Junior's Wedding!

Friday evening the guests got here for the wedding. We had a crepe soiree for 17 people. Kristin, Andrais, and I ended up in the HEATED grange singing worship songs till about 2 am. finally bed before the big day.

THEN THE WEDDING!!!!!!
we got up and had breakfast then changed and all headed to the mairie for the official ceremony. Junior of course told us all the wrong time so we would be on time for the ceremony, but we were all standing in the hallway waiting for him thinking we were going to get the groom there late for his own wedding! In France when you get married the procedure is that you are officially married here in front of this official from the country and town. It's kinda weird and they read off all these legal papers of things you must do as citizens of this country (as a couple). Basically we got a big kick out of it as they told Junior and Gaelle their goal is to have tons of little french children...yea for france haha! Either way we had this ceremony with the close friends and family. It was very official, but everything was of course translated into portugese for the brazilian clan. Gaelle looked sooo pretty and Junior was soooo happy! We paused for a bunch of pictures and then headed back to camp for lunch.

After lunch we headed to the unofficial wedding ceremony in Grenoble at Sam's church. The ceremony was beautiful and very different than any other I have seen. It fit both of their personalities really well. Especially as we sang all the favorite worship songs in french and some in english too. I loved this part even if it was very different than in american weddings! Afterwards they did a bunch of stuff and some talking and translating. Then vows, rings, kissing the bride, lighting candles, and the whole regular show. Kristin and I choose the music for the wedding so they used I can only Imagine for the bride's song and a Casting Crowns song for their finish. It was such a nice wedding. My favorite part was when the ring boy was scared and was led up the aisle and Gaelle had to ask her dad (who was at the back of the church) to bring her the wedding vows she had written and she couldn't get his attention!!!! It was slightly comical and yet made everyone relax and enjoy the day. We then toasted and had snacks before heading back to camp again! One of my favorite portions of the ceremony was one the worship and two looking around and realizing that all of my friends I've met here where in the room. Or at least most of them. It was neat to see how everyone was connected and just to share the special day all together!

We spent the whole afternoon cooking a typical french wedding dinner of shrimp, eggrolls, tomatoes, tomatoe salad, potatoe thingy, duck, mushrooms, cheese, wine wine wine, cake, and oranges. It took about 3 hours to eat! But it was totally worth all the decorating and cooking. Everything was sooo good! The cakes were all on this plater that circled and we have 6 of them! That's a LOT of cake.

After dinner we had dishes and then a video with snapshots from their childhood. It was funny to see pictures of all the people I know from when they were sooo little. Then the rest of the evening was a dance party. At this point everything started to get really really funny because it was about 1 in the morning. We all danced till about 4 am. It was amazing. The equipe (andrais, mike, me, kristin and verena) and of course buan had quite a good time making up crazy dances. I think the best would be the time buan got a broom and began to use it as a prop ( it was very early haha). So yea we all danced and danced. Kristin, Mike, Andrais, and I invented a couple hopping dance and we practiced our congo line skills. It was also awesome getting to hang out with all our friends for the whole night!

So as you can imagine sleep is in order now. We're all off for dinner and then bed early tonight. Everyone is heading home and the wedding party is about to leave for the new apartment! It's been an exciting weekend and we even managed to make today a ski day! Alrighty good night!