The guests had arrived:
The Pipers - Galacian style - were ready:
One of the Grooms nephews was waiting to ring the bell to announce the Bride was about to arrive and get everyone into the chapel:
The bridesmaid was waiting to scatter her rose petals, getting very hot along with the rest of us:
And it was past 6pm and still we waited.
I knew that both the Groom and Bride were here and finally decided to go and find out what the delay was.
It transpired that the Bride had been unable to leave the table plans and had spent an hour sorting them out, so was running behind schedule, but no one knew what the delay now was about. So up the steep narrow stone steps I climbed and knocked on the door. As I entered I saw the Bride struggling to lace up the back of her Maid of Honours dress, and as she wasn’t doing it tight enough and the dress was having to be held up instead of it holding itself up. If this wedding was going to take place before midnight it was time to take over. So firstly making sure the Bride had all her finishing touches on I dismissed her to start making her way down the stairs, and began to lace up the Maid of Honours dress from the beginning, it wasn’t a quick task, but when it was finished at least it wasn’t going to fall down mid way through the ceremony! Finally everyone was ready, the bell was rung and the guests entered the cool of the chapel.
Then once they were all in and I had tried my first bit of public Spanish asking them all to please stand, the Groom entered with his mother as is the Spanish custom:
Followed shortly after by the Bridesmaid who could now scatter her petals and the Bride with her father; the Maid of Honour and Best Men along with other ’special’ guests had entered the chapel just before after the rest of the congregation was in place.
If the Bride hadn’t gone around telling everyone, no one would have known that the dress she was now wearing had been hanging up in a shop 24 hours before!
The service itself went smoothly, mostly in English but with a degree of Spanish and a smattering of French thrown in too.
Aunt E a member of St Mark’s congregation led the prayers in English and Spanish a touch which was greatly appreciated by the Grooms family who understood very little English. Aunt J another member of St Mark’s read in English the same reading that the Grooms mother read in Spanish and E yet another member of St Mark’s read a shortened version of the famous Corinthians reading, which was then read in Spanish by one of the Grooms cousins in Spanish. The couple kissed:
And we moved on to the Eucharist. I was surprised by the number of the Grooms family from this highly Roman Catholic area who happily received, although there was a bit of confusion over whether children were to receive a blessing or the bread. Then once more the bell was rung and everyone rushed outside so they could shower the happy couple with bird seed:
I was relieved, it was over, and I hadn’t totally messed up the bits in Spanish and French. Everyone seemed happy and even those who hadn’t fully understood what was going commented on how much they had enjoyed it all. We moved into the courtyard for drinks and appetizers. Smoked Salmon Spoons - done with cream cheese and a little caviar; Tuna Empanada - wonderfully fragrant; Shots of Melon with Ham Shavings - cool and refreshing these were my favourites; Seafood Croquettes - small and delicious; King Prawns Orly - which were pounced upon: and air dried ‘Iberico’ Ham carved in front of us:
The Bride gathered together all those females who were unmarried and then went up onto the balcony and threw her bouquet:
Then with 9pm having come and gone it was time to make our way into the Banqueting Hall for the dinner:
J, yet another member of St Mark’s who was present had made a cake, well two cakes this one and a full sized version of the one shown on the table here:
The menu was sublime Steamed Norway Lobsters - which I know as Langoustines; Grilled Turbot - which was served with potatoes and vegetables cooked with the juices; Lemon Sherbet; Sirloin Medallions in Red Wine Sauce; and Raspberry Mousse with Vanilla ice Cream on a Chocolate Shell. The Raspberry Mousse is the traditonal Spanish Wedding cake:
It was near midnight by the time the speeches came around, but as it is not the Spanish custom to have speeches at all they were very brief and then coffee and liqueurs were served before we moved downstairs for the rest of the party.
The wedding had been a wonderful mixture of the two traditions and cultures, which actually have much in common with this area of Spain having proud Celtic roots.
At just past 4am we finally got back to our hotel room and fell into bed!
