Letter # 63 - December 2, 1978

As you can see by the picture, we were really married. All of the expense and hassles of trying to arrange the wedding were wearing everyone's patience thin, but it all proved to be worthwhile. It was quite a good ceremony, reception, and party, and everyone enjoyed it. There were probably about 70 people at the wedding. It was a small church so we filled the place right up with people.

Diana had two bride's maids and I had two best men, and then we had two kids come along also. There were two reverends in the service. The first did all of the actual marrying, while the second one, Rev. Sahr Junisa, was just excellent! He is a Kono man, so I felt like we were old friends, even though this was the first time that I had met him. For the address, he had Diana and me sit down in front of him, and then he stood up and talked to us, with the congregation listening in behind. He was giving us advice on our marriage, and everything he said was interesting and meaningful. Everyone enjoyed listening to him.

At the reception, we even had a wedding cake. It was one layer, about 5 inches thick and a foot and a half wide, in the shape of a heart. It was something to look at, but I couldn't eat hardly any of it. The frosting was too sweet and the inside was something like a cross between chocolate cake and fruit cake. It seemed to weigh a ton, and trying to cut that first piece out was a real challenge. The cake managed to get eatten up at the reception, though, and I didn't hear anyone complain, so maybe I just didn't feel like eatting cake at the moment.

For the party, a sound system with records was hired, and we bought some ice and filled the bathtub up with drinks. We got alot of good dancing in.

For our honeymoon, we just went into our room and closed the door. This was when the party had finally ended, at about 12:30. We felt that we didn't really need a regular honeymoon, being that we've been living together already.

From my camera we got a few good pictures, but not as many as we would have liked. None of them taken inside the church came out. We have 6 taken outside the church, 2 of us and the wedding cake, and 4 of us at the party. We had someone taking pictures for us. She also shot one roll of black and white film with her own camera, but we haven't gotten those yet to see how they came out. We'll send you some more pictures when we get them.

My suit and Diana's dress were specially made for the occasion. Mine cost about $30 ($18 for the material and $12 for the sewing) while Diana's was about $100 altogether. My tailor and Diana's seamstress really did a good job of sewing, and we were both getting alot of comments on our clothes at the reception.

We each got the same kind of wedding ring, a band of gold with no design except its shiny polished surface. The only difference is that hers can pass through mine. Peace Corps loaned us a car for the occasion, a big roomy station wagon.

My expense for this wedding was about 350 leones, quite an expense if you are on a Peace Corps salary of 207 leones per month. The situation is not too bad though, as I've only got about 50 leones left to pay back to people, so we should be out of debt by the end of the month.

I know that you have all been anxious about how the wedding went, and wish that you could have come. We've thought about all of you too. Maybe we'll have to do it all again when we come home.

Love,
Donny and Diana