Most Arab weddings include a festive spectacle called al-zifāf. This is a bridal procession; the bride rides or walks away from her natal home, to the accompaniment of music and celebration, and journeys to the groom’s family’s house. Most Arabs regard the zifāf as a central part of the wedding. However, not all Arab weddings include it. In at least two Arab societies there is no bridal procession. Why? Materialist explanations of cultural variation usually invoke infrastructural factors. This approach leads us to expect that Bedouin, sedentary agriculturalists, and urban wage workers would have different kinds of weddings, since they depend on different modes of production. To test this hypothesis, I examine weddings in two Bedouin societies (the al-Dawāghirah Bedouin of northern Sinai and the Rashāyidah Bedouin of eastern Sudan), two rural societies (the town of Kufrinjah in northern Jordan and the Kawāḥilah villagers of central Sudan), and two urban societies (a neighborhood in Cairo and a neighborhood in Damascus). I show that weddings include the zifāf in four of these societies (al-Dawāghirah, Kufrinjah, Cairo, and Damascus), even though their economies differ considerably. In contrast, there is no zifāf among the Rashāyidah Bedouin and the Kawāḥilah agriculturalists. I argue that infrastructure is not the factor that determines whether or not the wedding includes a bridal procession. Instead, it is the society’s post-marital residence rule. In the societies where there is a zifāf, the bride comes to live with her husband’s family. When she arrives at the groom’s house during the wedding, she is a stranger. To consummate the marriage, she needs space inside the groom’s family’s house. The groom’s family offers her this space in a ritualized manner by taking part in the bridal procession. In the two societies where there is no zifāf, the post-marital residence rule is different. The wedding takes place near the bride’s family’s house and it is the groom who arrives as a stranger, not the bride. The newlyweds reside near the bride’s family for a long time after the marriage. Because the bride does not leave her natal home in these two cases, there is no need for a bridal procession. Cross-cultural comparison allows anthropologists to detect this kind variation in ritual performance and to test explanations of it. Other kinds of variation in Arab weddings exist but are barely noticed. Further comparisons will help reveal and explain them.