The wedding is over! The wedding is over! The wedding is over! Sorry, I’m just a little excited about that fact! This past week has been jam-packed with wedding preparations. Sam has put countless hours into painting wall decorations for the reception hall. She spent about 15 hours a day 3 days straight to complete the painting. I even got pulled into helping her. I do not claim to be a painter, but I was glad to be able to help her. Thursday night we didn’t finish painting until 2:30 a.m. We were going to spend the next day finishing up the decorations and setting up the hall, so Sam and I decided to pull an all-nighter. (Please don’t ask the reasoning behind that decision. After all, it was 2:30 in the morning!) We raided the fridge and pulled out the chocolate before crashing on my bed with a favorite T.V. series. By the end of the first episode, Sam was already snoring, but she did wake up and we watched another episode. But she didn’t last through that one either, so by 4:30, we were both asleep. We actually figured out last night, that we had literally spent 33 hours in each other’s company (with only bathroom breaks to divide up those hours).
Yesterday was filled with decorating. We set up shop at the Loeschers’ house and got the girls to work filling paper sconces with flowers and ferns. Sam and I then decorated a metal arch with palm branches and artificial flowers that we bought in the market in Bafoussam. And yes, I personally cut down one of those palm branches with a machete! Now, before you get any crazy ideas, understand that it was a very small palm tree, so I didn’t actually have to climb up into it or anything like that. J
After lunch, we headed over to the hall (the local high school’s gymnasium) to get as much decorating down as possible. Just before we headed over, we received news that threw quite a wrench into our plans—apparently another wedding party was scheduled in the hall on the same day. Our reception was to start at 3; theirs at 7. In other words, our reception would have to end by 6:00 so that we could tear down and let the next group get in. Despite all the obstacles we encountered setting up the hall, the crew (consisting of a few of the missionary ladies and the older girls) managed to finish decorating by 7:00.
Today was the wedding. At 8:00 the civil ceremony was to be held at the groom’s home, and the church ceremony was scheduled for 10:00. I wasn’t able to attend the civil ceremony, but I headed over to the church around 9:20, giving myself plenty of time to be ready to play before the wedding. Sam and I set up our violins by the keyboard, and tried to angle our chairs in the shade. And then we sat there … and sat … and sat. We finally started the prelude music around 10:30, and I think the wedding only started about an hour behind schedule. Unfortunately, due to a late start, we ended up sitting longer in the hot midday sun. I kept moving my chair closer to the building, trying to find shade, but I ended up with a royal sunburn. I’m definitely going to have an awful farmer’s tan!!
One great tradition at the weddings here in Africa is that of the wedding fabric. The bride and groom chose a particular fabric for the wedding guests to purchase and create their wedding from. Julianna and Richard picked a very bold print with a mixture of navy blue, red, and yellow. I wasn’t too sure of the fabric choice at first, but in the end, I really liked the fabric. It was so neat to look into the crowd and see different styles of dress in the same fabric. And the wedding fabric makes it very easy to see who is a guest of the wedding.
I have more tales to share—how Sam and I had to tear napkins into four pieces because we didn’t have anything to serve the cake on; how we ended up hiding behind the cake table to eat our food; how the emcee went from table to table urging the guests to finish the food in order to reuse their plates. But, I’m out of room, so those stories will have to wait for another time. Besides, who would really believe me?!
