A Small, Thin Rwandan Wedding

I attended my first Rwandan wedding last weekend. It was a catholic wedding. To save time or money the church held two weddings at the same time. It was pretty strange. Also the wedding part including the bride and groom got to sit down the whole time which I think is a great idea. In Rwanda there is no public kissing so at the wedding there was no kissing not even on the cheek. The groom just unveils the women and they walk back down the aisle for the reception. The wedding lasted 2 ½ hours a bit long especially in another language. It was really funny though when the priest was reading one of the vows he could not read the handwriting and was struggling over all the words and the audience laughed silently at him. After the wedding the bride and groom greeted all the guests, took photos and had a reception. It is nothing like an American reception at all. All the guests sit in chairs set up in rows all faces the front of the room where the bride and groom sit. Then dancers and singers come to perform. The cake is cut and only the bride and groom eat it. There is not enough for the guests. It is just a small one tier cake. The guests are given fanta’s (which is very common at any event in Rwanda.) They refer to all soda as fanta but it can mean orange fanta, citrus fanta, sprite, coke, tonic and they have reusable glass bottles which I really love drinking soda out of. Anyway this is the point in the wedding that I left, so I can’t tell you what happens next but that is a Rwandan Catholic wedding of a middle class family here. In summary it was very boring and I will be limited the weddings I attend, I’m sorry to say. But it was a good experience and I’m glad I got to go to one.