A Wedding to Remember: Enlace Iván y Noelia

This wedding was by far the best wedding I have ever been to. The fun actually didn´t start on the wedding day, but the night before the wedding. I was in the computer room around maybe 11ish and I was pretty tired, so I was getting ready to go to bed soon. But then I heard some loud voices and it didn´t seem like it was coming from the tv or the radio. And then I heard some commotion in the living room and so I came out to see what was going on and everyone was looking outside, which was where the loud voices were coming from. When I looked out the window, it was Iván, my hermana Noelia´s fiance, singing to her, which a big group of their friends and her family. There were guys playing guitar and everyone was singing. Iván was even wearing a cape haha. He also had a huge bouquet of flowers for her. They also set up a small canon of fireworks that just shoot out sparklers. It was sooo cute. She couldn´t believe it and she kept saying "the neighbors the neighbors!" because it was late haha. When they were done singing, they all came upstairs to our apartment! Right then, my madre and my aunt-in-law, went right into party mode. They moved the table and pulled it out to make it bigger, put tablecloths down and cookies out. When the whole group came upstairs, they were still singing and playing their guitars. And they brought tons of food too! By this time, it was around 11:30 and the party was just getting started. Noelia was just so surprised. People stayed til after 12 and then we cleaned everything up.

Then came the wedding day!! I got ready and showered at Amy´s apartment, which is the next door down, so that I wouldn´t be in the way. I heard people up before 7 and hair and makeup people were coming at 8:30, and the wedding started at 12. So I got out of that chaos pretty quick. When I finally came back, Noelia had her dress on and was in the living room taking pictures. She looked so beautiful with everything put together. And don´t worry, I will get my pictures up as soon as I can. When we got to the church, we sat in the middle section, and thanks to my crazy mom and her brainwashing...I mean...great parenting, I made sure I got an aisle seat so that I could try to get the best pictures (and I was in the second row mom. Thanks for making me a picture freak too). The church was really beautiful. Simply decorated too. And to the right, there was a section where people sit if they want to sing. There was a projector that put up pictures of them and lyrics to songs. There were also guitar players. All of the songs were great. They talked about how the party is here and sharing love and songs about praising God. During the ceremony, her brothers and one of her brother´s wife (who helped a lot during the wedding) read selections from the Bible. Also, the minister talked about their love story, and some of the younger family members came out with cartoon pictures that illustrated what he said. It was so cute, and then he talked about what brought them together and what they have in common, and each kid flipped their heart paper and some of them said music or God and things like that. And then when 2 people started singing, we heard a lot of little kid voices singing too, and in walked the class of students that she teaches, all holding paper hearts. That´s when Noelia started crying because she was so surprised and happy that they were all there. Then some of them said a little blurb about love. And I hate to admit this because my mom is gonna hate me but....I didn´t get a picture of the kiss. But it wasn´t my fault!! I had my camera up and everything and they did a super quick one! You would have been really mad mom, and had them re-do it later haha. They also had their first communion together as a married couple and everyone else did it too...except for the 3 American girls that stuck out like sore thumbs haha. The last thing they did was sign their marriage license. Then the craziness started...PICTURES. It was a mad house. There were so many people, and the photographer didn´t really organize them. He just kinda had them get close and then snapped it...maybe you shouldn´t read this part mom, because you might go crazy. But like some people had their coats on and some people weren´t paying attention, or they were too far back in the line up so you couldn´t really see their face that well. It was definitely different from our photo sessions. Once the pictures were done, we all went outside and threw rice at the novios. Now it´s time to party!

The reception was at a restaurant right on the sea. There was glass, so you could see the water and the castle too. We all started with appetizers and drinks. There were too butchers cutting a leg of a pig, and that meat is called jamón serano, which is just a salty ham, but I don´t like the taste. There´s actually a leg of a pig just hanging out in my kitchen. I will take a picture of it to show you guys what I´m talking about. The apetizers were soooo good. I sat at a table with my 2 hermanos and their wives, one of the wives´ mom and a cousin and his wife...I think. The photographer was going around to each table and taking pictures of the couples and I felt left out because I know I´m not a real part of the family, I am for the time being. So after all the couples got their pictures taken, my one hermano, "Francie", asked the photographer to take a picture of him and I and that made me really happy. He actually comes to our house every day for lunch. So that made me feel better. The food was good but it was really different. I tried everything and I kinda liked it, but it´s just tricky have a couple different tastes and flavors in your mouth. With most of it, I would eat half. Francie kept hounding me because he said I wasn´t eating anything, and I kept telling him that I eat, I just don´t like salad or the taste of something. I ate all of the main meal though, which looked like a pork fajita or somethng. The dessert was really good too. They didn´t cut a cake though. Instead, they had a chocolate fountain which was sooo good. While we were eating, if we wanted the novios to kiss, everyone would start chanting "que se bese" which means that they kiss. And then they would count how many seconds they would kiss for and everyone would be oooing and awwwing and shouting. They would also scream "Viva los novios" or "Viva el novio" or "Viva la novia" and they all mean long live the couple, groom or bride. Also, the people at my table were crazy. They associated my name with Hollywood, and they wanted to know what the words Holly and wood meant in spanish, so I just said that holly is like a little tree and wood is like the trunk of the tree. And then the joke was that they were going to go to Hollywood and stuff. Oh and like every other Spaniard, when they asked me where I was from and I said Pennsylvania they said "Oh!! Like Dracula!!" and I´m like noooo, that´s Transylvania, and they were like oooooh hahahha. And I was like yeah....haha. Also, like every wedding, there was a creeper that like us American girls and he even asked for a picture with me, like I was an American novelty or something. But I don´t even look that foreign but whatever...haha.

Then the party really started...DANCING! And let me tell you, the Spaniards in my familia are crazzzzzy. Everyone was dancing. My other brother even brought my great grandma out on the dance floor. It was so cute. She looked like she was having a lot of fun. All of the guys were doing a bunch of crazy dance moves with each other and it was hilarious to watch. Like one of them would be doing something one way, and another would do it the other direction. They would also dance really close to each other like right up against each other and in each other´s faces haha. It was actually really funny. Even my padres were dancing. I danced with my hermanos and my padres. It was so much fun because you could dance however you wanted because you knew that the guys were doing crazier stuff than you! And the music was great because 90% of it was actual Spanish music which was great. I was hoping to catch the bouquet but of course there was an even taller girl that me who caught it because she didn´t even have to jump. Cheater. The gifts they passed out were cigars and chocolate for the guys and herb type stuff and cigarettes for the ladies, which I thought that that was kinda weird to give cigarettes as a gift, but everyone smokes in Europe so it´s not that big of a deal. Also, one of their friends put together a little powerpoint of pictures of Iván and Noelia throughout the years. There were some really cute baby pictures. And he also had pictures and videos of the bachelor and bachelorette parties. The girls went out to a bar and the guys went up to the mountains. Iván wore a batman costume for most of the party weekend which was really funny. It was so nice of their friend to put something like that together for them. We danced like fools until 8, and then the party moved to a bar type place for more dancing and drinking!

The bar was a lot of fun too because Iván and Noelia were dancing with everyone. She really got her wear out of her dress. Francie bought a Piña Colada for me which was pretty good and we danced the night away. It was such a fun atmosphere. Around 10:30ish or something, Iván and Noelia said that they wanted to get something to eat and we could all come, so of course I wanted to so we went to a place around the corner. Many tables had to be pushed together on the patio and they even turned on a heater thing that was thankfully set by me so I was nice and toasty. We all ate tapas which were sooooo good. And we talked and laughed and had a really good time. Around midnight we called it a night and the novios made their way back to the hotel, and I got home around 1.

The wedding was one of the highlights of my life, because I feel that it brought me closer to my family than the other students in the program. I was able to just relax and let loose around them and have a good time. I am now dreading any American weddings that I have to go to because they can´t compare to this. It was just a different atmosphere and we were able to spend so much time with Iván and Noelia. It seemed like an actual celebration instead of just a boring wedding that you are only going to for the free meal. Also, there was no chicken dance, the macarena, electric slide or any other lame dance song. It was all salsa sounding music that was great to dance to. I just loved it, and now I want my wedding to only have Spanish guests because they know how to throw a good wedding. I am just so glad that Noelia let me come and be a part of her special day because it was amazing. It was definitely a wedding to remember. Viva los novios!!