The Wedding

Well, today was the big day. The day of the Mexican-Norwegian-British-Canadian wedding that we have all been anticipating. We found out that we would be getting on a bus at 11:00am and the bus wouldn't be coming back until 1:00am, so this really was going to be an all-day event.

We got up fairly early (we had crashed pretty early from all the travel-itis) and had breakfast at the hotel. Then we got all dolled up (me in an orange dress, no less) and got onto a bus that took us 1.5 hours and outside the Mexico City city limits.

When we arrived at the Ranchero, it was immediately apparent that it was going to be gorgeous. And lush. Apparently it's the oldest Ranchero in the area. It was green and lovely with rock-face walls and a back-in-time kinda feel. We went through corridors to nooks and areas that held flora & fauna everywhere. There were little lizards about, and lovebirds in cages all around the outside.

It was a gorgeous day. It was sunny and unfortunately for me it was quite hot. I managed to almost pass out during the (long-ish, Catholic) ceremony. Heatstroke is always nearby with me. Anyways, after the ceremony, we went to a courtyard where we were treated to some live music and waiters serving drinks and canapes. Yum! Food and drink was exactly what I needed, and it was really quite good.

Then the reception started. Pretty much right away. We were seated pretty close to the stage and our 3 course meal started coming out. We all had menu cards explaining what our choices were for the meal. Oh, except that for the starter, we didn't really get a choice, everyone just got what they got, random as it was. I managed to snag my choice of tomato, cheese, & balsamic salad tower. It was great.

Did I mention that this wedding was British/Mexican/Norwegian/Canadian? The groom is English & Canadian, and the bride is Mexican & Norwegian. This made for some really entertaining traditions. Read on.

The Norwegian cousins and friends at our table explained that one tradition at the wedding reception is for all the men in the room to run up to the bride and kiss her if her groom leaves her at the table. And if the bride leaves her groom alone, all the women rush up to kiss him. There was also the typical clinking of glasses. Muchos kissing!!

Our main courses and desserts came quickly too, and all-in-all, we were done all the eating by 4:30pm. 4:30!! So early. Then came speeches, which were suitable, funny, and in three languages. At one point a very inebriated Mexican relative or friend came up and interrupted the MC's, which lead to laughter of course. They shooed him away pretty effectively.

Dancing started at 5:00pm and lasted the rest of the night. It was obvious that the bride LOVES dancing, but it was hard not to bust a move yourself with the great music that was playing. There were Mexican favourites and Latin songs and the usual top 40. The dance floor was pretty much packed all night.

There were also dancefloor "novelties" as well. Little gimmicks that made things quite interesting, and which appeared every hour or so. First, a mini-wrestling ring was brought out and Mexican wrestling masks were handed out to everyone. You know, like the movie Nacho Libre? Some theatrics ensued and then dancing continued.

The next novelty was a guy that came out on stilts with a mini-soccer goal attached behind his head. Then beach balls that looked like soccer balls were thrown about and everyone tried to score. That was pretty fun. Perhaps that was a nod to the groom since he's a soccer player.

At one point, the bride was given a box full of slippers embroidered with her & the groom's initials, and she threw them up in the air all over the dancefloor, "for the ladies." I didn't get any, but then I was wearing pretty comfortable sandals so it didn't much matter.

The next novelty was wigs of all sorts of colours: red, green, blue, yellow, orange. Everyone passed them around and posed for photos. That was quite comical too.

The last novetly was a man on stilts who came out on the dancefloor, passed out hats (kinda looked like a Mexican cowboy hat) and gave out shots to everyone - in cups and sometimes straight from the bottle. That one was popular!

Eventually some typical traditions came out, sortof. At one point late in the evening all the girls were gathered together, linked hands and ran around the room - first slowly and then faster and faster. We ended up in a line in front of the bride & groom, who were waiting on top of chairs. You had to pass between them and have them feed you tequila as you went under. THEN they did the bouquet toss. I guess a little tequila helps your bouquet-catching abilities. Needless to say, I didn't catch it. Nobody was disappointed about that. :)

Next the groom-taking-garter-off-the-bride ceremony. Then all the guys lined up, linked arms and ran about the room. And then yes, they also had to be doused with tequila by the bride & groom. There were a lot of wet shirts.

Sometime before the end of the night, they served a snack which was really tasty - chips and black beans and some kind of green sauce. It was REALLY yummy and well-timed since we had all eaten nothing since 4:30.

The reception finally ended at 12:30am after 7.5 hours of dancing. Whew! What a party! And a wedding like no other!