05 August 2017
In Perú many people don’t marry as it is expensive and they
are just too poor to meet the cultural expectations of the ceremony. This also gives rise to the problem of
un-commitment in a relationship and there are many mixed families as a
result. But when these Peruvian’s become
Christians, this invariably changes as there is a realisation from God’s Word
(the bible) that they must marry.
This happened in our church, as a lovely couple William and
Karina (with their daughter of 5 years) decide to get married. In fact this couple were the ones who came to
our house with our Perú pastors and their family just a three months before,
and introduced us to the Peruvian Chicharrón meal with lunch at our house on 18
May (see my previous blog post if you missed that http://welchesinperu.blogspot.com.br/2017/08/a-chicharron-lunch-at-our-house.html).
Following is a photo montage of the wedding with comments on
each. There were obvious similarities,
but also some differences to a classic Australian wedding which were really
nice for us to experience.
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| Guests arrive at the wedding in all modes of transport – in the foreground a couple come in formal dress on a motorbike with the lady in “side saddle” (and no helmets which is common in Curahuasi!). Our family are further down the road except I was stopped with the car by the construction sand pile across the road (also common in Curahuasi). |
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| A local open sports stadium was hired for the ceremony which was also where they have the reception. |
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| Here are our family happily waiting – the start was delayed by about 1 hour (but this can happen in Australia too I know!) |
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| Motocross bikes were the theme and an array of these were set either side of the isle. Here the groomsman William makes some last minute repairs whilst waiting for his bride to arrive. |
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| And whilst waiting the music played on… where here our Jessica (3) just can’t help herself but to launch into dance (a natural budding ballerina). |
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| William – the man of the day. |
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| Sandi with Stacey (who woke in time for the bride to arrive ☺). |
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| The bride arrives and the bridal party enters. Differences to the normal Australian wedding – they dance all the way down the isle – twisting and turning, swapping sides. The bridesmaids hold a bible each. |
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| The ceremony is of course our Perú pastor Tomas (motocross bike ready for a quick escape! 😉)). |
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| After the ceremony, the party accolades the newlyweds with a bible on one side and a rose on the other. |
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| Now the newlyweds really do make an exit on William’s motocross bike – off to take photos on the hilltop overlooking Curahuasi. |
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| Pastor Tomas “at the helm”. |
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| A custom was to take group shots in a held photo frame. Albeit our family did not quite fit (and Jake and Jessica were to be found elsewhere in that moment, as the whole process took some time to cycle through all the guests). |
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| The bridesmaids and groomsmen. |
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| The newlyweds return from photos and walk down the isle together. |
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| Time for a fun bridal party photo (fortunately William left his helmet off 😉). |
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| One of the last stages was the gift giving – here a point of difference is that all the guests personally present their gifts to the bride and groom. This was a lovely social process we thought, as it meant every guest got a word with the couple of the moment. |
This was followed by a served dinner of meat and potatoes
served on paper plates. Hands only to
eat this! It was lovely food and not a
scrap was left as everyone seemed to bring a doggy bag for the occasion.
The ceremony officially started at 2pm and finished at about
6:30pm. It was such a lovely day with
many twists of difference to Australian ceremonies which we appreciated.
Regards,
Chris
Ooh! This is so interesting! I believe my fiancé would like to have cars all around for his wedding day as well. He is crazy about cars. We have booked one of the beautiful outdoor wedding venues and I am thinking of arranging cars around it.
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