Best wedding ever!!

Friday:
I had my first manicure and pedicure of my life lol. I'm not really high maintenance, so I never really took the time to do this. It was fun being pampered. I was surprised at the number of people at the salons! I guess most normal people don't wash and straighten their hair themselves. They pay $10 reais or so once and week and get the people to do it for them.

Saturday:
I kinda melted a part of my dress a little while ironing it and I just kept thinking I wish my mom was here because she would know what to do. I was a little upset also because I missed the first hour of the wedding because my friend was late coming back from the salon from her haircut. Then she takes and shower and washes out her straightened hair?! I was so confused. A little frustrated. So when we arrived it was SO confusing. There was a live jazz band right by the lake and it was just jazz music and lots of hugging going on with the family and bride and groom. I didn't know if we were seeing the beginning (due to Brasilian time) or the end. It was definitely the end because the FIREWORKS, started going off. FIREWORKS! I totally didn't expect it! I felt like I went to a celebrity's wedding! It was so beautiful. Catered of course, with people running around serving appetizers and the best champagne I've ever had. They had a station for making your own piece of wedding cake! They had all the fruit and like 15 toppings and even 6 types of cake. I had pistachio and some other mixed cake flavour. Oh it was heaven hehe. 2 crepes centres, one for salty crepes (shrimp or meat) and the other for sweet ones. The food was AMAZING. I was full before the dinner started. Here the wedding didn't have any speeches or anything that required people speaking too much. The bride and groom said thanks for coming and that everyone enjoyed the party and that was it. They had a slide show of a lot of pictures on a screen and the dancing started, even BEFORE dinner! There was dancing for 5 hours! It was so so much fun. All the moms, aunts and uncles were on the dance floor. They were good dancers too!! My host dad has 15 siblings so there were a lot of relatives for me to meet and mingle with. The bride loves hip hop so they played a lot of music I knew and enjoyed. I was in my element.:) We had so much fun. I felt like I was with the cool family of the party, where everyone danced like crazy and enjoyed themselves. We stayed till they stopped the music.

Sunday:
I started off my day going to church. Its been a few weeks so it was so nice of my friend, Roberta to have found this place. The service was all in English and they sang, "As the Deer", "Did you feel the mountains tremble" and also "Worthy is the Lamb." They had other ones but those reminded me of home. It was a really good service, I felt at home. They have a friday night program here too but I don't know if I wanna go. I'm still contemplating it.

Afterwards, I went to the bride's condo for lunch and it was also amazing! The difference in wealth in Brazil is true, that the rich are really rich and the poor are very poor. This condo had 2 levels, I think we would call this a penthouse in Canada. They had this Spanish dish called Paella. Its rice with all types of seafood and its probably the best thing I've had in Brazil! It was amazing! Super yummy and then they had the best chocolates I've ever tasted. All wrapped as if they were flowers. I ate like 10 pieces of chocolate today! The server came around serving the usually beer, Guarana (a famous pop here), water and coke. I went for a walk with the little cousin Loreana. She hardly speaks any English so a lot of it was hand motions and confused looks. (I have never used the word "CONFUSED" so much in my life, compared to the 2 weeks I've been in Brazil.) In the end, we did understand each other for the most part. CEEDers, its true that your communication is 90% non-verbal!

Here are some visuals: