Just for a different perspective:
Arranged marriages are still common in Egypt among both Copts and Muslims, since the culture in general doesn't do western-style dating (for the Muslim majority, it's against the Shari'a/Islamic law; for the Coptic minority, it is seen as something that invites the couple to temptation...I probably don't need to say more about that). Even here in the United States, it is common that the arrangement involve both families as a whole, so that our children are encouraged to marry each other rather than to look outside of the communion (which incurs automatic excommunication of the Coptic half of the partnership, as per our church canons).
We had a deacon of marrying age in my old parish in NM whose parents had found a girl for him back in Egypt, even though he was in the USA getting his Ph.D. He traveled back home to meet her and spend some time with her, but ultimately it didn't work out for them after they met and the engagement did not proceed (poor guy; he really was quite nice, bright, etc.), but in a way I was happy to see that the tradition in this regard is not so inflexible as to force two people who don't actually like each other to marry just because the possible groom's parents thought she'd be a good fit. I don't know how/if that changes in the countryside, though (the young man in question was from Alexandria, so very cosmopolitan in outlook).
As for me, I refuse to get married until Peter Cook has the decency to come back to life so that he can officiate. Any day now...