A Real Wedding

I think it must be a cultural thing to invite people to other people’s wedding, because yet again I was invited to the wedding of people I did not know. I was in Cuiaba for approximately a week when I was invited to a wedding. I was reluctant to accept the invitation for several reasons. The most obvious being that I did not know the couple. Also, I didn’t have any clothes to wear because I had packed super light for this next leg of my journey. On top of that, I was having a hair crisis my hair had grown a lot since I last cut it and it had become unmanageable and I just didn’t want to have to deal with it. Another reason was the fact that the wedding was suppose to start at 7:30pm but given my experience with Brazilians I knew it would start much later. In spite of these reasons, the person who invited me was very persistent and reasoned that I should go to experience a real Brazilian wedding. She also tried to appease me by telling me we would just go to the ceremony. I decided to go.

On the day of the wedding it rained. This was not a good sign for several reasons besides supposedly superstitious one. Cuiaba was in the dry season, meaning it was not suppose to be raining period and also because it is the dry season, when it rains there is a sharp drop in the temperature. Cuiaba is one of the hottest places in Brazil with average temperatures 90-100 F or 37-42 C but that night the temperature dropped into the low 20’s C (60’s F). I did not have anything warm to wear. To say I was freezing was an understatement. On top of the cold climate, the church had the air conditioner on.

When I finally entered the church and was able to find a spot away from the AC and was able to get warm, I began to enjoy the wedding. As you can probably figure out I am very observant when it comes to colors and decoration. One thing that stood out was the fact that many of the guests were wearing black. I don’t know how I would feel if I was getting married and most of the guests showed up wearing black. I might be just a little superstitous.

So in the Brazilian wedding, there's no custom of having bridesmaids and groomsmen. Their equivalent is padrinos or godparents for the wedding. These godparents are usually in pairs and they enter the church as couples, one pair at a time. These pairs are most times married couples but not necessarily. So this wedding had 18 pairs of godparents. When all the guests were seated in the church each pair of godparents entered the church and was seated at the front of the church. You can just imagine how long that took and we had already started late.

After the padrinos entered the flower girls and mini-bride entered. Then before the bride entered a little boy entered the church ring a bell. He was so cute, he was basically tell us that the bride was coming. At that point the whole church stood to watch the bride enter the church. The bride was beautiful. The wedding dress was a typical wedding dresses. The bride, however, did not have anyone to give her away because he dad had died two years ago. One thing a learned about wedding dresses here in Brazil is that most brides nowadays don't buy a wedding dress they just rent them. Very cost effectice I might say.

~ The bell bearer anouncing the entrance of the bride ~

~ The beautiful bride ~

The ceremony was more or less similar to American wedding ceremonies. One thing that caught my attention was that there were two pastors officiating the service. One pastor preached and the other did the exchange of vows. Here in Brazil, the ceremony is separated in three parts. The ceremony off course started with prayer and then there is a sermon. After that the couple say their vows, this was done by the second pastor. After the vows, the ring bears, usually one but in this case two (nephews of the bride), entered the church and then the couple exchanged rings. After they exchanged rings they were pronounced man and wife and they kissed. That was very interesting how everything is separated in three parts rather than everything being together.

~ The two ring bearers enter after the vows ~

After that, a couple sang some songs for the new couple. It was a lovely service. At the end of the ceremony the padrinos each marched out, strangely though, before the bride and the groom. However, before they did, they each took pictures with the bride and groom. Just imagine how long it would take for 18 couples to take picture with the bride and groom. Yeah, that long times two. I don’t know if that was custom to take these pictures inside or whether it was because outside was cold.

Following the ceremony was the reception. So how the reception worked was very interesting. The reception was opened to anyone who wanted to go. The trick was if you went you would have to pay for your own meal. The bride and groom only provided the cake. I thought that was a good idea, very cost effective. I was curious to find out if this was tradition in Brazil because I had never heard of a wedding operating that way. I was told it was not customary. The thing is the bride and groom did not have the money for a reception and were just planning to have the ceremony but the family members and friends convinced them that have a reception with the guests paying for their own meal.

Even though it was cold and a bit long, I really enjoyed the wedding.