Reception

The reception was at a banquet hall close to our house. It was supposed to start at 4:00, but it was actually 7:30 by the time it began. Here is where the bride, groom, best man and maid of honor sit. Fancy!



The bride and groom arrived to much fanfare.





I was happy to see them, also because I wanted to eat! We hadn’t eaten lunch and I only ate a piece of bread for breakfast (plus during the ceremony some small biscuits George snuck in my purse from home) so I was really hungry! If only I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn’t have gotten my hopes up so soon!

The reception had many of the same activities ones on the US do.

Dancing….



Cutting of the cake…



Toast…



And gift giving. Gift giving is done very differently here. People walk up with their gifts and present them to the bride and groom. Its done in rounds… the aunts and uncles… other family… visitors… etc. Each group dances up there in line and gives their gifts to the couple. The best gift of the night…

A goat! And he was wearing a hat!




I lost track of how many rounds there were. After each one, I thought, surely, this is the last. The food has to be next, right? :)

Then there were speeches and lots of acknowledgements. Here the wedding is planned by a committee of family and friends. They raise money and plan everything. Here is a photo of the committee…



By 10:30, George and I decided we had to go. The reception was really nice, fun and full of joy, but we were really tired and hungry. Baby Orwa couldn’t wait anymore. So, we caught a ride home and made dinner. I think if I wasn’t pregnant, I could have stayed longer.



Overall, the wedding was great and I am so happy we were able to attend. People here know how to party and I’m sure they were having a blast until the wee hours of the morning.