The wedding crasher strikes again

For those of you who know me, I am a perpetual wedding attendant - I think my record for a couple of years running was seven/year.  And yes, my mother (and many others) always say to me, 'when is it your turn?'  A little while yet...

This weekend and last weekend, I attended the wedding of a colleague of mine.  Here are some photos to show you what it was like:

 At the registry office

After what appeared like hours of the officiant speaking, Manzi and Evariste finally said their vows - they had to hold the Rwandan flag to make it 'official.'  The wedding certificate was signed and then they were married :)

Then proceeded the mass of photos - the children in the matching dresses are my principal's daughters and the girl in purple is Manzi's younger sister.  My principal and his wife are in the pic on the right.  Manzi is the principal's wife's younger sister.

I was not actually invited to this part of the wedding but because I got stranded in Butare as my bus back to Cyahinda was full (and I didn't fancy braving a 1/5hr moto-ride again…), the principal kindly let me stay at his house.  I was not dressed appropriately, nor did I smell very nice (probably) having travelled on a packed bus for 2hours from Kigali…still, everyone seemed appreciative that I was there!?

The ACTUAL wedding ceremony - or at least the dowry-giving part which I also attended took place the following Saturday.  It was a beautiful occasion - not that I understood what was going on - but thankfully I was given the task of being photographer with my principal's DSLR - so that kept me occupied.  Still managed to take a few cheeky snaps with my point and shoot though…

So here I am with my colleague, Caritas (she's next to be married in February) - this was the dress I wore to the wedding…but then my principal wanted me to wear something traditional…

As I left Manzi's house, I got a round of applause from the locals who had gathered to witness the marriage - and then another round from the wedding attendants.  (I'm actually still wearing my original dress that I wore to the wedding under all this!)

The wedding set-up

Fathers sharing a drink...

The happy couple

Traditional-warrior cries/blessings

The bridal party...

Louis giving more traditional-tribal blessings - it just sounded like screams and a bit of rapping to me!

A pretty couple :)

I actually preferred taking photos of the non-official attendants…

After the dowry-giving (which took about 3 hours), the party moved onto another city for the church ceremony - I decided not to go but instead went to have Chinese food with my colleague.  It wasn't too bad either…London prices but a well deserved treat :)