Adventures in Gabon: The Civil Wedding

If coming home after sunrise and sleeping until 6pm is any indication of a good time, I think we can safely say wedding #2 was a success! It was a long day because here the ceremony and reception are separated by several hours. The ceremony took place in a building that would be like City Hall back home. There were 27 weddings on Saturday! The room was fairly large and the set up was much like a church would be, seating on either side of an aisle for the groom’s family and the bride’s family. Georgia wore a beautiful, big, fairy tale type gown. When the officiant came into the room they played this official music that made me feel like I was at a taping of Judge Judy…lol. The ceremony was fairly short, but beautiful. Georgia’s husband, Cyrille, has quite a sense of humor. When the officiant asked him “Do you take this woman?” he took the microphone, stood up, and said, “I have a few questions first.” Everyone, even the officiant, got a good laugh out of it.

Chairs for the bride and groom in front of the ceremony room.

The groom enters with his mom

Front row seats for the family!

The elders on the bride's side

Georgia raising her hand to show she's ready for Cyrille to put a ring on it!

Cyrille, Georgia, and the officiant...it's official!

After the ceremony we went outside for some photos and then took off in a motorcade to the cocktail hour. When people get married here they get a police escort and the first car in the motorcade is a pick up truck with a bunch of people chanting and singing, plus a videographer who hangs out the back and videos the married couple’s car, which is following the pick up truck. Everyone else in the wedding follows those two cars and traffic pulls over and lets everyone pass by.

The cocktail hour was at The Beach Club, which is where we went back for the reception later Saturday night. It was a beautiful space and Georgia and Cyrille had rented the place for the day, so we had it all to ourselves. At around two in the afternoon, after hors d’oeuvres and drinks we headed back home for much needed naps.

The bride and her little brother at cocktail hour.

The reception was scheduled to start at 8:30 that night and this event required invitations. No invitation, no entrance. There was a receiving line to take photos with the bride and groom and then you were seated in the large hall. Weddings here are big on entertainment, so there was an MC and throughout dinner up until at least midnight there were dancers, singers, and comedians who came and performed on the dance floor. Sometime after midnight the dancing started and went all night long until the sun was coming up. I think we may have left around 5 in the morning. We dropped some people off at the club (which also don’t close until the sun comes up), grabbed something to eat, and trudged our way into the house around 6am. I don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow and the next thing I knew I was waking up at 6pm Sunday evening.