Weddings

Last weekend I attended my first Argentine wedding (as a guest).  It was non-stop party action and more like being at a very up-scale club, although the 500 guests probably had something to do with that vibe.  There are lots of similarities to a wedding in Australia: the church service was first, followed by the reception, there was food and alcohol in copious amounts, and people dress up because it is a formal occasion.  The differences however are that the church service begins at 7.30pm, and the whole evening ends about 12 hours later, at 7.30am.  They bring out a HUGE dessert bar at 3am, which is actually the second serving of dessert as you have already eaten sweets after the main meal.

The bride and groom make their big entrance just as everyone has been seated at their table, and they charge onto the dance floor where they are mobbed and thrown up into the air, such as at a Jewish wedding (minus the chair) or a rock concert.  Everyone dances to a couple of songs, and then they take their seats again.  I did get stepped on and thrown around more than when I went to see Jamiroquai a few weeks ago.

At about 3am when everyone has had enough booze, they bring out costumes that are a mix between clothing from the Moulin Rouge and a Brazilian carnaval.  And if you make it that far and keep on until dawn they serve you breakfast before you stumble home the next day.  All in all, it´s one hell of a fiesta.

I was going through some photos from my own recent wedding (which incidentally was not at all like a typical Argentine wedding) and found a few that are rather abstract and not wedding-like at all, but rather just interesting photos