Adonis Diaries

Before D-Day for Joanna’s wedding

Note: Re-edit of “D-Day for Joanna and Yuhanna wedding. September 2, 2010″

The wedding of Joanna and Yuhanna was to be on Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 1:30 pm in a tiny renovated church in Ajaltoun (Mar Zakhia, Lebanon).

The day before D-Day, I was assigned several hard physical jobs like washing and cleaning the wooden windows in the ground floor that had Not be touched for years, and finishing painting the three large iron doors.

I also aided Cedric removing debris in the parking lot.

In late afternoon, a pick up delivered 8 huge plants to decorate the perimeter of the parking lot (they are trees!) And the ones that need plenty of watering while I can’t find water for my dying parsley).

In the evening, Joanna’s mother Raymonde wanted the dog house removed; father Victor wanted me to help.  I declined: I was too exhausted for such kind of hardship.

Cedric came to the rescue; Victor enlarged the assignment by throwing the fallen stones of the neighbor’s wall in order to clear the street.

Cedric ended up with a backache; I learned to be smart when it comes to physical limitations.  

Around 9 pm, Vickie brought from Khonshara many plates of sweets and chocolates for the morning guests who will be taking individual and family pictures with the bride, before heading in a convoy, honking all the way to church 45 minutes away.

At 7:30 am, Victor was taking his car to be repaired: one of his sons was driving it last night for the wedding project.

Victor asked me to take the other Mercedes car to be washed cleaned.

I resumed my daily routine, exercised, and worked in the garden.  I learned that delaying doing a task finds a nice resolution: Someone had driven the car (that was supposed to be washed).

It was about 9:30 and I dressed up; I urged dad to get dressed.  Mother was getting dressed early and it turned out to be a great decision of hers.  Mother joined the caterers as nobody was in the house on the third floor.

The party was initially planned to get moving about 11:30 but the ladies and girls did not return from the hairdresser before then.  I was sprinkling the new plants that we got last evening, all dressed up, when the first three cars parked.

Then, Joanna arrived alone from the hairdresser and asked the early comers to wait until she get dressed.

Victor arrived with the repaired car and asked me to go wash it at the gas station.  The gas station had a long line of cars waiting to be washed.  An attendant agreed to wash the car without soaping it.  I ended drying the car at home.

I washed my face and thought that I was ready to meet the guests.  As I was ascending the stairs, someone carrying a wet large bouquet of flowers watered the stairs.

Now I am mopping three floors of stairs.

I am ready to meet the guests and Victor is telling me: “You didn’t clean the car well.”  I refused to reply and passed him by.

I barely had time to take a picture with the bride before the convoy started around 1:15 pm.

(The church felt cozy and even the priest cried: The couple were really happy and ready to finally get officially married.

Priests of two different christian sects (Maronite and Greek Orthodox) joined prayer in the ceremony.  There were no chatting in church:  People were attending an unusual event that was well planned and executed in joy.

The party was celebrated 30 minutes away in an open air restaurant in Faqra, called Troy and at the crossroad to the ancient castle.

This is a first for a wedding party held at 3 pm in the afternoon; the weather was cool and dry and no flying pests were noticed:  Maybe because the food served was entirely vegetarian.

The dishes were in great varieties, abundance, and wonderfully delicious.  The guests were awestruck with the novelty of the whole project.

The buffet was filled with all kinds of vegetarian recipes and we navigated from surprise to surprise  Fruity drinks and whiskey were  handed “a volonte” and dessert kept getting varied as the party progressed. To be continued

Out of the more than 3,000 pictures I was barely captured in four photos; I made myself scarce and invisible photo-wise).