Wedding Day

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For the past 2 months I have been planning my wedding here in Arequipa with my wonderful fiance Wayra. It all finally came together on Monday 24th March when at about 2pm we were announced husband and wife!
The day started with breakfast on the balcony with my parents and friend Fiona and her daughter Shannon, who had all travelled to Peru to be with us on our special day. Unfortunately it was a rush brekkie as I had to swiftly leave and go to the hairdressers/ beauty parlour for my finishing touches. Wayra had to go off running around half of Arequipa to be sure about last minute details, while I sat semi-relaxed getting a manicure and my hair ´done´!
The wedding ceremony was supposed to be at 1pm with us arriving at 12.45 to sit down with the registrar and organise all the official papers. I was still in the hairdressers at 12pm with out my dress or any other accessories I needed to be a decent bride! When finally they stopped preening me, I could leave and I practically ran down the street to get back to the room and dressed! When I did get there, I had a wee problem, the french manicure I had wasn´t dried! Which meant that everything I did was done with care... EXTREME care, I won´t go into too much detail but I needed A LOT of help to get ready and due to no bridesmaids or maid of honour the role fell to my Mammy and Daddy to get me sorted! Wayra was also running around at this point finalising things for the reception, the champagne for after the ceremony, paying the florist...
Oh, the flowers, they were just perfect. My bouquet was a posy of roses of a very pale green colour and they were beautiful. All the other flowers we had were pure white roses and magnolias... they really were quite beautiful. We had flowers on the car that took us to the Municipalidad (Town Hall), which was great as we were late and as people could see it was a wedding car and that the bride was sitting frantic in the front shouting at cars to let us through!! All very exciting!
We did finally make it to the Municipalidad, worrying along the way that they would decide not to marry us after all! But we got in, got settled in the office and the Registrar, a nice man called Señor Gabriel (or something similar!) got proceedings underway. He had a few forms to fill in and to register my mammy as a witness among other things, and I need to tell you I have never in all my life seen anyone write so slowly and meticulously!
So upstairs we went out onto a balcony where all the family and friends were waiting, got some pictures taken while we waited for the registrar to come up and then we went into a wee room that fit about 20 people and the ceremony began.
First the registrar read all the legal stuff about getting married... for example we have all the proper and true documentation and that we can get married legally and that it was very difficult for us to organise these papers... the law says we can get married.. all very stale but for me was nice as it was in spanish and i didn´t understand half of it! After this he read the list of requirements that we need to do in a marriage for example taking care of the children and the like...then we said ´si´as in ´I do´ and we signed our papers. Yuri, a good friend was one witness while my Mammy was another. We all signed the papers and me and Wayra needed to put our fingerprint on the papers! After the paper signing he said congratulations and that we were married. At this point I broke down, I was so happy we were finally married but also it was like a relief and from that point on I didn´t care about the things I had been worrying about... like the reception would be ok etc. etc. We then exchanged rings which was so lovely... I love my wedding ring and Wayra´s is the same as mine which you will see soon!
After all the excitement we left the ceremony room to go downstairs for champagne but before we did, we had more photos and more tears from me... so much so that Wayra´s mother told me to stop! It was as if I was sad not happy! But be assured, they were happy tears, I was just overwhelmed with joy!
After many, many more photos downstairs and then outside, we finally left everyone to go for a private lunch. We went to a place called Cecilia´s. This place does typical Peruvian food and everyday there are bands playing in the centre of the restaurant and the people get up and dance in the middle of their meals! It was lovely because some good friends were also there to celebrate Aleida´s birthday so we had a few dances before we took some pics outside. We went off to a beautiful viewpoint for some final pictures before we headed back to our respective quarters to freshen up before the main reception.
So our wedding dinner was on the balcony on the Plaza de Armas in a restaurant called El Mistico. It was dressed beautifully with white and silver tableclothes, beautiful flower centre pieces, 4 huge bouquets on pedestals, the cake table and long delicious buffet! We had some nice speeches from Daddy, Yuri and Wayra. Lots more fotos, drinks and food... was lovely.
Upstairs we went to the reception room for the festivities to begin. Almost all of Wayra´s family was there, all our good friends and of course my parents which was extra special. The compere got things going by asking me and Wayra ro dance the first dance. We were supposed to choose the song but we didn´t get around to it and by chance without him realising the DJ put on the Cranberries, which was just lovely! Then he got us to have a kiss, first I was embarrassed but as we got into it I didn´t care!. We then danced with our parents and later I threw the bouquet. Unfortunately neither of the two people I wanted to catch it, did. We then danced the night away to a great mix of music, mostly Latino but also music from Wayra´s homeland, special music you wouldn´t hear everyday. Everyone had a great time and I think people finally left about 4am.
So that was our wedding day. We both had a great time surrounded by all our friends and family. Of course I missed some special people from Ireland but we will have a great big partty when we return! Thank you to all the people who sent cards, good wishes and presents. We appreciate every thought.
Thats all for now, be in touch soon!
Briege Quinn de Bustinza and Wilfredo Bustinza xxxxxxx

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