La Boda

I have been having technical difficulties with uploading pictures but it seems to be resolved. The first week in Spain was basically getting ready for Eli's sister Marijose and Leandro's wedding. Normal Catholic weddings in Spain are a large enough production in and of themselves but LDS (Mormon) weddings are marathon like.

Friday morning we all got up and got ready for the official civil ceremony which took place at "El Ayuntamiento de Jaen" which is like the city building (top left picture). Natalia was chosen to be the ring bearer along with Aaron, the groom's nephew and the two of them really hit it off. After the ceremony, everyone went down to lay in wait for the bride and groom (los novios) to come to the street where they would be covered with fistful after fistful of rice. This part is especially fun for everyone but the novios. I'm not sure what the meaning is behind this tradition but I assume it has to do with wishing a life of bounty for the newly weds. I don't think anyone really cares what it means; it's just plain fun tossing hand fulls of rice.


After the initial ceremony and a quick lunch, the bride and groom separate with their own close family where the photographer comes for pictures. Soon after, we all went to the LDS church building where the family of the bride and groom could attend a type of ceremony since most of them are Catholic and not able to attend real ceremony in the Madrid temple.

From there we were off to La Juleca where a full on reception awaited us. The first part of the reception took place in a garden like area complete with a small pond and waterfall. We were served every kind of appetizer you can imagine including jamon serrano, roasted almonds, cheeze and grapes, croquetas and many other things I don't even know the names of. Natalia especially loved this part because she was able to run around with Aaron and eat all the jamon serrano she could. When the novios' arrival neared we were ushered to the banquet hall where everyone was seated and the real celebrating began. The dinner consisted of multiple courses and I actually lost track but there must have been at least seven. This is generally possible because everyone who attends is expected to give the novios a monetary gift which at least covers the cost of the plate. The reveling continued for us until 2 a.m. when we finally were forced to leave due to injury.

Natalia had been running around and had fallen down hard on her arm. We were afraid she may have fractured her arm so we went to the emergency room. After x-rays and such it was determined that she was fine so we finally made it home at 3 a.m.

The next day, Saturday afternoon we had to make the four hour trip to the Madrid Temple for the sealing ceremony. All the previous events the day before were a lot of fun but the sealing ceremony was perfect. I think we finally made it back to Jaen safe and sound at 2 a.m. thanks to lively conversation and three or four Red Bull energy drinks I pounded just in case (I tend to get

a little drowsy driving sometimes).