It's the second wedding, and in many ways different than the first. We decided a long time ago that we couldn't possibly have all my Peruvian relatives come to Texas to share our special day. And also, that we couldn't expect all of Nate's relatives to fly to Peru. So short of picking a location in the middle (what would that be, Venezuela?) we opted for two separate ceremonies, one to address each family and local traditions.
The beauty is how both weddings were the real one ineveryone's eyes. In Peru, the actual marriage licence is issued at the courthouse, without much bells or whistles. You go get your civil wedding certificate (usually some people come along to celebrate with you) and once you have that you have the big celebration and traditional ceremony in the catholic church. The church celebration is the real one, whith all the pomp and circumstance. The legal marriage and the church wedding are two separate events. How is that for separation of church and state.
So it worked beautifully. We had the civil ceremony in Texas, got the marriage license and Nate's family witnessed what they consider the real ceremony. Then two and a half months later, we went to Lima for the catholic ceremony and had my family witness what they consider the real ceremony. Everyone wins and we got to have more people join us in our happiness.
It was a wonderful participatory celebration. The Giusti cousins once again formed the choir, and sang beautifully with harmonies and feeling. Couldn't ask for a better choir, and was actually sad that as the guest of honor I didn't have the opportunity to sit with them and perform. Nate's father composed the processional march and it was gorgeous, and also got to perform during the offerings. Most of my cousins additionally got to participate by reading the petitions, which were bilingual for Nate's benefit. And we got to pick our witnesses - Iggy, Lizy, Sebastian and Leonel, which seemed like the most wonderful selection of people.
The reception was a blast, we danced like crazy lunatics late into the evening, and I was exhausted by the time we made it to the honeymoon suite at the country club hotel.
All in all: SUCCESS!! Weddings are exhausting, I don't know how people do it, and I'm not sure how we did it TWICE, but it was wonderful. Each celebration was a bast and different from the other one.
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