I now pronounce you...

Today Kaitlyn and I had the great pleasure of attending the wedding of Zamor, one of our kids' tutors, along with a group of our girls. Mikerline, Cherley, and Isguerda were greeters/ushers and bridesmaids at the wedding.


Yesterday I asked Mikerline and Cherley what time we should arrive at the wedding. You may be thinking, "Shouldn't you arrive at least before the wedding is scheduled to start?" In the states, the answer is a fervent "yes." In Haiti, its "not really." From what I'd heard, weddings to do not start on time here. The bride, groom, bridal party, or all of the above may be horribly late. Mikerline and Cherley debated about the time we should arrive, then agreed 9:30 am. This morning I received a test message from Mikerline, who was already at the chapel, that we should get there by 10:00am. Right before I walked over to the girls home to round them up (at about (9:40), Monis, who works at the girls home, showed up at the guest house looking for soap for the girls. "The girls who are coming to the wedding are ready, right?" I asked her. "Two are and the rest are bathing," was her answer. I went back to my room to read for a bit, hoping that we wouldn't miss the start of the ceremony. When I arrived at the girls home I found two girls planning to go still in the shower. The others were running around fixing their hair. I put on my best stern voice and essentially told them to get their butts outside. After multiple rounds of this, I was informed by Jessica, a Haitian girl doing some of their hair, that she had just seen Zamor (remember, he is the groom) walking to the chapel on her way to the girls home. She approximated the time that she had seen him as 9:45. Ookkkaayyy... We were in good shape then. Eventually the girls got their butts outside and we began walking down the street. Kaitlyn and I were wearing sensible, but cute, sandals, whereas the girls all wore snazzy high heels. They didn't want to walk. Markenson was just pulling up at the boys home so we flagged him down to drive us to the chapel. When he finally arrived, he told us that he didn't have gas to take us. Like me, Markenson and most of our staff ignore my dad's instructions to leave half a tank of gas in the car. Isn't there a bunch more miles in the tank even after it goes to the empty sign, dad? We walked.


These are the models who live next door and we walked with to the wedding

We arrived at the chapel to maybe only five pews half filled by people. We were sooo not late. Kaitlyn, the girls and I walked out to the balcony to get some fresh air. While we were there, Enrique Pierre, a teacher at our school, asked me to take pictures as the choir walked down the aisle to their seats. I did so, then stood up again to take pictures once the music started for the ceremony. Apparently EVERYONE brought their camera to take photos and I would have to fight for my place to see the bridal party.

Wedding paparazzi

The nervous groom

To my utter horror/amusement, the first two flower girls who walked in slowly sauntered down the aisle to the tune of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." I tried to restrain myself from looking at Kaitlyn, but I completely failed. She hid her face behind the program. Next, the music switched to "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas. Hopefully everyone thought I was just smiling and loving the ceremony. Isguerda and Cherley were two of 6 girls who lined up side by side in two lines, danced slowly down the aisle while crossing back and forth, making one line then two. After that, someone (have no idea about her title) walked in wearing a short white dress. Next, the bride. She was wearing white gloves, a frilly gown, and a white veil. Look at her:


I took some close-up pictures of her, the music stopped, then I sat down with the girls. I received a few looks from the other photographers, but whatever. I chalked it up to my severe WHITENESS and the fact that I was the only female amongst a bunch of male photographers. Katiana, sitting next to me, gave me a funny look then whispered, "Why did you sit down?" I answered, "Because everyone is at the front of the church now and I can get better pictures from here." "That lady wasn't the bride. Durlande (the bride) hasn't walked down the aisle yet," she answered with a giggle. WHAT? I snickered along with Kaitlyn then picked my white self up off the pew and stood up again. Sadly, the bride did not walk into the church to the tune of a Disney song, but she was beautiful. Here THE ACTUAL BRIDE IS, with her father:


The pastor preached, the choir sang, and then two women moved to the front of the church to sing. The song was "There can be miracles, when you believe... (I don't know the name of the song.) Its from "The Prince of Egypt", I believe! As the duet ended, ALL the photogs (it seemed like 20) began making their way to the front of the church. I knew from the last (but not as entertaining and beautiful) wedding I attended in Haiti that the excitement about THE KISS was building. Apparently, according to our girls, this is why most Haitians go to weddings. I fought my way for a good view, as before I left the house, this was Erta's request: "Get a picture of the kiss!" I really hoped that "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid would play, but alas. Zamor gave his bride a little peck, then was reprimanded by the crowd and commanded to give her another, better kiss. Here it is:


After this, we left with the girls who were not in the wedding and headed home. Kind of a boring end to a delightful morning, but we didn't have a car and didn't really know what was going on with a reception. Mikerline, Isguerda, and Cherley did go to it though. I'm sorry, but all future weddings I attend will have a lot to live up to now.

This evening Mikerline and I laughed about how I'd thought the wrong woman was the bride. It turns out the first woman I photographed was the bride's sister AND the godmother (its a Haitian tradition to have a godmother for a wedding ceremony. I'm not sure what her responsibilities are beyond that). If MY sister shows up wearing a beautiful white dress for MY wedding, causing people to mistake her for the bride, there's no telling what I will do to her. I know she would feel the same.

FYI: Obviously, I am not really a photographer. Sadly, the pictures turned out gross. The lighting was difficult to work with blah blah blah. I wanted you to get the idea of the wedding so I put them in anyway.