i was the official photographer

the night before the wedding, the father of the groom came to ask greg if he could drive the bride and groom around for the day. greg had to decline cuz he had to teach at school, but he offered me to drive...so of course i said yes! but then i realized i had no idea what the cultural obligations were! so i began asking and i had to go get some fake flowers and ribbon and dress up the car for the day....putting a bunch in the front, on the back and on the doors with ribbon tying them all together. so that morning i was talking with my ibu and she said that she had never heard of a woman driver before. she thought it was a little funny that i was driving. so i thought maybe i should hire a man to drive. so she went over and asked the family what to do and they said they have a whole family of drivers (it's actully a job here to drive for people) so they would be happy to drive for me, but they still wanted me to come and take pictures. but i didn't even know that i was to be taking pictures! the groom had forgotten to ask me... but because i have a camera...it works like that...that i would be asked :D !!! so i quickly got dressed for a wedding and took the camera and the whole grooms family met at his house and we ate food. then we piled in two cars (ours had 15 people in it) and maybe 10 motorcycles and we all drove to the church where her family was waiting on us cuz the groom was 'late' and the ceremony began immidiately with only family there (and me) and this was a christian wedding so it seemed pretty typical of what we would see in the states. even the lighting of the candle. then after the ceremony we all jumped back in the cars and on the motorcycles and drove to the brides home where the whole neighborhood was waiting under a tent. we arrived and the bride, groom and parents sat in front and we all sat in chairs looking at them. about 4 guys got up and talked for a bit and then we ate and left again. they were married. but rituals will go on this whole week and not until saturday will they come together to live in the same house. and on saturday we will have another party with more people and more driving and more pictures! but here are a few pictures of the day. they don't like to smile for photos but i did manage to get a couple of people grinning (i know only a few words in 'javanese' which is the island language and i would say those words and everyone would laugh so i would take the picture cuz they think it's so funny when we speak 'javanese'!) :D i took 247 pictures in 4 hours. it was a great day and i felt honored to be apart of the family experience. it's great to know our neighbors in a time like this :D we love to help and it seems they are always having to help us!