Munay (Love & Beauty): Stories of Life in Peru: My first Peruvian Wedding

Last weekend, I attended my first Peruvian wedding. Where I live in the mountains, weddings are not very common because they cost money. People usually just live together and have kids together and consider themselves husband and wife but never actually sign the official papers making it legal. So I was very excited to get invited to the Peruvian wedding of my boyfriend´s good friends from Lima. The wedding was in a small beach town called Paracas which is about3-4 hours south of Lima. Jerry and I drove down in his jeep and enjoyed the road trip!

On our way to Paracas!

As I mentioned, Paracas is an adorable little beach town that attracts a lot of international tourists because of the nearby islands they have with a lot of wildlife. I had been to Paracas once before with my mom and my aunt when they were visiting me in Peru!

Enjoying the beach in Paracas before the wedding.

I should mention that this was a very fancy and elegant wedding because the bride´s family is one of the wealthiest families in Peru. So it was very modern and "western" and simply stunning. Since it was a nice wedding, I got really dressed up for the first time in Peru!

All dressed up and ready for the wedding!

The wedding took place on the beach and as I keep saying was an absolutely gorgeous wedding. As far as cultural differences that I noticed in comparison to American weddings, there were a few small differences in the ceremony, and the festivities. Like I was very confused on what was happening during the bouquet toss but the single ladies formed a circle around the bride and then did something instead of just tossing the bouquet. Also, a Zumba instructor was brought in and led about 30 minutes of Zumba dancing! "La hora loca" (the crazy hour) of course happened which is a big Latin American tradition in which people dance around with lights and whistles and wear crazy little costumes. We also got to release lanterns with wishes written on them for the new couple. Also a BIG difference in Peruvian vs American weddings and just any party in general is the timing. The wedding was supposed to start at 4pm but really started at 6pm and lasted until about 6am with all the partying afterward. Peruvians like to party hard!