Panama Wedding Pt.2
Finally……. My First Panama Wedding
What a Do! I mean.. what a Day it was! I’m positively bursting, so where do I start? Ok here goes.
The long anticipated first wedding in Panama, took place Saturday evening March 3, 2007 at the First Isthmian Baptist Church, Colon, Panama.
The occasion introduced me to other ‘firsts’. For example, in Jamaica the wedding has to take place before 6:00om, otherwise it is not valid.
There are no such time constraints on weddings in Panama. Fortunately for the bride, she was not in Jamaica since she arrived 2 hours late for a wedding that was was scheduled to take place at 5:00 pm. Thank heavens too for ‘cell phones’ by which no doubt the anxious groom was re-assured that she was on her way.
Moreover, they were already legally married by the Panama Civil Registrar on Friday, so this was the Church Wedding Ceremony. So technically, we didn’t need to have the ceremony.
I was made aware of the still prevalent cultural practice of the late arrival of the bride. Therefore, I warned the bride to be early as it was no longer fashionable for the bride to be late. That practice was for the days when brides used to arrive from distance lands travelling by horse and buggy and reluctant to meet someone they never met!!
Then there were the words of wisdom from the wise pastor- “Bride, please do not wait until Saturday morning to get your hair, facial, manicure and pedicure done. Do those from the day before. Sleep standing up or with your head hanging off the bed if you have to. But do not arrive late because you are at the Beauty Salon all day!!”
This is straightforward contemporary Wedding Etiquette and good sense that you can spend the day of the wedding in relaxation. The bride does not need the extra stress of running late and rushing.
Well what can I tell you except that pastor’s pearls of wisdom fell on deaf ears. Saturday afternoon - Bride was in sauna, getting full body treatment, “faceshall, footshall, and fingershall”, and well coifed and the rest you already know.
Now for the other surprises….
Read First Panama Wedding Liturgy
Then read First Panama Wedding Reception
Love,
Marvia
Notes:-
“facial, footcial and fingercial” - is a unique Jamaican way of speaking of a facial, manicure and pedicure. It comes from the work of Jamaican poet, Joan Andrea Hutchinson’s poem. The title has now escaped me, as soon as I find it I’ll update the post with the information. Someone could also send me the information or put it in a post.
Read meaning of ‘coifed’ here. Used here in the sense of ‘arrange or dress hair’.
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Marvia
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