A Wedding

Goodmorning to you all. I hope that it is a lovely day in Canada today. The sun is shining beautifully here, and I highly doubt that it will rain today, but you never know. I wanted to tell you about my adventures yesterday. In the morning we went to the International church(this one speaks only English, so it's nice to go to) and then Graça and I went out for lunch afterwards. We went to a food court in a nearby mall and it was packed. And when I say packed, I mean literally people were waiting near tables for the people to leave so they could sit down afterwards. It was crazy. After that we came home and just relaxed for the afternoon. Finally Andréa came home from visiting her boyfriend, and then we went to see if any salons were open so she could get her hair straightened for the wedding. There weren't any, but one salon said they would do it for her even though they were closed! I thought that was very nice of them. The person that did her hair was a guy from the south of Brasil who told me that before I go home to Canada I have to get my hair done very Brasilian. He wants to streak my hair with bright red streaks!! I don't think that is very Brasilian, and I really don't want to do it. I probably will have to get a trim before I come home, but I'm not letting them dye it red!!
Then we came home, got dressed, and we got there just in time to see them write in the registry and exchange rings. The bride and groom are not religious apparently, so they had their wedding at this club, and were married by a justice of the peace. It's a really nice club, though. It's shaped like an Auca Indian hut, but it's really big. And inside there is a really open space in the middle with gravel and grass and stepping stones to get to the buffet table. The buffet table was very different. The food was placed inside these really big ceramic pots, made to look like they were cooked over a fire. And the whole inside of the club has straw roof like a hut would have. The eating area is in a big circle surrounding this middle area and buffet table. I liked it alot, because it was very open and believable! Very nice! So the wedding started at 8PM. After the ceremony, the bride and groom got pictures taken outside, and then came in and had pictures taken inside with their cake, as well as with family members. Apparently the bride's family is very rich, so they even had proffessional photographers with the lights and apparatus' you have in a photo studio. It was pretty shadowy in the club, though, and you would want your wedding photos to turn out! After all those pictures, they had a little bit of dancing(apparently it was music that they dance to on the beaches in Bahia, very lively) and finally dinner was served at 10:30PM. It was very good...they had of course, rice and beans, mashed potatoes with vegetables, grilled fish, beef, vegetables, these little mini pie things with sundried tomatoes and cheese, some weird cheese sauce thingy with hot peppers in it, which I didn't take because I want to use the inside of my mouth in the future! They had some more stuff, but I can't remember. Then after that we got to have some of the little truffles they had for dessert, plus ice cream, plus cake. Man alive, they do want to make me fat here!!! I got to say congratulations to the bride and groom. The bride went to the states to live when Andréa did, so she speaks English too. More dancing after that, and all the girls dance in high heels so my feet were absolutely killing me. But it was so much fun. Then we decided to go home at midnight because Andréa has to work this morning. We did take some pictures of us in our dresses, by the torches surrounding the hut/club. It was so cool. So that was fun, my first Brasilian wedding ever. Apparently here, everyone has a different wedding ceremony, so you never know what to expect. It's not like in Canada, where almost every wedding is in a church, then go to a hall for the reception. And most often, there is only a small amount of guests invited, only family really and some close friends. So, like this wedding, it's very small. Graça told me that most often if a guest is invited to bring a friend, they bring their girlfriend or boyfriend. Andréa could have invited her boyfriend, but I'm so happy she invited me! It was so much fun! The only thing was, I guess that the bride doesn't drink hardly ever, but last night she was drinking alot, and she was getting quite drunk. When it came time for her to throw her bouquet, she kept teasing us and when we'd count to three, she wouldn't even throw it. She drew that out for like 15 minutes, and I was thinking," why would you get drunk at your own wedding?" But finally she did throw it, and when we looked over at the boyfriend of the girl who caught it, he had has head in his hands and was covering his eyes! It was so funny.
Well, that's all I have for today. This afternoon I'm going to be at the English school again and I don't know what's on for tonight, but I'll keep you posted. Take care!
Love, Ash :)