Continuing from our sit-down on the bench under the shade of the tree, we took our selfie. I was wearing 'my old scruffy' as I like to call it, i.e. a very old dress that I generally only wear at home when I am not going anywhere. It's like my comfy blanky, faded from many washes and I said to Gregg, "Do you think I look okay enough to go out in this old thing?" Gregg laughs and I add, "Well, it's not like we're going to meet anyone we know!" Gregg, wearing his old 't' shirt and jeans, says something like, "You're dressed up more than me." So off we set, scruffy and scruffy, heading to the garden.
After we had our nice little chit-chat with the couple who so kindly took our photo, and said our goodbyes to those lovely Boston Terriers, both in this post, we sat for a while longer. We had noticed a group of ladies walking across the green in a different country’s traditional clothing, which I always enjoy as you may have heard me say before, an interest since childhood. I was taking it all in. The sun was sparkling off their gowns. It looked like they were with a photographer. I said at the time it looked like a wedding party.
While admiring them from a distance something else happened. A young man walked along the path, stopped not so far away but still in the shade, and talked into his cell phone. He was looking in the direction of the group of ladies. He had a lovely smile and he was dressed as you see in the next photo. Gregg struck up a conversation after the young man put his phone away. After a while my dear other half asked if he could take a photo. It’s a real nice photo but it’s hard to capture the elegance of such a style of clothing, especially as we were still in the shade. (I have blurred out his face for privacy).
I surprised myself - just put it down to the fact that I am in my comfortable stage with such outspokenness in my mid-70s - at least that’s what I told Gregg later. I said to the young man I thought he looked very handsome and he accepted my compliment with another smile and a thank you. Gregg enjoys chatting to people we meet by chance, as do I, and this day had already turned into a special kind of day for that. The three of us had a very pleasant conversation, but then he had to leave as the wedding ceremony was about to start. We continued on as I was eager to take photos of the flowers.
By this time I was starting to get tired, though still taking photos along the path (always more energy for taking photos of flowers). I saw movement. Our nice young man was heading back towards us with a big smile on his face. It had been about ten minutes since we spoke to him. He said, with another big smile on his face, I have talked to my family, and we would like to invite you to the wedding! Okay, knock me down with a feather and I was in a bit of a shock but how could we turn down such a gracious invitation? Heart was full I can tell you. This had turned into a most amazing day. We followed him into the gazebo area and was guided to where we could sit. Anywhere he said. We chose the third row thinking that perhaps family were going to sit in the first two rows.
The little girl on the left had the most darling dress and wearing cowboy boots, pink and glittery and sparkling brightly in the sun. She was adorable!
I'm afraid no photos of the bride as I didn't want to be too intrusive but we were allowed to take a few photos. The ceremony was spoken in both their native language and English. There were English-speaking friends invited also. The ceremony itself was called a Nikah. We listened to the words of the Imam and the sentiments reminded us of our own wedding by my village vicar all those years ago.
We watched as the new husband and wife walked down the steps of the gazebo and joined their family for official photos. Things were winding down.
We thought it was time to go and Gregg found the young man and we both thanked him for this wonderful invitation. We were kind of in a daze that we had been invited but absolutely thrilled to have had this experience. As we were leaving a lady tapped me on the shoulder and gave me two favor boxes to take home with us. Another gift for these strangers - 'scruffy and scruffy' I will call them and yes, I am smiling. We were a tad underdressed but this didn't seem to matter at all. What mattered was that we accepted their invitation and we made the young man very happy when we said yes.
We were on our way to dinner at a favorite eatery, so we kept the boxes for our evening meal. Each one had the above items in it; a beef empanada, a chicken empanada, a chicken salad tea sandwich with the crusts cut off, two delicious chocolates in the pink and blue wrapping and three small wedding cookies. We thoroughly enjoyed our supper. I'm glad we waited as it allowed us to think back on our day. We guessed the boxes came from a catering company. I wish we knew from where, as we would highly recommend them. Everything was delicious and it was a fun and out-of-the-ordinary supper for us.
That's the end of our day, and what a day it was. Right off the bat we met that nice couple who took our photos at the Moon Gate, then there was Oreo, Apple and Linguini. Lastly, the lovely young man who extended the best kindness with such a gracious invitation to his family's wedding. We will always remember.
Years ago we went to a Jewish Wedding Ceremony, an invite from one of Gregg's young petty officers back in our navy days, and all these years later we were invited to a Muslim Wedding Ceremony. Amazing! We still talk about that other wedding very affectionately, and I know we will be talking about this one with just as much affection.
I have photos of flowers which I will share next time.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day everyone!
