Sunday, June 27, 2010

Going to the Chapel...

We got to attend our first Guatemalan wedding recently and it was quite the marathon fiesta. An hour and a half civil ceremony was followed by an hour and a half religious ceremony which was followed by many, many hours of eating, speeches, dancing, and more eating.
The happy couple: Edwin (who works in the Salud y Paz clinic lab) and his beautiful bride Fabiola. The religious ceremony was actually pretty similar to the ones we're accustomed to in the States except they do this cool thing where they wrap the groom in the bride's veil.
Of 250+ people there were only 3 of us gringos. For the first time in my life I was the tallest person in the room (actually, our friend Heather is a little taller than me - OH, the injustice!)
Carey and I received a great honor from Edwin & Fabiola: they asked us to be the Padrinos del Pastel, meaning we bought the cake for the wedding. I told the Priest to refer to me as the Sugar Daddy, but he wouldn't go for it. Geez, talk about uptight. To any extent, it was a bigger deal than we expected b/c we processed in with the bride and groom and then sat by them throughout the ceremony. Here's one tradition I know most couples wish would fail to translate across cultures.
As Sugar Daddy & Mama we got to serve everyone cake. I saved a 1/2 pound piece for us then proceeded to go into a sugar-induced coma.
Congratulations Edwin & Fabiola!!
Peace,
Jay

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