Welcome Dinner

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Wedding Day

Ceremony

Camp Al Koutban 

Reception

We’ve postponed our wedding date due to immigration complications. Aissa’s file has been in with IRCC for almost 2 years now with no movement. IRCC currently has a backlog of 2 million applicants for permanent residency. We hope there will be changes soon.

Our Wedding

In September of 2023, I flew to Morocco for a vacation with my mom.  Our tour guide’s name was Aissa - he drove us all across Morocco for 9 days.  He was funny and goofy, and a really great driver.  The irony is he wasn’t even supposed to be our tour guide - but I got mad at him on the phone before we even met, about mixing our hotels around and confusing us when we were exhausted as we had just landed and messing around our first day plans. After that, he made the executive decision to take us in his car for the tour instead of shoving us into the bus we were supposed to be on, with 16 loud New Yorkers from Brooklyn, with an entirely different driver. He told me this only months later, that he wasn’t actually meant to be our guide, we weren’t supposed to even have a private tour, he did this so we wouldn’t get more angry. 🤣   One night at the riad in Marrakech Aissa and I shared tea and snacks with the hotel worker, Bachir, and we were consistently amazed while we showed each other animals on Google images that didn’t exist in each other’s wildly different countries. (Imagine never seeing a squirrel?) We had each other on WhatsApp, and when I went back home to Ottawa, we still chatted everyday.

Short video calls to say hi turned into 1-2 hour calls everyday, talking about everything under the sun, money, culture, religion, friendships, boundaries, travel, food, struggling between our mutual language difficulties (and finding French as our middle ground) but always patient with each other, and then eventually meeting all of his friends and family via video call and getting an invite to his sister’s upcoming wedding.

This then turned into me booking another flight to Morocco in November of 2023, for the following January to attend his sister’s wedding.  In January of 2024 I flew back to Morocco alone and scared, wondering if I was crazy, but Aissa was waiting for me at the airport, and promptly took us to a cafe for breakfast, and then later to a market in Marrakech to buy fresh vegetables and cooked me an incredible vegetarian dinner.

The next day we met some of his family friends for breakfast and we drove south to his family’s village - Mhamid El Ghizlane and stayed in Mahjoub Camp for 4 nights during the wedding ceremony of his sister, followed by camping under the stars of Erg Chegaga at Camp Al Koutban.  We spent 9 days adventuring through the desert, the mountains and the ocean. When it was my time to fly back this time, we both weren’t ready for me to leave.

I returned again in May 2024, where we explored the Atlantic coast, went fishing on a local fishing boat (Aissa’s first time ever fishing) we drove through argan forests, desert gorges and hung out with mountain goats. Aissa got pulled over by the Moroccan police because I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt properly (under my arm). I asked him to bring me to the ultra touristy restaurants which he rolled his eyes at, but obliged.

Since that first trip, I’ve returned to Morocco again and again, and we travelled together to Tunisia for vacation in October of 2024 where we faced some interesting hurdles, a new culture, and a lot of adventures together.

We have shared birthdays, milestones, illnesses, dramas, arguments, road trips, travels, getting our tiny rental car stuck in an off road mountain in Tunisia with no cell service, setbacks, tears, and wins over WhatsApp video calls for years, and with each passing day I somehow have more admiration for his character. Aissa embodies patience, humility, kindness, confidence, integrity, and peace with everything he does. We are finally ready to make a home together as a couple.   We hope you’ll join us for our ceremony. ❤️

Our Story

Photos

Kelli Rusaw

Emma DeKemp

Steph Gaudette

Wedding Party

Q + A

The wedding ceremony will be hosted at Camp Al Koutban in Erg Chegaga. This location is a 2 hour off road desert drive from Aissa’s home village of Mhamid. It is wild and beautiful, and very private One of Aissa’s best friends, Yahya, owns the camp. Yahya’s brother owns another camp a few dunes over that is more “luxurious” that is also an option for those who prefer 5 star accommodations.

Camp Al Koutban

Important links:   Documents including your route pdfs, tour map, darija language guide, culture and customs document, and Morocco city info guide included below  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CiyQiyTowyG_Uww2K9icjbgGgyL87Nuu

Travel

Aissa has organized a very special price per couple if you want to do a 7 day, 6 night desert and ocean tour from the wedding. 1050 euro per couple, or 525 euro per person. This cost includes zero profit. This includes all hotels, all breakfasts and select dinners, as well as a dedicated tour guide driver and transportation along all the different cities. It continues in from the wedding for 3 more nights to Taroudante, Taznakht (famous city for handmade carpets), Agadir, Taghazout Bay (a modern young and hip surf town), Imsouane, Timalaline Dunes, Essaouira and back to Marrakech.

Desert And Ocean Tour

If you just want to do the loop from Marrakech to the wedding and then back to Marrakech, we will help with transport costs and the costs you assume will be hotel room stays and your meals on travel days. (The wedding food on the welcome dinner and wedding night is covered by Amanda and Aissa) 4 days, 3 nights. Leave Marrakech monday morning, return to Marrakech Thursday evening. 770 euro per couple or 385 euro per person

Just The Loop 

Want to build a custom tour? Aissa will set you up with a custom tour that includes anything you want as well as getting you to the wedding ceremony. The regular price for a tour is 150 euro per person per day, but Aissa is helping with the cost of the transportation, making it 100 euro per person per day for a custom tour. This includes private transport in a vehicle with a private driver, hotels, breakfast and select dinners (in remote locations only). If you choose to do guided city tours in Fes and Marrakech these will also be included.

Amanda & Aissa

Amanda & Aissa

Things to Do

Desert And Ocean Tour

Just The Loop

Custom Tour