La Boda (The Wedding)

The seating was crowded and Cameron was near the front, so Bethie gave him the camera and told him to take as many pictures as he could.  He did.  Below are 22 photos from the wedding.

First, I should mention a few details.  Like, whose wedding was it?  Julio is the son of Ivonne.  Ivonne is the best friend of Bethie’s mother.  Ivonne also is the owner/operator of the local literature ministry, La Jornada Espiritual.

Julio is tall.  Very tall.  He seems like a giant.  He’s a gentle giant.  Julio took on a car wash business a couple months ago.  He is working hard at it.  He doesn’t make much doing it, but hopefully he’ll be able to provide for his new family through it.  He loves to play basketball.  You might notice his wedding shoes were a brand new pair of size 15 high tops.  He has a terrible time finding size 15 anythings.  I can’t find size 11 shoes here so I know he has a tough time locating size 15!  Of course, I imagine it was practical to buy shoes he can actually use after the wedding!

His bride is Talia.  She’s from Puebla and now she’s from San Juan del Rio.  I really don’t know anything more about her.

Most Saturdays I work with Jason from around 5 p.m. to 9 to 10 p.m. doing translation work for a church in Iowa that needs their sermons translated for their Spanish-speakers on Sunday mornings.  With a translation project lined up for today, I didn’t get to attend the wedding.  If you know me, this was not a great sorrow.  Weddings and dressing up aren’t my favorite things to do.

This wedding was slated for 1 p.m. so I knew there would be no way I could attend and still get the translation work done.  I was correct.  It started promptly at 3 p.m. when the bride and groom arrived with their families.  It promptly began with some formalities and then a one-hour sermon.  At 4:15 p.m. the recognizable parts of the ceremony began and somewhere around 5:30 p.m. is when I think it sort of moved toward the meal.  The cake showed up around 7 p.m. as I recall Bethie telling me.  Beth, the boys and Beth’s mom probably left a little early and got home around 8 p.m.  Seven and a half hours for a wedding sounds about right for Mexico.

If I come up with some more necessary details, anecdotes to share, or corrections to make, I’ll post them later.

However, without further delay…

drum roll please…

I present to you…

….a Mexican wedding through the camera lens of a twelve-year old boy:

This is the part where the bride is escorted onto the scene by her dad.

This is the part where…oh…it’s still the part with the dad and the bride entering the scene.

 This is the part where the dad reluctantly brings his daughter to the groom with a few solemn words and sharp looks with piercing eyes that could divide asunder body and soul.  The groom acknowledges that his life is on the line and nods to indicate that he understands the seriousness of marriage.

This is the part where the groom and the bride settle in for a long couple hours of wedding service.  They look good, the flowers are still in good shape, and smiles are still beaming despite the chairs which aren’t too uncomfortable yet, but they will become weary friends in a couple of hours (the chairs, that is).

 This is the part where the 12 year-old boy is having trouble focusing…on the ceremony.

This is the part where someone is praying while the couple stands and hold hands and tries to remember what comes next. 

This is the part of the ceremony where someone brings a rope called a lasso and throws it around the couple and then hog ties them and takes them for a ride in the back of a dusty pick-up truck.  Ha-ha…no, actually, this is the part where a double-lasso is placed around the couple in a symbolic gesture of both unity and of a sort of visible reminder to the groom that he ain’t getting out of this marriage…ever. 

(and that’s the way it’s supposed to be)

 This is the part where the groom realizes what the lasso really means.

 This is the part where the bride and groom take a break from the chairs and pray a lovely prayer for each other while practicing the appropriate posture for dealing with future marital “discussions.”  The groom is really the only one who needs to learn this posture, but the bride is a good sport and goes along with this for now.  An already-married friend of Julio’s shows him how this is done without pillows.

 This is the part where the groom claims he’s looking for the bride’s lost contact lens.  (oh wait…that was last week)  This is now the part where the groom and the bride demonstrate a party game involving a toothpick (mysteriously lost) and a life-saver.

 This is the part where someone points out that they don’t think there ever was a toothpick or a life-saver.

This is the part where after 3 hours of sitting on metal chairs, the bride claims she is unable to walk and describes the sensation in her feet as “feeling like pins and needles.”  The groom thinks she’s kidding, but he’s willing to carry her as long as it leads to the meal, the cake, and another round of “toothpick and life-saver relay.”

 This is the part where delicious carnitas, rice, and beans show up to provide sustenance for the rest of the ceremony until the cake should arrive.

This is the part where everyone poses with the bride and groom for a photo so as to remember their lives at this great event in which they spent a measurable portion of it together.

This is the part where my 9 year-old boy exults in the joys of boyhood and of a concluding wedding.  (it’s genetic, I guess)

This is the part where Cameron takes a photo of a couple of chicks at the wedding.

 This is the part where Cameron takes a photo of a lovely young couple…we once gave them their wedding rings (seriously!).  There are a few different elements to a Mexican wedding.  The “padrinos de los anillos” purchase and give the couple their rings and present them during the ceremony.  We were honored to have that part in this couple’s wedding a couple years ago.  Glad to see they’re still smiling!

This is the part where the groom presents his bride to his mother.  We’re not allowed to show you any frames taken after this shot while the police investigation continues.  Ha-ha…no, I’m sure they all get along well and Julio and Talia will be a great blessing to Ivonne.

 This is the part where a bunch of little kids think they’re going to get the first piece of cake.

This is the part where a bunch of little kids (and adults) re-think that idea and wonder if the cake will still be worth tasting.  There is now a sort of rush to be the person who gets his or her piece of cake near the end of the cake distribution process…from the other side of the cake.

This is the part where the bride and groom claim they found a life-saver in the cake and are going for another relay round…again without toothpicks.

This is the part where the bride is unsure of whether she has just found a piece of a coconut life-saver or Julio’s missing dental implant.

Well, there you have it.  Just the way it happened…more or less.  Since I wasn’t there I took the liberty of guessing at what was happening.  I suppose you’ve been to enough weddings to figure it out, but just in case you have any doubts, I’m sure my comments are pretty close to accurate.  At any rate, I imagine by this point the groom is thinking this marriage thing is a slam-dunk…and he’s got the shoes to prove it.

Congratulations to Julio and Talia…may God bless your marriage with laughter and much joy!

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