Brazilian Wedding and the Day After

As I suspected, the wedding went pretty late!  My wife and I didn't get home until 3 am!  My wife explained to me that a weekend evening in Brazil doesn't really even get going until around 9 or 10 PM, and as we were driving home, there were still a lot of people out having fun at the bars and restaurants around Goiania.

I am about to show you photos of the wedding, but first, a word of caution: the iPhone does not take great wedding photos.  Flashing colored lights throw this thing for a loop.  I am in no way vying for any kind of Nobel photography prize here.  Having said that, here we go.

This is the entrance to the wedding.  Both the ceremony and the reception were held at a very nice restaurant a little ways from here in Goiania.

Here is a picture of the location of the ceremony.  I love all the plants and flowers!  Reminds me a bit of our wedding.

My wife and I!  I seemed to have forgotten to look at the lens in this photo.

Remember what I said about the iPhone and bright lights!  This is the pastor.  My wife's family in Goiania are Baptists, and this is how Brazilian Baptists roll.  Live band, too!

The flower children!

My uncle-in-law with his daughter walking down the aisle.

His daughter seeing the groom for the first time at the ceremony.

I don't recall if I gave my wife a hand kiss at the start of the ceremony, but I definitely recall feeling compelled to kiss her on the cheek at one point before remembering that it was a wedding and there aren't to be any preemptive face kisses.

The ceremony was, of course, entirely in Portuguese.  Now I know how my Brazilian relatives felt at my wedding!  Despite my ability to only occasionally understand a word here and there, it was very lovely.  They also had a dedicated crew of photographers.  I counted four photographers, plus a videographer.

The new bride and groom!

The bride and groom, flanked by my aunt and uncle-in-law.

Foods!  This was a shrimp, with risotto and a cute little pimento pepper.  My wife is saying it's not a pimento pepper.  Apparently it's a Pimenta Biquinho.  I got confused because 'Pimenta' means 'pepper' in Portuguese.  But there is also a pimiento pepper.  What this means is that I fed all of you some bad information in one of my last posts, apparently.  I'm doing the best I can!

This was crab, onion and, ahem, Pimenta Biquinho.

Salted cod and Pimenta Biquinho.

Here's the menu!

some kinda delicious meatball.

This is the cake my grandmother-in-law made.  All by herself!  She's very talented.

This was fish, a small banana-type thing, mashed potato and pesto.

I don't know what these are but they're delicious.  I thought they were a kind of berry sitting in a passion fruit mousse contained in a chocolate cup, but apparently that is incorrect.  Regardless, they're good.

Another angle!

A coconut-covered brigadeiro.  My wife's personal favorite brigadeiro variety.

These are walnut bites.  They taste a lot like my mother's classic Christmas cookie, the Yum-Yummy.

These are called 'Father-in-Law's Eyes'.  Yes, seriously.  They're a sweet mixture of coconut, egg and butter, ensconced in a hard thin shell of apricot-flavored sugar.  If eyeballs actually taste like this, look out world!

This was basically bananas foster.  I've never had bad bananas foster.

My plate after raiding the sweets table.  The servers seemed to take an extra long time clearing my plate in particular, so it served as a reminder of my moment of piggyness, but I regret nothing.

The next morning we awoke for a big family lunch.  Before that, however, my wife and I went out to get coffee.  And look at that- a Pizza Hut.  For some reason I felt compelled to take a picture, and for some other reason, I felt compelled to post it.  Viva globalism?

The chef creating the huge lunch feast.

Churrasco!  If there is a Brazilian restaurant near you (and you're not in Brazil), it's most likely a churrascaria.  It's Brazilian BBQ, I guess you could say, but it's oh so much more than that.  Goiania is meat heaven.

Meats being prepared.  It was picanha, a cut of beef that is a bit fatty and full of flavors.  Oh and all the meats came from the Beef Boutique!

Yucca!

THIS.  Feijao Tropeiro.  It's a combination of a type of green onions, bacon pieces, beans and farofa (the raw cassava flour).  If my head was full of Feijao Tropeiro, I would crack my head open and eat its delicious contents.

Viniagrette.

This scene didn't last too long.  You mix all this stuff together (aside from the yucca and meats) and eat it with your damn eyes closed because it's too beautiful to experience with more than two senses at a time.

Almost my entire Goiania Brazilian family!  Eu os amo!