(Todayszaman) The wedding of President Abdullah Gul's daughter Kubra, which was previously postponed due to the general elections and the illness of her father-in-law to-be, Abdullah Sar?mermer, is set to take place on the third day of Seker Bayram?, the holiday following Ramadan.
Gul will be a father-in-law for the first time when his 22-year-old daughter Kubra marries Mehmet Sar?mermer, the son of Gul's friend Abdullah Sar?mermer, the owner of Ozipek Rugs. The last phase in the planning of the wedding of Bilkent graduate Kubra and 29-year-old Bogazici University graduate Mehmet -- who were engaged in a modest ceremony in April of 2006 -- has began. The bride and groom's outfits have already been prepared for the wedding, to be held in Istanbul on Oct. 14; the bride's dress will be decorated with Ottoman motifs, and the groom is to wear a simple suit.
Abdullah Sar?mermer is known as a businessman with a large network of acquaintances in Istanbul, hence the wedding's taking place there. The wedding venue will be the Istanbul Gosteri Merkezi ( Show Center). Following the ceremony a presidential invitation to Cankaya Palace is also expected to be extended to the newlyweds.
July 22 was the original wedding date, but this date coincided with Turkey's snap national parliamentary elections. Due to this and the illness of the father of the groom, the ceremony was postponed.
Gul and Abdullah Sar?mermer were dormitory roommates at university and are also childhood friends. Due to their acquaintanceship, Gul had wanted to bring his companion into the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as a founder in 2001, but as the number of founders was slashed from 250 to 72, Sar?mermer was taken off the list.
Though he is actually a lawyer, the Sar?mermer senior entered the trade world and founded the Ozipek Rug Company in Kocaeli.