Wedding Paparazzi

CONGRATULATIONS to Mr. and Mrs. Dante Niz!!! The wedding was so pretty last night. The bride was gorgeous!!! It was a blessing to have both Dante and Rebeca as the first couple to marry.

We headed off to Tarariras at 8:15am with the bride, and her family, for the civil wedding. Here in Uruguay everyone has to have a civil wedding and can also opt to have a church ceremony. I would say it's the equivalent of the justice of the peace in the States. The civil wedding is the official ceremony recognized by the government. So after this Dante and Rebeca were technically husband and wife.

We went from the civil ceremony to get the red rug runner. This is a tradition that is similar to ours in the States, only we use a white runner. Then from there we went and had spent some time with Dante's family while we waited for the Florist to open. Once we had all the flowers we headed back to Colonia.I don't want to bore you with all the running around we had to do. Let's just say I have a new rule...no decorating the day of the wedding. Too much is going on that day to add decorating, no matter how simple.

Everyone was to the church on time, except for the bride and groom. When they were about 10 mins late we started calling. At 30 minutes we were worried! I still don't know what all happened. Finally, an hour late, we got the wedding started.

Scott and Dante walked down the aisle side by side. I believe this is a tradition too, but I'm not sure if it's Uruguayan or Peruvian. Brandon escorted Amparo. Nehemiah was the Bible Bearer. Simeon the Ring Bearer. And Kaitlin played the piano for the specials.

One thing that was hard for me was the movement within the church once the wedding started. There were people everywhere with cameras they walked up the side aisles while the bride and her escort walked up the center. Then they were all standing at the front. Some even went up onto the platform during the ceremony. It was like a crowd of paparazzi. I don't know if all weddings are like this here, or if I didn't do a good job in communicating. But, to me, the wedding lacked the reverent feeling I've experienced in the States when everyone is seated and quiet. And the only person taking pictures is the paid photgrapher.

The ceremony itself was very nice. Scott really did great with his part in everything and it had a very smooth flow. Both Rebeca and Dante had portions of Scripture from Ruth memorized that they said to eachother as part of their vows. The music was very nice.

I honestly don't remember much about the reception because that was when I hit a brick wall of exhaustion. I couldn't comprehend most of what was said to me in English and Spanish was a bunch of sounds. We did have the big tent up for the reception and it was a very simple elegant. They cut the cake, but didn't serve it to eachother. They also did a toast, with Manzanita (Apple Soda). Then they took pictures with their families and all the other photos they wanted in front of the cake.