Wedding

Towards the end of April I was asked to participate in a wedding in my host family, one of my host nieces was getting married to her longtime boyfriend, and my host aunt wanted me to escort my host niece (the sister of the bride) down the aisle because "no one else in the family is large enough, and you have a sports coat (esmoquín)." I agreed, pleased to be included as a member of the family, even as a last recourse. Then nothing was mentioned for a month and a half, and the weekend before the wedding I was told that I'd better not have anything planned because I was needed for the ceremony. I was a little taken aback, but as I am never busy it was not a problem.
It took place in a small concrete church that had been beautifully decorated with bamboo and flower arrangements. During the wedding practice we practiced the entrance for an hour or so, and left the exit as a work in progress, which made me pretty nervous. I had little to worry about though, because the pastor did his utmost to ruin the occasion.
I have failed to mention that this niece is 14, several months pregnant, and the groom is 24. The pastor's sermon was about having sex out of wedlock, replete with biblical quotations and a fair amount of personal opinion. My host father, a former pastor, had a startled look on his face when it started, but most of the congregation and families assembled seemed unfazed. Perhaps they are used to ignoring sermons. The bride and groom had smiles painted on, but they were decidedly uncomfortable, and when the end finally came they jumped up a little too quickly, and could hardly wait for all the bridesmaids and groomsmen to clumsily stumble forward and make an arch.
Lunch was served, the church slowly emptied and a handful of relatives (I count myself in their number) along with the bride and groom stayed behind to clean up. When we got home we had wine, ate the wedding cake, and watched soccer on tv. They spent their honeymoon night in the empty room attached to our house where they had lived for two months. Not quite a dream wedding, but I hope that in the pictures you can see that it was a very beautiful occasion. Ultimately it is the spirit of the families involved that make or break an occasion, and the wedding was truly blessed by the people who came to celebrate a joyous union between two people who love one another.