My brother’s wedding

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Our main event for this trip to Brazil was my brother’s wedding that was taking place in Paraty. We knew it was going to be quite a family gathering and a beautiful wedding, but we had no idea how busy we were going to be in the days surrounding the wedding and how fast it would all go. There were so many other things to do and see in Paraty and so many people I wish I had spent more time with but we just didn’t have the time.

Thankfully I still have a lot of family in Brazil and so, many excuses to visit.

The day of my brother’s wedding, we woke up early and went to town for a quick walk. I had not seen much of Paraty during the day and it is such a picturesque place that only a few hours don’t do it justice. After meandering around for an hour or so, we stopped to have an ice-cream. It was the first place I found that had dairy-free sorbets of some of my favorite fruits. Passion fruit ice-cream has to be one of my favorites! Actually, anything with passion fruit is making my list of favorites. I also had the açai and jabuticaba (Brazilian grape tree) sorbets. Jabuticaba was one of my favorite fruits when I was a kid. I remember picking the fruit right out of the tree and eating it in one my relatives backyards. But in all of these years, I had never had Jabuticaba sorbet, so I knew I had to try it. If you ever have the chance, you should go for it. It’s sweet and sour just like passion fruit.

In the afternoon, I was supposed to get my hair and makeup done, but the lady who was supposed to do it got stranded somewhere on the road with a broken car, so I had to do it myself, which I didn’t mind, but with a baby, everything takes so much longer nowadays… We finally got ready and out of the door, walking from the house we rented to the church. Everything after that is kind of a blur. It went so fast and I was also trying to capture it all in pictures and video that I didn’t get to enjoy it fully. But I have no regrets, I loved being a part of my brother’s wedding and being able to capture some memories for them that will last many years.

The wedding took place in a small church that was absolutely beautiful. The white walls were a big contrast to the ornate podium where carved statues and relics provided a beautiful background to the ceremony. It was absolutely perfect for my brother and his fiancee, because it was simple and yet elegant, just like them.

With friends and family present, they exchanged vows and there were many sweet moments and quite a few tears. I am not one to cry, but when my 86 years old grandfather walked down the aisle in the middle of the ceremony with the rings, I lost it. Thank goodness for waterproof makeup!

After the ceremony was over, the entire wedding party and guests walked through the historic streets of Paraty, following the bride and groom and musicians playing the violin, to the docks where wooden boats waited for us. We boarded them towards the reception party which took place in a private island.

Everything was absolutely beautiful. The service was impeccable and the food amazing! Each detail was so intimate to the personalities of the bride and groom. Everything meant something to them. For example, the wedding cake was one of my brother’s favorite cakes of childhood. A cake that his grandmother used to make when we were kids. It’s labor intensive because each layer of cake is only cardstock thick and guava paste is spread in between layers. A small cake may contain 30+layers of cake. So you can imagine how hard it would be to make a wedding cake like that, but they found someone to do it. And it looked great, but it tasted even better!

After pictures, appetizers, drinks and dinner, it was time to party. For those of us that had to leave earlier (Roark passed out in the carrier, but the party got really loud),  boats were available to take the trip back to town.

It was a perfect wedding for two lovely and in love people that deserve all the best in the world. Here are some of pictures of the day. If you would like to see some video snippets, check out the vlog here. I didn’t post all of the videos or pictures of my brother’s wedding to respect the privacy of the attendees and of my brother and his fiancee, but I hope you enjoy the sneak peak.

xoxo

Jana