The Wedding

I had the honor of being invited to the wedding of Princy and Joicy by Jobi Joy who is one of my co-workers. Princy is Jobi's sister.

Click on the image below to get a detailed pic of the invite:

 

There are 3 parts to the wedding. The engagement ceremony, the wedding ceremony, and the reception. This was an arranged marriage which is normal in this part of the world, and it includes things like dowry's and  matching couples by religion, by status, by education, and etc... I asked a lot of "what if..." type questions, but I'm not going to explore the answers here...it's way to complicated.

The engagement ceremony is held at the brides church. If the bride is from a small village, invitations are given to everyone in the village from the family of the bride. The invitations must be delivered in person. This means the excuse, "Your invitation must have gotten lost in the mail." no longer works. Like any small towns, anywhere in the world,  where everyone knows everybody, not inviting someone means you must not like them. The opposite side is that if you are invited, you better have a really good excuse why you can't make at least the reception. Some excuses not to use are, "My cousins brothers dog died.", "My favorite television show is on during that time.", or "I really didn't like the food at your last wedding."

Here is the engagement reception area with a family pic:

 

I found it interesting that lots of people attended the engagement reception and the wedding reception, but there were a lot less people at the ceremonies. This may have something to do with the free food given out at receptions.

 

This is a traditional style meal on a banana leaf...I like to call it "The banana leaf buffet".

 

The Wedding happened a week after the engagement ceremony. The benefit of an arranged marriage is that there isn't enough time between the engagement and the wedding for the bride or groom to call it off. Other parents who have had to spend money during a 6 -12month engagements, only to have the wedding called off, probably are thinking this arranged marriage isn't such a bad thing. I will
mention that shotgun weddings are also good for a parents pocket book due to a high level of certainty.

 

The wedding ceremony was maybe 2 hours. This could be another reason there are not as many people at the wedding ceremony. It was long, but it was also nice, and you really got the feeling that something important and spiritual was happening.

 

Once the ceremony was completed, it was time for the other family members to show their support.

 

Her e is a nice shot of the new couple outside the church.

 

After a two hour ceremony if hymns and
exaltations, people were getting hungry. The reception was at another church.

 

It seems there should be a rule that anyone who goes to the wedding should be the first to get fed, but that didn't seem to be the case, as there were a number of people there when I arrived. I think free food brings out the worst in all of us.

 

There were two waves of people, and each filled the entire reception area...hundreds of people...maybe up to 1,000 people. I wondered how many people were coming off the street for a fee meal.

The reception area for the bride and groom was very nice. They were King and Queen for a day.

 

They lit a lamp together. I was told the significance of this, but I have forgotten. This is what the comments section is for by the way.

 

Then they did a traditional cutting of the cake.

 

Here are the family members getting into the picture - pardon the pun.

 

Now the Wedding ceremony may have been over 2 hours long, but that doesn't mean you have to sit through it to get an idea of what it was like. Here is a quick video to show you what was happening.

Wedding Video

 

It was a great experience, and I would like to thank Jobi for inviting to all the events. I had a great time, and I did see most of my co-workers, mostly at the free food events, but we all wish the new couple happiness and harmony in their new lives together.