Include a pop-up perfume counter at your wedding

UAE-based fragrance brand Lootah can customise scents for your wedding guests

Wedding guests are encouraged to try out the fragrances before entering. Courtesy Lootah

If you've lived in the UAE long enough, you will be aware of two important facts about the local culture. The first is that Emirati weddings are fabulously over-the-top, extravagant affairs. And the second is that fragrances play a pivotal role in societal relationships.

“The way that smell functions in the Middle East stresses communal ties – the recognition of individuals by their scent is a form of literacy, a way of reading each person,” says Omar Al Houli, co-founder of Kuwaiti-Saudi fragrance brand Odict.

It would make perfect sense, then, for scents to be given a spotlight at wedding celebrations in the region. Lootah, a brand known for its fine French and Oriental perfumes, oils and ouds, can arrange pop-up perfumery stations at weddings, where guests can experience the craft of fragrance-making.

Before entering the venue, guests can test out the scents by mixing different oils together on their skin in the reception area. While guests aren't able to take the fragrances home with them, hosts can arrange for special Lootah incense sticks to be distributed as giveaways as guests leave.

The starting price for the Lootah Perfumery Station service is Dh8,000.

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Read more:

• Meet the young Arab perfumers creating their own unique, Middle East-inspired scents
• Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent calls oud 'a real gift' to perfumery 
• Deconstructing: Chanel No.5

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