The Hora

No, that's not bad Spanglish. It's a Jewish dance.

And I think that we effectively tripled or quadrupled the population of Jews in Cuenca for our wedding.

The dance is easy. You join hands and go around in a circle, doing a grapevine. Sometimes you change directions. Occasionally you expand or contract the circle. That's about it.

I do have a nice video of the dancing, but it just won't seem to upload :(  I hope photos will do.

Cocktail Hour

In Judaism there is a specific part of the wedding that is called the Yichud, i.e., seclusion, after the ceremony in which the bride and groom have some time alone together.  I believe that back in the day it was the time to, um, consummate the marriage.  But now it seems to be used as snack time.

So, after the ceremony Carlos and I had a few minutes to ourselves.  I really mean a few minutes because we were sitting in his parents suite sipping champagne and nibbling on some meats and cheeses when some young nephews barged in through the back door.  I yelled at them to get out.  It wasn't actually a yell, but more like a very strong suggestion to go away and leave us alone.

Ceremony - Act II

The second half of the ceremony was the Jewish part.  As you may probably guess, Ecuador doesn't have many Jews.  Apparently there is a small community with a rabbi in Quito, but all the Jews that once lived in Cuenca are dead.  I know that may sound terrible, but I say that with respect.  I mean, I've done my research.  

Carlos and I live across the street from the cemetery and there is a small Jewish section there with about 30 graves.  Most of the deceased were born in Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century and the last burial here seemed to be in the 1990's.  There is a Panama hat shop here that was owned by a German Jew (K. Dorfzaun), but apparently he died about two years ago and was buried in Quito.

But I digress.

Ceremony - Act I

As you probably know, Carlos is Catholic and I am Jewish.  So when deciding what type of wedding ceremony we wanted, we knew had to incorporate both religions.

The family priest is a bit old.  Carlos wanted a younger, more open priest.  A few recommendations led us to a young Colombian priest.  He was great.  He explained the rules to us, which I found to be very complicated.  He was able to marry a Catholic and a non-Catholic only because the non-Catholic was a foreigner.  If the non-Catholic was Ecuadorian, the church (not the state) would not sanctify the marriage between the non-Catholic and the Catholic.  But that wasn't a problem for us.

Here Comes the Groom (and the Bride)

After about half an hour of waiting for the guests to arrive and get situated, the ceremony was about to start.  I was a bit impatient because being sequestered is a bit boring.  I know that people (including Carlos) think it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, but I wanted to socialize.  I mean, I did, a bit, with the people who were waiting in line for the toilet.  But I was ready.

The music started and Carlos began the long circuitous route to the huppah.  It wasn't even actually a huppah, because even with all my explanations the wedding planner/florist still got it wrong.  It was to parallel arches covered with flowers, but they were separate from each other, not attached to form an area.  Anyway, Carlos made his way over there with his parents to one of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Spring.

Set Up (aka, "What I Didn't See")

When we arrived in Challuabamba, a scout was sent out to make sure that Carlos was no where in sight, then I dashed across the lawn to my hiding place.  I wish I had a moment to take a look at the decor before the wedding, because it looked amazing.  However, I only know that because of the photos...

Ceremony tent/Future dance floor

Showing Off

So I was dressed and ready to go.  It was almost 10:30AM, so our guests had gathered in the lobby to wait for the transport.  And I got to pretend I was Evita on the balcony.

Getting Ready

So, the morning of the wedding I showed up at my parents hotel at around 8AM.  I had breakfast with whoever was eating at that time (I wish that I remembered who, but there was lots to remember that day), and before I knew it I was being pushed towards the shower.

At 9AM the girls for hair and makeup showed up.  I got my makeup done while Mom had her hair done, then we switched.

(Please note the super comfy "Duke Fencing" sweatpants)

Friday Night Dinner

I can start writing again since I finally have photos!

As you recall, the gringos started walking to the restaurant from the hotel around 6:45PM.  We arrived at the restaurant at about 7:15PM.  Almost everything was set up.  We chose this restaurant, El Maiz, for the rehearsal dinner because my parents really liked the food and the place was nice.  However, as with everything here, it wasn't perfect.  We had reserved the whole restaurant, but there was a table in the back with two people sitting there eating dinner.  The owner told us that these were friends of her daughter and she couldn't turn them away.  I was so annoyed.  We reminded her that we had reserved the entire place and that there was barely enough room for our group, let alone some strangers.  I mean come on, she could have told them to return the next night.

Rants About Ecuador

Caution:  Really long rants ahead!

Yesterday really sucked.  I mean, it was one of those days that made me wonder why I live here and how terrible working here could be.  Two events occurred while dealing with vendors that made me wonder if they had ever heard the phrase "customer service" or understood the concept of "don't lie to your customers".  I'll start with the photographer.

In our contract with the wedding photographer it stated that we would receive 200 prints a CD with digital copies of those two weeks after the wedding.  Well, two weeks after the wedding, nothing.  Three weeks, nothing. Finally, a month after the wedding he finally asks us to come to his studio to show us the photos.

Freaking Friday

After the civil ceremony the day once again got crazy.  I spent most of the day being pissed off at people, especially our wedding coordinator.  I know there are lots of last minute things to be taken care of (which is why one hires a wedding coordinator in the first place), but four days earlier he told us that the baker will drop of the cake at the ceremony site the morning of the wedding, but now he says we need to pick up the cake ourselves the day before.

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.

Waiting for Pho-to (Pronounced like Godot)

I crack myself up sometimes with the post titles :)

The next installment of the wedding saga has been delayed, due to the fact that I still do not have many photos.  I have some thumbnails taken off of facebook, but they are really tiny.  I am hoping that I can get the full size versions soon.

One of my father's friends, Tony, did give us the files already.  They are slowly being uploaded to flickr (I say slowly because we are still having two hours of power cuts a day).

So while you are waiting to read the next installment (the civil ceremony), you can view some photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosjudithwedding/ (if you want to see them in order, click on the album marked "Judith").

Influx

Thursday was Carlos's first day of vacation. But he didn't get to do anything relaxing, like sleep in. At 9AM we had an appointment with the musicians to practice the pace of our tango (which wasn't looking too bad by then) and review the Jewish songs. The band had heard of the Hava Nagila, but hadn't ever played it and had no idea of how long to go on. I had to explain, just keep on repeating the same thing until someone tells you to stop.

After only two dance lessons, we decided that this would be a perfect time to practice a bit more.

Breaking news! We have uncovered rare footage of this rehearsal!

First Guests

I arrived back in Cuenca around 2PM on Wednesday.  I met Carlos in town.  We were going to get some lunch, but ended up at the hotel that we had reserved for most of our guests, Casa Ordoñez, coordinating rooms.  We were there for longer than we had thought and Carlos had to return to work (it was his last day before vacation), so I headed to the other hotel, Hostal Macondo, to find Amanda Jones.  She had arrived, along with her husband Jon, the night before (while I was in Guayaquil).  I was so excited to see them, because the last time we had seen each other was at their wedding, about three and a half years before.

Officially Single

About two weeks before the wedding, I found out that the certificate that I had gotten last year that stated that I was single was invalid.  I mean, every time we went to check the requirements for getting married in Cuenca, a different women would tell us a different thing.  One said, well the one you have is fine, another said that the document needs to be less than 45 days old, no, actually less than 30 days old, oh, well 90 days is fine.

Carlos and I decided that it would be safer just to get a new copy of the document, easy right? 

The Music is Finished the Party is Over

The past three weeks have been hectic, but things have finally calmed down.  We had a lovely wedding and were really happy to spend time with all of our friends and family who were here.  Then there was Christmas.  Then Carlos's birthday.  And finally a brief honeymoon.

So, over the next few weeks I'll be writing about the wedding and other celebrations and posting photos as well.

Don't expect too much too soon, but it will all be posted eventually.