Jodi & Aaron's Wedding

I want to start off by clearing up any confusion: Jodi is NOT marrying a Guatemalan man. She was proposed to right before she left for this trip in July, and her and her fiancée Aaron decided to get married down here after our vacation. The wedding was held in the garden of the school, which to quote the director and owner of our school, Gladis, “the garden gives off good vibes… if anyone else wants to get married here.”

The day started early: most of the group was in charge of setting up everything at the school while Amy, Lauren, and I were helping get Jodi ready. As always, I was in charge of the hairdo of the bride, so we played around until finally deciding on something. The wedding was supposed to start at 11:00am, which is 12:30pm Guatemalan time. Weddings here are pretty different: the bride and groom sit at a table front and center facing the guests, and a lawyer (who is also our very own teacher Marta) sits with our back to us and does more of a legal speech than a love speech. Then, after they sign a paper, they ask for witnesses out of the crowd to go up and sign also…kinda weird. Jodi & Aaron did say their own vows at the end, and then they were whisked away under this hand made paper mache thing where a cord was pulled and rice rained down directly on their heads. We then had all had a glass of wine to CHEERS with, and the after party began.

They served up some traditional style Guatemalan food for the “reception” part. A hired Guatemalan ELVIS PRESLEY was the entertainment as a gift to J & A…and he sang the 2nd verse of the happy birthday song when the cake was being brought out. Elise (our director) made the biggest cake ever for the occasion and it was delicious. We finally got to play some of our music for the 1st dance. Following the dance was the bouquet toss: where the bride stands on a chair as the single women walk around her in a circle. She randomly throws it to the circle, and whoever gets it on the 3rd time keeps it. Erin caught it for the girls and this boy that works at the school that we loathe caught it for the boys. Those two were then forced to dance together to “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira. We followed and ended by more dancing and talking. It was fabulous.