forms are often named. Ataaba is described as the most popular song type in Palestine, with weddings its main setting; the singer opens with a long “ooff”, and the four-line verse ends its first three lines on the same-sounding word with different meanings. Dal’ouna, with four lines of verse, is described as the sound of the dabke, sung by the dancers to the shubbabah flute, yarghoul or mijwiz.
Food runs through every stage, from the sweets served at the asking to the sahra, where food, dancing and music carry the night. The wedding meal is an act of hospitality: a shared table for a large family and everyone they love.
Which dishes are served, and which family hosts which meal, varies from household to household, so we do not list them as fixed custom. Ask both families early; it is usually where the most opinions live.
Palestinian Christian families marry in church, following the rites of their own church. The sources we used do not describe those rites for Palestinian families specifically, so we will not guess at them. Your priest or minister is the right guide to the service itself; the celebration that follows can carry any of the customs above.
First, the travel advice. As at 2 November 2026, Smartraveller advises Australians not to travel to Gaza and the West Bank (excluding Jerusalem), and to reconsider their need to travel to Jerusalem. So we do not suggest marrying in Palestine.
That leaves two directions. Many families celebrate at home in Australia, where the guest list is already close. Others travel further. As at 2 November 2026, Smartraveller’s overall advice for Jordan is “Exercise a high degree of caution”, and for the United Arab Emirates it is “Reconsider your need to travel”. Advice changes, so check it again before you book anything.
Wherever you marry, these customs ask specific things of a venue.
A separate henna night space. A smaller room or terrace for the bride’s closest women, with a table for the decorated henna tray and room to sing. Book it as its own evening, not a corner of the reception.
A sahra evening. If the groom’s shave happens there, ask for a chair, a mirror, hot water and good light near the dance area, and leave time before the music starts.
A route for the zaffeh. Agree where the procession forms, the path it takes and where the couple arrives, and walk it with the venue before the day.
A long, solid dance floor. Dabke is danced in a line, with jumping and stamping, so you need length and a firm surface rather than a small square in front of the band.
Live music and sound limits. Drums and wind instruments carry. Confirm the venue’s sound limit and finishing time before you book musicians, and plan for guests of every age joining in.
Care for older guests. Ask the venue about step-free access, seating near the dance floor, a quieter room and transfers between evenings.
Room in the run sheet. Songs are improvised by family and friends, so leave time for guest-led singing rather than a fixed playlist.
Catering for a shared feast. Brief the caterer on family-style service and the dishes your families expect, ask whether the kitchen can cater halal if your families need it, and taste the menu with an elder present.
Care for the thobe. If a family thobe is being made or adapted, start early, and arrange safe storage and steaming at the venue.
Ask each venue about its sound limits, floor size and finishing time before you shortlist it. Your Wedded Advisor agrees the fee in writing before any work begins and confirms inclusions in writing before you commit. If you would like help shaping these evenings into one plan, a Wedded Advisor can bring them together.
Here are quick answers to common questions about Palestinian weddings. Each one draws on the customs covered above.
A Palestinian wedding is rarely one evening, and every family carries it a little differently. At Wedded Wonderland, we believe the best version is the one your grandmothers would recognise. Whether you celebrate at home or abroad, ask your elders what each custom means to them. For more stories like this, explore the Wedded Wonderland magazine.
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