Some of us bloggers have been sharing our local nativity scenes, so here's the stone grotto outside San Fernando church in Guaymas, where I've been singing with the choir the past six weeks.
This evening we were treated to tightly scheduled end-to-end pageantry at the church, with a christening minutes before the wedding we were singing for. The priest managed to make it a much longer nuptials ceremony by presenting a stultifyingly long sermon, presumably on fidelity (can't say for sure). I sat pondering how a young, celibate man could possibly have so much advice on matrimony.
Finally the bride, in strapless white with a train that reminded me of a peacock's tail traded her big bouquet for a little nosegay which she took to the altar in front of La Guadalupe to pray. While the photographer snapped photos in her face, she began crying. A little boy (hers?) was led to her and when he saw her tears, HE started crying too. I would have been next.
Then she swapped the nosegay back for the big bouquet and headed outside with the wedding party. The bride's dad is the bass in the choir, and he chose to sing with us rather than stand at the altar. We did one Christmas carol, Lolita sang "Ave Maria" and played Bach's "Air on a G String." It went well, I thought. As we left the church, regular evening mass was about to begin. We were not invited to the reception.