Making it Legal

The plan for Friday morning was to get married early.  A civil ceremony is compulsory in Ecuador.  My parents, sister, nephew, Jones and Jon, met Carlos and I around 8AM to walk to the ministry where that occurs.  The building looks like an elementary school that was built in the US in the 1960's.

We arrived around 8:30AM and met Carlos's parents and his brother there.  His parents had already got us a ticket and we were apparently next in line.  We went to the desk, paid $6 filled out a few forms.  They asked us for 24 sheets of blank paper as well, which Carlos's brother went out to buy.  That pissed me off.  I mean, no one had ever mentioned anything earlier about needing paper for their printers.  It wasn't written on any official notices stating what you need to get married.  Arrrgh.



Then we went to another room to wait a few minutes more.  At this time our phones started ringing.  We had hired a van in Guayaquil to bring four guests to Cuenca at 9AM.  A coordination disaster.  Apparently our guests were not there.  We called the hotel.  The hotel called the van company.  The guests had spoken to the hotel and gotten a taxi to Cuenca.  But we had put a down payment on the van.  The van company keeps on calling Carlos.  We keep on calling the hotel to call the van company.  And this is in the 10 minutes before getting married.  I was so pissed off. 

Much later on we found out that the van arrived at the hotel at 8:30AM, not 9AM, which is why no one was there, that our guests had gotten a private car to Cuenca, that the hotel had tried calling the van company and never actually got through, that the van company changed their phone number some time within the past 48 hours, which was why the hotel couldn't get through, and that Carlos and I were out $40.  And of course, we haven't gotten our money back or even an apology from the van company for changing their phone number and not telling us.

But back to the marriage.  After 10 minutes of waiting we were called into a small room that was built in the middle of a courtyard.  By this time, some of Carlos's aunts and uncles were there as well, but we all managed to fit.  We were asked a few questions, as were our witnesses, then we all signed papers and we were married.  That was it.

Jones's husband Jon is an amateur photographer.  Or maybe the term in photography enthusiast?  Hobbyist?  Anyway, he likes photography and I think he's really good.  I would like to give him credit for the wonderful photographs he took of the civil ceremony and of our family afterwards (as well as the rest of the weekend).  Right now I don't have the full files, just the thumbnails from facebook, but they still look great!

 Hernan, Papi, Mami, Carlos, Judith, Mom, Dad, Ruth, Nicholas, Jones