Weddings in a War Zone

BAGHDAD, Iraq— -- On a day when there were six car bombs, two fatal mortar attacks and 27 bodies found around Baghdad, Wesam and Aroba Hadi got married.

Wesam is an engineer, and his new wife is a government employee.

Starting a new life in this supremely unstable city is an act of renegade optimism.

"You've got to believe in the future," Wesam Hadi said. "You gotta believe in it to get married. I love her, and she loves me."

The Hadis were one of 16 couples to get married Thursday at the Babylon Hotel in Baghdad. Thursday is wedding day here, the equivalent of a Friday night in the United States as weekends fall on Friday and Saturday in Iraq.

Before the war, weddings were often large, lavish affairs held at function halls, private homes or sometimes right out in the streets.

But these days, large groups are targets for attack, so weddings are quick and small.

"You gotta be careful," Hadi said. "You don't know what's going to happen."

At the Babylon Hotel on Thursday, we watched as a procession of wedding parties rolled through the venue.

They each followed the same pattern: A car decorated with flowers pulled up to the front of the hotel; the wedding party emerged; they danced, sang and kissed; and then the newly minted couple was escorted to their hotel room for their first night of marriage.

The celebrations were brief but boisterous. However, with military helicopters buzzing overhead, it was impossible to forget that this was all taking place in a war zone.

"Despite the fact of the troubles and bombs," said Hadi. "You have got to live, you have got to survive."