Winter Wedding

You know how there comes a moment in life when suddenly all your friends start getting married? There's usually always a year where you're invited to several weddings, some even on the same day.

With our french friends, that year was 2005... we attended a grand total of 7 weddings (including our own!)... all of them really nice events and some of them had us even travelling!

For our mexican friends, the Wedding Year is 2007. My friend Chryss got hitched in the summer and now my best friend Alba got married this saturday.

Now Alba and I met during our first year of college and we became inseperable almost immediately. I was the nerdy-obsessive one of the group, she was the audacious and loud one and we complemented each other perfectly. Together we got in all the school activites available: student body association, cheerleading squad, softball team, theater group, flamenco workshop, admissions office assistance AND still had time to party... oh yeah! and we also did manage to squeeze in some classes into our busy schedule. ;-)

On the first day of our sophomore year we went over to say hi to the basketball team and we met this tall (6 ft 6!) lanky guy named Carlos who'd just gotten transfered from another school. Alba and Carlos hit it off and pretty soon they were an item...... and 8 years later they are still an item and said their I Do's last night.

Their wedding was beautiful but I wouldn't have expected anything less from Alba.


They got married in her little town's church: El templo de Santo Toribio. I had never seen a church with so many long stemmed roses along the aisle and flower bouquets at the altar! When Carlos was waiting at the foot of the altar he looked so funny next to the short priest, you were almost afraid he might step on the poor man. Then the wedding march started to play (by a full chorus with violins and everything!) and Alba began walking down the isle on the arm of her dad.


The ceremony was a lovely one too. The priest made it elegant yet casual (just Alba's style) and everyone participated. Her aunt and uncle were padrinos de lazo (wedding goddfathers), her cousin was madrina de arras (monies godmother), her sister was madrina de ramo (bouquet godmother) and I was madrina de anillos (wedding bands godmother)!..... I've since googled what a madrina de anillos is and on what bases you pick them and I found that the padrinos de anillos are usually a couple that the bride and groom admire for having such a loving and successful mariage!! Wow! Hear that babe? See? I was right when I said we should never bicker in public! LOL.



After the ceremony we all stood outside the church waiting for the bride and groom to come out while they took pictures at the altar... when they walked out of the church as husband and wife they were greeted by a shower of white petals and super fireworks that were being lighted right there on the church's ground!!! .... Now I cannot describe how scary those things are when they pop.... all I can say is that the kids call these things volcanoes! Anyway... once the damn things pop in the sky I have to admit the firework displays are beautiful.....


From there we all drove to the reception. This was held in a Salon in Puebla so we all followed each other to get there.... in France when all the cars follow the bride and groom's car to the party site it is tradition to claxon your way there... André and I are very aware of this tradition because we live pretty close to city hall and every saturday we hear the cars claxoning their way down our avenue on a 30 minute schedule .... Anyway, I tried doing it for Alba's wedding hoping it would catch on but I quit after the guy in front of me stopped his car (in the middle of the highway!) and came to ask me if something was wrong with my car!!!

When we got the Salon Premier I was blown away but how beautiful they'd set up the place. Again, I don't know why I was surprised since this is Alba, but the place looked simply magnificent. There were 30 tables in total (!!!) and the theme color was burgundy red and white. All the tables had a burgundy tablecloth covered by a frilly sort of white tablecloth over it which made it look all so elegant. Alba had told me how she'd shun the centerpieces they usually suggest at these places and designed her own: Three circular vases in different sizes with a single white rose floating in water and small white pebbles at the bottom... this surounded by small little candles in mini glass vases.... The effect was stunning.



Dinner was served and their menu was quite impressive: entrée of crèpes à la princesse followed by a crema poblana con queso panela. The main dish was medallón de pollo en salsa de chipotle.... even my brother who doesn't eat chicken in any form or matter took a bite and had to admit it was delicious! Cake followed and even chilaquiles rojos around 2am!!!




They also had a live band that played for most part of the evening and kept most of the people on their feet. These guys were set up on a sort of second floor balcony from where they could see all the people dancing below and they would keep putting on these funny shows while dancing and singing, like dressing up as the YMCA guys or having a lot of Alba's friends come up to the balcony desguised like the Timbiriche pop group while singing a revival of their 80's hit songs.... it was really fun.


But undoubtly the best part of the party were all the traditional games:

La marcha del muerto: This is when all the men grab the groom and carry him lying on his back (kindda the way fans do to a rock star in a concert) around the room while they take of his shoes, give him the bride's bouquet and play the mourning song you play at funerals... it's a funny thing to watch but it's even more hilarious when you think of those poor guys lifting a 6.6ft tree trunk!

Aventar el ramo: This is the traditional throwing of the bouquet... except in Alba's case, she threw that thing so hard that it went way past the waiting demoiselles and landed in someone's soup!!! You had to be there.....

Aventar el avenir: I'd never seen this one. The avenir is actually the groom's coursage and he also throws it like the ramo only to the unmarried guys in the room. Luckily Carlos didn't throw that hard and the little thing landed in the hands of a 12 year old cousin..... hmmmmmmm.....

Vibora de la mar: This is when the bride and groom each stand up on a chair about 10 ft appart and they each hold to an end of the bride's veil. Then friends of the bride and the groom hold them tight at the legs while the rest of the invitees all form a long chain and dance around them while trying to throw down the groom. At one point Carlo's chair gave in so his friends continued to lift him so as he wouldn't fall... poor guys, I saw one the next day and his back was hurting really bad... I guess weddings can be hazardous if you're not careful!



Los Mariachis: This was the best part. At around 3am a full Mariachi came barging in the room singing and playing..... there is nothing like listening to a live mariachi... it is such a fun thing... by this time a lot of gentlemen in the party were already more than a little tipsy so they started asking the mariachis to play old songs from Pedro Infante or el Chente and take the mic to sing them themselves to the bride and groom... it's actually better than kariokee because the whole thing about mariachis is that this is the music men used to sing to their ladies when they were heartbroken or deliriously happy but in either cases drunk and this was exactly the case.... LOL


All in all this was one beautiful evening and Alba and Carlos looked so happy. I sincerely wish them the best in their new life together.


Fned.