The story of our travels, part 4

Here we are at the end. Its always sad when you get to the end. Especially the end of a great trip. But we're here, so we'll enjoy it while we can. The wedding day started slow and comfortable. We all took our time getting ready. The guys made sure things were set up and that the wedding would go off with no problems. The wedding planner, dresses, throne chairs (you'll see in a minute) and the throne tent would arrive around 5pm we thought, and the plan was to begin at 7pm. Kinda late, but that's the way they do it.

Everything was ready to go, all we were waiting for was the wedding planner. Finally we called her to find out that she was sitting in town waiting for us?! So quickly we dashed down to see her. She came finally dresses, etc. in hand. We got Elena dressed in one of her 5 dresses and rushed upstairs for some quick posed photos. Then we were off.

I mentioned before the part of the wedding is to drive around town honking your horn. Here are the cars all decorated and ready for the trip. Daniel and Elena rode in one car and all the rest of the guests followed in cars, trucks, vans anything they could find.

Daniel is holding two flags out the window. One is for the bride and one is for the groom. They keep these flags on their house for a week or so before the wedding. Then when the groom comes to get the bride he takes her flag with him to his house.

When we got back they come and sit in front of everyone on these big thrones. These are the most "tame" chairs you could rent. You should see some of the other chairs. Here Elena is wearing her first of 5 dresses. Its a lot like our traditional wedding dresses.

Josiah & I got to wear traditional outfits too. It was so much fun to get all dressed up.

After a brief sit, we did a ceremony that mirrored our traditional weddings. In Morocco there isn't really a time of commitment during the weddings, its just a big party. It was great to include this part of the wedding for them to see. Willie gave a brief message about love and respect. It was translated into Arabic so that everyone could participate.

After changing into her second dress (check out the necklace!) they were carried in and danced around. A couple times we thought they were going to drop them, but the made it. It was hard work though, those seat things they are sitting on are heavy!

For her third dress we all danced together. Normally the bride wouldn't dance or show much excitement at all. Elena however is a dancer and she was so excited she couldn't sit down for the whole wedding. It was hard to dance though in that dress. You can't see it but the train on it is almost cathedral length!

This was Elena's 5th and final dress. There was a pink one in there, but we didn't get a good picture of it. I think this one was my favorite. After a quick sit they finally got changed and headed out for their honeymoon around Morocco. They drove away around 2am!

After they left the party continued until around 3am, which was early for a normal Moroccan wedding. Us foreigners just like our sleep too much!

The next day we all took our time waking up and enjoying each others company. We went out to a special dinner with the whole family (minus D & E). We were all wishing we had more time together, but glad the time we had was so full of joy. The next day (Sunday) we headed out early in the morning to catch a train back to the capital city of Rabat. We spent the night there and then the next morning jumped into our rental car and drove down to the Casablanca airport.

8 of us in one tiny little car.

The trip home was pretty uneventful. We stayed one night in Madrid, went to a fun Irish pub there for dinner. It was early so they didn't mind the kiddos joining us for dinner. Then we slept and off we went the long distance home.

We go and pick up Daniel and Elena tonight. They have had some great adventures it sounds like traveling around Morocco. I hope it was a time full of joy for them. We are so excited to have Elena as part of our family now. And extra excited that she wanted to join our family with a Moroccan wedding!