"I do!"

This past weekend I attended the wedding of my counterpart's husband's brother; a traditional Muslim wedding.  I'll post some pictures along with the description but let me explain a little first.  The actual ceremony takes place in front of the Mayor of that town or someone representing the Mayor's office.   Like our maid of honor and best man, here they have a special couple that goes in front of the Mayor and drives them around and such.  The night before the cermony there is a big party and, unlike is the usual tradition in the states, it's not segregated and involves A LOT of dancing.  The bride, the women relatives, and close women friends have special outfits they wear.  I forgot my camera that night but Nargis has some pictures I took on her camera that I will show you all as soon as I get them from her.  What happens is that people pin money on the bride, like making a big necklace.  I guess people from the family can get money too because Nargis got about 20 leva and her daughter even got some money as well as the groom, but by far the most money is pinned on the bride.  The dancing is primarily done in a circle and when I asked why this was got the "I don't know" answer.   One of the "intersections" of the dirt/gravel roads of the village was the setting for the night before party.  Considering the party didn't get going until 8:30pm. (and it was a good thing to because it was hot as all get out!) or there-a-bouts, Nargis, her daughter, and myself didn't get to where we were sleeping until about 1-2 the next morning, and we weren't the last to leave!.  LOTS of dancing!  Later that same day, maybe 11-12 in the afternoon, we arrived back at the couple's/his parent's house to find the men hard at work preparing food for that evening.  I was a bit confused by this (don't get me wrong! Men helping in the kitchen or with food preparation is a big plus in my book but I have been led to believe that the men sit around and drink the day away while the women do the work.  I was quickly proven wrong!!  Not to diss women here; there's PLENTY for them to do) and so I asked, as is getting to be pretty typical for me (Lisa?  With a question? NEVER!).  Turns out that because there were to be so many people there (like around 500 and that evening was to be the same except more like our reception and with a meal) it was too much and the men did all the food work.  Slicing and dicing cabbage,cucumbers, and carrots for the salad and rolling and frying about 2000 kebache, like big-sized meatballs.  Then at about 5 we all got dressed up again, different outfits for the women, and drove (kinda like a funeral procession but for a wedding) to pick up the brides family whose cars would follow ours.  Nargis wasn't sure if there would be enough room for me so I wasn't sure I would get to be part of this, with the honking and all that I always hear outside my apartment.  Lukily for me there was room in a car and I got to observe this part of the tradition (I guess some people do this picking up of the brides family and some don't).  All the way to the brides families village, with the bride and grooms's car being the first and chauffered by the "best couple" the other cars in the procession try to pass the bride and groom's car and if they do the groom has to pay THEM to stay the first car.  This didn't quite make sense to me, after all the groom had to pay out the money GIVEN to him only the night before, but what tradition always makes 100% perfect sense???   And I have to say after Nargis explained that it was tradition to try and pass the first car and all I felt a lot more comfortable where I was because before I just thought the guy driving the car I was in was a very bad driver with all the speeding and trying to pass and all (I give him kudos because he didn't actually pass.  When he first tried to pass I was thinking how rude he was being to take the 1st spot away from the bride and groom on THEIR day!  LITTLE DID I KNOW!!) After we got the brides family, honking horns all the way through all the villages; we actually got out of our cars and danced some more when we got to her families house, we headed to the Mayor's office for the official ceremony.  It was a nice ceremony!  There are several things they do different then we do but the basics are the same.  There is one part where a round loaf of bread is broken by the Mayor, or in this case the secretary, and how ever many crumbs are on the ground is how many children the couple will have.  All this while the bride and groom are in their suit and wedding dress, and it was a very hot afternoon!  Then we went back home and at 8:30-9 went to the school gym, we had to with that many people, and started the "reception."  We were fed and given drinks, it was hotter than all get out in there!, and the same 3-4 guys that played music for us the night before played for us that night.  Since it was so hot, the night before we were outside-this night we were inside, I wasn't in the dancing, or beer drinking mood (however the man across from me felt I needed some whiskey which I cradled all night.  AT about 12, Nargis' daughter had fallen asleep and I had said that I would go home with her if they took her home; Nargis was the sister in law and it was more important for her to stay with her husband and finish out the night, I went to the house where I was to sleep and promptly fell asleep myself!  The whole weekend was very nice and I have to thank them for opening this up to someone non-kin because she was curious!  On second thought I might post the pictures tomorrow; this is getting pretty long.  It rained a precious little last night and I think that helped to cool things down a bit.  Not very much but I'll take it!  I'm going to quit here so I can get some more work done!  The women gave Japan a valient effort but came up short in the end.  Japan could use this good news; I'm happy for them!!  Congrats to the women for taking silver!  Love and hugs to all!!