Brazil Day 5

Well, this was kind of a short day for me because I slept most of the day in between trips to the bathroom. I woke up at 11:30 and realized I would not be able to go to my hair appointment at 12:30 because I was still sick, so I went back to sleep. Around 3:30 I finally woke up and decided to try and get through the wedding. 'Chung got me up and straightened my hair for me, which was a disaster after sleeping the previous night and all day. We got dressed, and went downstairs to meet the group and the bus to take us to the church. One of the women in the group gave me some Tylenol and my fever broke shortly after. The only problem was, the bus never showed up.

Finally, at 5:00 (the bus was supposed to be there at 4 and the wedding supposed to start at 5:30) wedding party first, and then came back for the rest. When we got to the church, however, we realized that the rush was somewhat unnecessary as the bride was still having her hair done (about 5 of them had gone to the salon at 12:30, good thing I didn't try to do that)! The three of us American ladies in the wedding also realized that Mike's information on what we should wear was a little off too. He had told the owner of the hotel and one of his friends decided that they would have to take us to the church. They took those of us in the different ones of us different things, but essentially we were told to wear a simple, formal dress, no sparkles, not too bold, and that any color and length was fine. When we saw the other women, well, they were all in full-length dresses, most bright colors with beading and all fairly flashy.


Finally, shortly after 5:30 the car carrying the bride arrived, but we still waited another 20 minutes before learning that Melissa had forgotten her bouquet (which was lovely, purple hydrangeas, by the way) at the hair salon. Her brother Matteus (who probably felt like a taxi driver all week) jumped in his car to pick it up. When he got back the wedding was finally able to start. It was probably around 6:45. Interestingly though, right up to that point friends and family we still arriving at the church. A few last minute changes were made in the line-up because one of Melissa's aunts had arrived in town the night before and assuming she was in the wedding, had brought a dress for the ceremony. They decided to accommodate her rather than start a family feud, so the brides side now had two more couples that the grooms, but all was well.
There were seven couples standing up on the bride's side, and five on the groom's, also on the stage were both sets of parents. The groom's mother walked down the aisle with Mike, and then Mike's father and Melissa's mother walked together after all of the couples walked. They were followed by two little flower girls and finally...after another five minute pause because of the paparazzi-like camera people (seriously) Melissa and her father came out. In addition to all of us standing behind them, there were also two pastors (one for English, and one for Portuguese). After the pastor welcomed everyone and prayed for the couple, 'Chung read a passage from Ephesians and then there was a sermon.

Then a little boy and girl walked down the aisle with the rings (to a Brazilian song, in Portuguese, which was beautiful, and obviously very meaningful because it had half the room at the brink of tear) and the couple exchanged vows which they had written for each other, Melissa in Portuguese and Mike in English. Around this time I had to sit down because I was starting to feel dizzy and wasn't sure I'd make it through the whole service. After exchanging rings, Melissa pulled aside one of her bridesmaids and sang a surprise song to Mike, Shania Twain's "From this Moment On". It was amazing. Finally two girls walked down the aisle with communion cups and bread (with the song "Light of the World" playing) and they took communion. The pastors each blessed the couple. While they were taking communion I got back into place before the processional.

After the wedding, of course, we went to the reception. The reception hall was exquisite. It was a spacious, modern building at the tennis club. The dance floor was huge. Hors d'oeuvres tables were set up in several places. There was a large screen in corner of the room where they streamed pictures of the wedding and reception directly from the photographers cameras.
When the bridal party entered the room we all lined up and formed an arch with our partners for Mike and Mel to walk under. As the reception got going, the dancing started. After one
formal dance, they broke out the wigs, glow bracelets and hats and let the fun begin!