Beginnings
The day of the wedding finally arrived. Since I wasn't part of the wedding party, I had no obligations until the ceremony started late in the afternoon. I had breakfast, visited with the groom and his family, walked around a bit, swam in the ocean for a while (and got maybe a bit too much sun), and then had lunch. I ate chicken adobo which is a classic Filipino dish. The way the chicken was butchered and the presentation were not my favorite, but it was tasty. (Also, it was basically just rice and chicken with no vegetables - I feel like I haven't been getting enough vegetables since I've been here.) After lunch I had a bit of a nap and then got ready for the wedding.
The ceremony was about 30 minutes and went well. There was the usual sort of things, plus some interesting Filipino twists. There was a ceremony involving sand and one with a veil and rope that I hadn't seen before. After the ceremony, there was a long break for cocktails and snacks (and many, many pictures) before the actual reception started. I probably should have gone back to my room to cool off for a bit. Me, long sleeves, long pants, and the temperature here do not get along well.
The reception started with the bridal party being introduced and then the bride and groom doing their first dance while everyone held sparklers. (Getting the sparklers to light proved to be a challenge.) I'm used to the first dance being after dinner, but whatever. Dinner was a buffet, with way too much food. There were at least five main courses including lobster, roast beef, lamb chops, and two different kinds of fish on top of that there were four desserts plus wedding cake. I was stuffed by the end of the night.
My favourite part was the fire dancers. I haven't been to a wedding that had those before.
The worst part was the single people games. There were five of single guys and we were blind folded and, for some reason had to drink tequilla, and then crawl around on the dance floor looking for one of four flowers. Fortunately, I found one, so I didn't have to do the next stage which involved having safety pins attached to your clothing and then having the blind folded single women try to find them. Once the two people were selected, the guy had to put a garter onto the woman using his teeth. I guess the advantage of this over the throwing of the bouquet is that the people actually have to try or they end up at the next stage, but maybe just skip this sort of thing entirely.
I'm not a huge fan of weddings in general - there's overly loud music, lots of people I don't know, awkward conversations, and the implication that there's something wrong with being single - but as these things go, this was pretty good.
