Matrimony Mexican style

Last saturday we were honoured to be invited to a very special event. A Mexican wedding .

We have been lucky to get to know Liliana and Nelson  along with Dr Tony through  the Planned Pethood Clinic in Merida which seems to have been  our second home for the past 2 1/2 years ( time flies when your having fun ?!! ) since coming to Mexico with two old border collies and a cat in tow.

Apart from the fact that in my book they are the best vets EVER they are also the nicest, most caring , lovely people and it is a pleasure to call them friends. So as you can imagine we were very excited to get an invitation to their nuptials.

Nelson and Liliana

Lets start at the beginning because even the invitation was unique in so much as it came with a gift as I guess must be some kind of tradition here.

In the background is our gift, an apron embroidered with both their initials and the cute comic wedding couple.

The invitation said 9 pm .............. yes , 9 pm and that was the actual ceremony not the" shindig" afterwards . That as you can guess came much later.
We arrived at the church a tad early not wanting to be late of course, after all we are British and we still do try to cling on to the vestiges of timeliness although if we stayed here much longer I'm sure that would soon decline. It was quite a novelty in many respects, being early, as we were coming with Jonna and Mimi whose timeliness leaves  much to the imagination at the best of times but hey they came through this time ....

Although, having arrived early we then discovered that the previous wedding was running late..... best laid plans of mice and men?? Go figure. The ceremony started eventually at 9.30.

General guests milling

Bridesmaids milling.

Janet and Stephen milling.

In Mexico there are traditionally two weddings. The civil and the religious. Only the civil is recognised and usually takes place in a government building and performed in private. The religious event is a ceremonial event and has no legal effect. Strange but true huh?

Liliana and her dad.

I thought the ceremony was to be honest going to be a quite staid occasion... you know lots of incense throwing and boring monologues..... but it wasn't in the least it was a very joyful and quite interactive. Mind you it could have been full of boring monologues for all I know, after all it was all in Spanish . But honestly it felt very uplifting.

It looked to me like there were hammock hooks on the church wall too so maybe they are more laid back than I think.






This is a tradition involving a large rosary draped over the heads of the bride and groom to symbolise eternity and unity. The rosary is called a Lazo.

The bride then offers her bouquet of flowers to the Virgin Mary to bless the marraige.

The priest then drinks copious amounts of wine, sharing none and handing out bits of broken crackers to whoever wants a snack to put them on until the real festivites begin. Some people were seen chewing on the crackers upon their return from the altar much to one of my friend's dismay ( who shall be nameless ) who noticed and said that her mother would turn in her grave  to see people chewing on Christ.... you can't chew on Christ she said. Thank goodness she didn't tell me that at the time as it was a real chuckle moment. Not being religious Mimi I don't know these things... oops!



It really is a family affair and both sets of parents join in to bless he newly weds . They could of course just  have been having a little chin wag who knows .... Spanish I say it's all in Spanish how the heck do I know what was going on?



While all this was going on the bridesmaid were wandering around the aisles  handing something out of a  baskets to all the ladies . The  'something' turned out to be pretty little boxes full of confetti. Cute idea.

The confetti girl

 

Close up of the confetti box.

                






The confetti was, as is tradition everywhere I guess thrown outside the church but for us almost in the dark because as soon as everyone got outside all the light went out.
 I guess by now the priest had had a few.... could be weddings could be drinks of the old sacred wine but  I dare say he was tired and wanted to get home after all it was gone 10.30 p.m.

So now onto the soiree..............

The soiree.

The cake.

It was a beautiful setting outside in the balmy night air ( perfect temperature, did I say perfect? guess I did ) The tables were all lit from underneath..... lights not candles...well you never know here?

Enter the bride and groom.

There was a video camera man and spotlight following them around all night, although by this time it was early morning remember. They had their photos taken with everyone in the room and they never stopped moving all night.

Then the band started and never stopped all night not even to draw breath or so it seemed and it was salsa type music, very loud ( Mexicans can't do anything quietly ) and very long. I love salsa but this was non stop salsa.

The bride and groom were never off the dance floor....  Modern 'takes' on time honoured traditions being regularly performed throughout the celebrations. As in the following......

The celebratory garter waving after retrieval from the leg of the bride.

The bouquet throwing. Once thrown the ladies form a conga line and dance through the veiled arch.

Then it's the guys turn to stand on the chair while the men form a conga line .

They then have to conga under the tequila bottle while the groom pours a shot to each person. The line goes around and around until theres no one left who can take any more or the tequila runs out.















Finally the groom is removed to somewhere away from the party and the bride has to sit in the centre of the room while the men strip the groom and bring the clothes to her, piece by piece. She then has to go and dress her husband.......lots of cheering  and if she is too long the band cheekily inform everyone that maybe they are taking time out for some hanky panky . Hanky panky an often used Spanish phrase.

And the party went on and on into the wee small hours

There were glowing wrist bands, balloons and masks. The jollifications never waned , that is they hadn't faltered when we left at around 2 p.m. anyway.

Good luck to Nelson and Liliana it was a wonderful experience to be part of and we will see you soon no doubt at the vets??

As we are on the matrimonial anecdotes. Last December we were invited to our lawyers  grand office opening. Our lawyers are two young people, both  qualified lawyers trying to start a full time business. The office is a converted room at his mothers. Guillermo  is full time and Alejandra teaches English part time and law part time at present.

Unbeknown to Alejandra he was also going to propose. It was lovely watching them get up to thank everyone for coming , only when they had finished Guillermo continued...... it was lovely to watch as the penny began to drop  for the surprised Alejandra. Maybe their favourite song being played in the background started the cogs turning.

                

Good luck Alejandra and Guillermo.