On Saturday 5th December we attended Henry and Carmens wedding in Cusco. Nohemy and I had to have our hair done in the morning because Ruben, her tenant hairdresser, had to go out in the afternoon - I wasted over two hours in there and hated the end result! Once we left the salon Nohemy was anxious to get to Cusco as she wanted to post the birthday present for her son in Switzerland. In Cusco we had a late lunch and then travelled by bus to deliver the wedding present to Henry´s home so that we would not be lumbered with it at the church. By the time we got back Nohemy had time to go to the post office and I was busy tonging my hair trying to create something reasonable, plus had to iron my clothes.
When it came time to leave for the church I had to go on ahead of them because Nohemy had to mend her outfit as a load of stitching had come undone on the skirt. I entered the church just as a mass was finishing and once the people left I made my way closer to the front, but when Henry and his mum arrived a bit later he said I had to sit in the front next to his mum. It was a beautiful wedding, and lasted about an hour with mass as well - and the bride and groom were right alongside me with the bridesmaids and pageboy and when the rings were exchanged I held Carmen´s wedding bouquet for her. It was just like any English church wedding with the bells ringing, organ music, stacks of flower arrangements everywhere, the bridal march etc and confetti thrown once outside. All the flower arrangements were pure white with greenery, with only the two arrangements each side in front of the alter having apricot coloured flowers to match the apricot roses in Carmens bouquet. Even the bridesmails were dressed in white satin dresses embroidered with silver flowers and sequins.
Then everyone piled into a load of taxis to make our way to the Sala de Exposition where the civil ceremony and reception took place. Once everyone had arrived the bride and groom had one dance together – a waltz - and then they each selected people for a dance, mainly the participants - witnesses, godparents etc and then soon after that the civil ceremony took place which didnt take long and I signed the wedding certificate as one of the witnesses. After this the bride and groom, godparents and witnesses stood in a receiving line in front of the principal table and all the guests proceeded to make their way along the line to shake hands or kiss cheeks and those carrying their wedding gifts handed them over at the same time. While all this was going on everyone was served a glass of champagne.
Then everyone was seated for the meal which was delicious roast pork, although I didnt eat the accompaniments - a kind of potato I dont like, maize and stuffed rocoto peppers (stuffed with beef!) - I really enjoyed the pork though. Before the meal everyone was given a pisco sour which was so beautifully chilled it was almost like an alcoholic ice cream, and with the meal jugs of coca cola and bottles of Whisky or Jamaican spiced rum were placed on the tables and these kept flowing all night along with ice buckets - drinks are normally served at room temperature here, even beer, so it was great to have iced drinks. After the meal the dancing began and didnt stop all night and everyone had a marvellous time and the music provided was absolutely brilliant – loads of Andean music but also some Salsa music. Nohemy and Alfredo did well to stay up until 4 am when we said our goodbyes and went home. In addition to all that booze, 40 cases of Cusquena beer were distributed (620 ml bottles) and around 2 am the parents of bride and groom each paid for another 30 cases. Although I love Cusquena beer I didnt drink mine, preferring to stay on the rum and coke. I didnt have too much, being really careful in that respect. The wedding cakes were 7 cakes linked by stairs and later on all of these were cut up and placed in boxes for the guests to take with them at the end. Back at the house we only had about 4 hours sleep before coming back to Urubamba so when we got there we went straight to bed and I didnt get up again until almost 5 pm. The photos I took will appear on my blog in January as I probably wont download to dvd until then. It really was a fantastic wedding with Henry and Carmen both circulating amongst the guests throughout
