The Wedding

Elizabeth came up to my apartment today. She said, “We need to be at the Pentecostal Church at 3:00 so we can get a good seat. Can you be ready by then?” Of course I said yes. Elizabeth is my landlady. She looks out for me. She makes sure I know people in the village and she shows me where to buy bread, groceries, and which restaurant is the best. When she hasn’t seen me for a day or two she comes up to make sure I’m alright. Earlier when I didn’t have enough to do, she invited me to teach a computer class at the Infant School where she was the principal until retiring in December. Her husband, John, was in a car accident twenty-five years ago and now he walks with a cane. They don’t own a car and so getting around the village is difficult. Walking the quarter mile to the Pentecostal Church is too much for him.

I got dressed in the best thing I had. How I wish I brought a formal dress. There have been three occasions when I could have worn it. This will be an item I will bring back when I visit home this summer. I walked down the stairs and met Elizabeth. She was dressed in a shear red dress with fancy black two inch heeled shoes. We arrived at the church and were given a corsage. Corsages are common at formal events. They aren’t real flowers – they are fabric leaves decorated with a ribbon and pinned onto each man, woman and child who enters. Most formal events include a corsage. I will add this one to the growing collection I have in the top drawer of my dresser.

The church was filled with folding chairs and decorated with flowers and ribbons. PowerPoint slides are shown from the balcony and projected on the screen below. I followed Elizabeth and she picked two seats. The church filled to capacity. Everything was ready but the bride and groom. The wedding was scheduled to start at 3:30, but it turned out the start time was an hour later…and worth the wait. People were dressed to the “nines”. Children were in their Sunday best. Some were obviously wearing clothes handed down from brothers and sisters and there were lots of patent leather shoes. All of the girls had perfectly combed hair with colorful ribbons and barrettes. I had seen many of the children in my computer classes and heard them whispering to parents, “She is our computer teacher”.

The adults were wearing gold lame, chiffon dresses, and silk scarves. There was so much material sparkling with sequins and crystals. I’ve never seen so many gold shoes in one place. Those that weren’t wearing gold were wearing silver which had their own version of sparkles and flowing materials. They all had jewelry – on every finger and around their necks as well. But then there were those that were wearing formal wear that passed, but didn’t impress. There were those with no sparkle and no jewelry. They were the contrast, but it didn’t matter – and I am impressed that it doesn’t matter.

The pastor gets up and announces the wedding must get started. He is becoming impatient. The music starts and the wedding procession begins. The groomsmen line up in the front of the church. The first person in the processing is an old man, well into his seventies, if not eighties. He’s a short man, maybe five feet tall who probably weighs 100 pounds soaking wet. He is wearing an oversized white suit. He looks like a man dressed in an uncomfortable suit in an uncomfortable situation. He makes the best of it and dances to the music as he moves down the isle. Everyone is laughing and having a great time. He is the groom.

Each bridesmaid walks slowly down the isle while a cadre of photographers and videographers capture the moment. When the bridesmaid reaches her groomsman, he takes her hand and twirls her. She pins a corsage onto his lapel and he presents her with a bouquet of flowers and twirls her into place. The ring bearer with a ring and a huge grin precedes the flower girls who were dressed in pink dresses with flower and ribbon crowns on their heads. And, now finally the bride enters. We stand and there she is in a beautiful white gown with a long wedding train. She is walking slowly down the isle while her daughter is holding her up. She is at least a foot taller than her groom and maybe seventy-five pounds heavier. She and her groom have been married for fifty-four years and they are about to renew their vows.

They didn’t have the money for a big wedding fifty-four years ago and probably still don’t. Their nine children paid for it. They were the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Their grandchildren were the ring-bearer and flower girls. They sat in chairs during the ceremony, unable to stand for too long. When asked who gives this woman to this man the entire procession yelled, “We all do!” When asked if they would still “honor and cherish one another until death do they part”, she answered “Hallelujah and Amen”; he answered “Praise the Lord, I do!”

The reception was at the multi-purpose center right next to the church. But, after the ceremony, they all piled into two old limousines - each limo was at least twenty-five years old. It is tradition to ride around the village with horns honking before coming back to the reception. So this is what they did. Limo’s sputtering and coughing, but still capable to make plenty of noise with their horns, the couple was escorted around the village for everyone to see.