A Liberian Wedding

In early February, two of my close friends in Gbarma were married!  They first held a traditional dowry ceremony and then a religious ceremony followed in a nearby church.  For the dowry ceremony, they basically brought out six different women disguised in lappa (traditional fabric here) and then the groom and his family had to pay money in order to reveal each woman's identity.  Everybody knows that each of the first five women won't be the correct bride, but they all still play along.  Lots of money gets paid to the family of the bride and lots of people laugh and play music and enjoy the whole ruse.  The church ceremony afterwards was long and hot (the church felt like a sauna!), but it was full of loud music and colorful outfits, as any typical Liberian ceremony should be.  To top it all off, there was a short reception later on where some food was given to the invited guests and gifts were presented to the newlywed couple.  While there's so much more to say about the entire experience, take a look at some of the photos below and see for yourself.  :-)

The Peace Corps Wedding Guests 

Me & Massa, my Girls Club Counterpart

Unveiling One of the False-Brides

The Real Bride, Marie

Me & Micheal, the Groom

Me & Joanna, my Landlady

The Altar

The Flower Girl, Micheal & Marie's Daughter

The PACKED Church

The Rings

The Vows

It's Official:  They're Married!

The Best Wedding Cake Ever!
(Read the reason below.)

Our Special Table at the Reception

"Two of These Things are Not Like the Others..."  ;-)

To check out all the photos from the event, click here.

Some highlights from the wedding:

• I sweat so much that I had to wring out my sweat rag on the church floor.  Multiple times.  Dry season problems.
• A Sleeping Beauty figurine was at the top of the wedding cake.  Other cake decorations included:  a policeman figurine, artificial flowers, and two silver sparkly dove Christmas ornaments that Rachel had given Marie for the season.  Awesome, right?
• We invited some fellow PCVs to attend the wedding, and we all got a special table together, complete with a very lovely sign that read "Marie's White Friends".  Gotta love Liberians' bluntness.
• I got to witness the first "official" (legal) wedding of its kind in Gbarma Town.  How cool is that?