The Gill Family: Wedding Weekend

Monday, May 31, 2010

Wedding Weekend - Shankar & Fernanda

This weekend we were invited to our first Argentine wedding, a much anticipated event even before Shankar & Fernanda announced they were getting married. The story begins like this: The first time we had a couple over for dinner here in Argentina they asked to see our wedding album, which we happily pulled it out and described the wonderful day that was our wedding. We talked about the place (which was beautiful), our families (who were amazing), the officiant (she was interesting), and the weather (which was scorching). They asked what time the reception ended, we said 10:00. Then I remembered the 24-hour clock that everyone uses here - so, correction - our wedding ended at 22:00. Say what?! I'm not sure who was more surprised - Them, who couldn't believe a wedding ended so early or Us, who couldn't believe they actually thought our wedding ended at 10:00 AM.

It was then I knew we needed to attend an Argentine wedding.

Lo and behold, our close friends, Shankar and Fernanda announce they are engaged. Score! Not only are they a great couple and we're super happy that they are getting married, but we are also pretty pumped about attending a wedding here. This was our weekend.

The ceremony was held at a beautiful church in Palermo, Nuestra Sra. de Guadalupe, which was both grand and ornate. In true Argentine fashion, the wedding was scheduled to begin at 8:00pm, which is when we arrived, and the ceremony actually began around 8:50pm. Since I have the most punctual husband in the world, we were, of course, the first people to arrive. Fernanda looked even more beautiful than normal and her dress was stunning. It was quite interesting to listen to a wedding ceremony completely done in Spanish - and impressive that Shankar knew all of the responses, and his vows, in Spanish - nice work!

The reception was held at the Castelar Hotel in Recoleta, a great setting for a wedding reception. We walked into a room filled with several appetizer tables and a large bar to hold us over until dinner. A dinner that started at....wait for it....11:45pm. I have the photo to prove it. This was our salmon appetizer that was carefully plated with a cool ceramic egg to hold the sauce.

After the plates were cleared, we had a little dance break before our next course which was at 12:45am. The picture doesn't do this meal justice, it was fall-off-the-bone meat with a light vegetable "salad" on the side. Perfect for that midnight snack.

The dessert came pretty quickly, a multi-layered cake with dulce de leche (caramel) and cream. The flash blocked it out - but that little sugar pile at the top was on fire, pretty cool presentation.

So now that we've eaten, we take a group shot with our table. In a strange twist of fate, we actually sat next to a guy from France who went to Virginia Tech. I was totally serious when I said we'll be calling him to hang out.

Oh wait, we have another dessert course coming along. This was right about when Fernanda came out and surprised us all. She had spent the last few months learning a traditional dance that she spotlighted during the reception. It was so thoughtful of her to bring a part of Shankar's family's traditions to their Argentine wedding, I think she made a pretty great impression with this move. Everyone loved the dance, and I am in awe of anyone who can just jump our and perform like that. Just to mention, this was round about 3:00am. Jon and I could not believe it - at this point, no one had left the wedding. And there was a seriously pregnant woman there with her 3 year old daughter rocking out the dance floor all night. And said pregnant woman and daughter were still busting a move 5:30am, when we decided it was time to head home.

It was a great wedding, so good that it took us the rest of the weekend to recover. We slept through Sunday - and I'm pretty sure we were the first people to leave. There was also a cake cutting and coffee service before we left - Argentina knows how to put on a wedding. Here are a few more pictures for your enjoyment...