Weddings in Spain

I have been living in Spain for approximately 1 year and 4 months...not including my semester abroad in college. So far I have had the opportunity to attend 2 spanish weddings. The first one I went to was a friend of my boyfriends, and it was this past July (My boyfriend is spanish, born and raised in Madrid). The second was one of my best american friends, who studied here with me and is marrying a spanish man, this past thanksgiving weekend.

Wedding No. 1
The first wedding was in a small rural village outside of a small city called Avila. The wedding was unusual by spanish standards apparently, not that I would have known. It was basically in the middle of nowhere, with a grouping of rural houses where bride, groom, and all the guests stayed for the weekend. The wedding was in small stone church in the ´downtown´part of the extremely small village. The ceremony was obviously all in spanish, and for what its worth said basically all the same stuff they say at an english wedding ceremony. All of the other woman dress in obscenely ugly, outlandish taffeta dresses in bright colors with feathers and other hideous decor. It´s not unusual to see woman wearing longer dresses as well. I would say people get more dressed up here than in the USA for a wedding. Anyway after the ceremony you have a large meal, whether it be in the evening or in the day. In this case, it was a 1 pm wedding so there was a 3 pm lunch. The meal is extremely long, drawn out, and has several courses. Usually it starts with some kind of appetizer and then a salad. Then usually a type of fish, followed by a sorbet to cleanse the palette. Then there is a meat dish, usually beef or lamb, followed by a cake, then a coffee, than a licor drink. Then the reception usually has some kind of open bar. During the dinner there is wine served, usually white to start and red to follow. After this particular wedding, there was a large bbq reception back at the rural houses. It reminded me of typical USA weddings, everyone drunk, everyone dancing, etc.
Main differences from a Spain wedding to a USA wedding:
1. There are usually no bridesmaids in a spanish wedding,
2. There were parts of the reception where they play flamenco music and all like 100 people, being spanish, just somehow know how to flamenco dance (is it in the blood, or something??? bc I have no freakin idea)...

WEDDING No. 2
This wedding was obviously better in my opinion but that was probably bc it was more traditional and it was also one of my best friends that was getting married. I had taken on the task of doing the makeup for the bride, her two sisters, and her mother. I arrived around 11 to start the makeup to prepare everyone for the 5 pm ceremony. I have to say, my friend looked absolutely stunning in her dress. I was a little on the emotional side, as she is pretty much my first really close friend to get married. Her and her sisters all looked stunning and although Spain usually doesn´t have bridesmaid, my friend had elected to put her sisters in 2 matching purple dresses which were actually super cute. Her mom looked extremely elegant in a long black number.
The ceremony was in a huge cathedral, a beautiful church, so big all voices echoed. The ceremony was short and sweet, and bilingual in both English and Spanish which was cool. The pictures of the couple after the ceremony were really great, I managed to snag some great ones. The cocktail hour started at 8 and the dinner at 9. I busied myself mingling throughout the cocktail hour and signed the guestbook. I really liked this particular wedding bc I felt that I was actually able to hang out and speak with the bride, which normally doesn´t happen too much. It seemed like she got to talk to her new hubby, family and friends and didn´t need to spend too much time schmoozing with those she didn´t know which was really cool. The dinner started at 9 and included fish and a delicious beef dish. I was sooo full by the end. The reception included a mix of both spanish and english music. I ended up leaving around 3 due to an oncoming cold, sinus infection type deal but I was so so happy for my friend. The girls all recieved gifts of almonds with some kind of sugary thing on top and the guys got cigars, which is normal for a spanish wedding. I have to say even after living in spain I was shocked to see people chain smoking throughout the whole dinner, but thats typical here. In any case, the wedding was a great merge of the two cultures. Instead of a best man and maid of honor giving a speech, normally the bride and groom do (difference no. 3 to USA weddings). My friend said my name during her speech, along with two other good friends, andrea and ashley, and she got a bit choked up. I almost lost it but managed to keep my cool. They also had a slide show, which was fun, and I am proud to say I made it into a bunch of the pictures, yay! Anyway the two are off on their 3 week hawaii adventure, I am jealous of course, but have a 4 day trip to portugal planned for next weekend to look forward to, which definately write about the that. However, next entry will be on the spanish boyfriend and the differences between spanish men and american men. signing off!

I guess I´d better start from the beginning

VIVA MADRID!!!! Just thought I´d start off with a bang...wow so here I am starting my own blog. I never thought I would sell out to technology like this but here I am with my texty little phone, pink ipod, facebook membership and now, finally, my very own blog.

First off starting my blog in Spain, all in Spanish trying to set this up was rather odd but whatever I think I did it correctly. I suppose I should start from the beginning.

Name: Lori
Age: 26 (a young 26, I might add...or a fresh 26 perhaps)
Point of this blog: To tell about my life here in Madrid, Spain, as an american, to add laughter and joy to random peoples lives, (who am I kidding...my 3 friends are the only people who will actually read this, I am sure...maybe not even). I also don´t keep a journal and apparently is appalling to all of those ´deep´people that here I am traveling and living abroad and I don´t even have a travel journal!!! I mean how I am going to share my experiences with my children someday, ahhh! So here I am blogging away.

How I arrived: Well I began my journey as Lori 26 years ago in Chicago. I think some parts of my body are actually permanently frozen after enduring 18 chicago winters. That being said I escaped to sunny Tucson Arizona for college (college-worth the thousands my darling parents paid? still unsure, perhaps will have to debate that via blog sometime soon). After college, which include a brief and drunken study abroad stint in Spain, I ambitiously moved to New York, in search of being fabulous business woman Lori. Shortly found out that being fabulous business woman Lori actually means being an assistant for several years and working 70 hours a week...dreams were quickly crushed and savings rapidly decreased, then decided to try my luck abroad. I mean those who can speak more than one language have a wordly culture advantage, no?
So here I am, Lori in Madrid, school teacher by day, blogger by night. That´s the big historical beginning of my life. Now I am wondering what about my life might others find interesting? Will get back to you all soon with that answer, hopefully.