Agus has anointed herself maestra of wedding planning, well at least to help sort out the final details. She has recruited her old school friends Magi and Caro as assistants. Cutlery, crockery, glassware, table centrepieces and a Heineken chop (beer keg) have been sorted out at rapid speed as there is less than a week until the wedding day. I’m doing last minute repairs to the bride & groom’s house lights (and other things) as this is the reception venue – now also hosting the after party for 60 people thanks to Agus’ newly minted electronic invitations. Alfie is playing with Rufina their cat, answering the front doorbell (nobody is there, his imagination is in overdrive all the time now) and pseudo playing football with his tío. The last activity mainly involved Santi kicking the ball at him whilst he was playing dead lying on the grass. The dream is gone, he’s not the next Leo Messi, we are not retiring early.
Día de la Casamiento – Agus leaves 7am with her assistant and chauffeur Magi and heads to Caro’s house to help her get dressed. It’s raining and panic sets in. Some marquees are organised and erected in their front yard by 10am – I love how this is possible in Argentina, there is no way in hell this would happen in Australia. Some semblance of calm is restored, but not in my house. The civil ceremony is at 11:30am, I’m preparing small bags of rice to distribute and hand out to family & friends to throw at the newlyweds – yes this is still done here & also this turns out to be a waste of time…I learn later I should hav just taken the whole bag of rice and allowed people to grab handfuls. I manage to shower whilst Alfie watches YouTube on the iPad – I hope I have blocked all the Russian, Korean, Vietnamese and Arabic channels that have flooded my suggested viewing ever since we landed in Argentina (of course I can’t ever hope to do this – fuckin’ Google AI engine). I dress Alfie, so his hair, he’s looking sharp. I start dressing, Alfie is now crawling around on the floor…these clothes just needed to stay clean for the family photos…nope, but they will have to pass. Tía Silvi arrives with Trombeta and we jump into their car trying not to get too wet. I’m already sweating like a pig, the humidity is ridiculous.
We at the marriage registry early – good and bad. Alfie went to bed late and woke up early so he is tired and didn’t want to walk from the car…he whinged all the way. We say hi to Santi and Caro and wish them well. Now he’s whining as he can’t find mummy – she’s inside witnessing the legal proceedings, only 5 people can attend due to COVID restrictions. They come out legal papers in hand – it’s official Santi y Caro se casero! We throw rice, Trombeta is enjoying this way too much!
The rain has stopped but humidity is 98%! Alfie is reunited with Agus, minor crisis averted. We all depart in different cars for the church in Béccar – I’m with the newly married couple…a pity I didn’t know this was going to happen otherwise I would have strung cans together and tied them to the back of the car Aussie style or at least made a dodgy handwritten cardboard sign for the back window.
La Iglesia – salida del auto, humidity check , still high, crap…there better be AC or muchas ventiladores in the church. We’re 1/2hr early so we wait for others to arrive at the entrance – there is no AC, I count 8 fans, 2 are on. I’m pleased to learn that the ceremony is not a full catholic service rather a condensed 20mins version. Why am I still wearing my suit jacket? Alfie has fallen asleep in the car, Agus doesn’t realise the service starts at 1pm so she wakes him up prematurely, luckily he is in time for the kids photos though. The flowers they gave him to hold lasted a couple of seconds before being thrown at the camera lady. Wisely Santi decided not to give him the rings to him to carry down the aisle a while back. Showtime, the priest shuts the front doors of the church before we have entered and taken our seats (I don’t know why), not that it mattered as Alfie has run around the to the side doors as he has spied the band. He has his eye on the electric keyboard and microphones and announces that he is going to use them and that I can’t sing, only he is allowed to. The band’s small roadie gives me the stink eye, I reckon Alfie can take him though, but I resist the urge to unleash him and instead drag him over to the front row pew where Agus is seated. She is has been asked to read one of the passages during the ceremony so needs easy access to the lectern. The doors open and Caro is escorted down the aisle by her sobrinos and father, he hands her over to Santi. Alfie exclaims, “she’s beautiful like a princess”. The priest starts the ceremony, I’m now taking turns with Agus holding on to Alfie and feeding him the snacks that I packed this morning in his backpack. I don’t really understand anything that the priest is saying, a few words here and there I catch in between wrestling Alfie. I eventually have to take him out, stage right, then to one of the back vestibules where he finds a chair to sit on a reflect. It over, they are now married twice – once under the eyes of the law and once again under the eyes Papa Francisco (yes the pope is Argentinian).
La recepción – vamos a Torquato. I’m travelling with Pato and Magui, yes it’s still humid, the car’s AC is a welcome relief. We arrive and settle into a relaxed (immediate) family afternoon of drinking and grazing on an array of tasty finger food. The humidity is oppressive so I’m trying to find an breezy area in which to stand…I may have found one right near the beer tap. Alfie played in the ball pit with the other kids…they tolerated him. Tio Pato fell asleep, Alfie woke him (many times over). I totally didn’t recognise Martita (embarrasing), however Alfie took a shine to her when she helped him with his ice-cream. Champagne corks are popped, the cut is brought out to be cut, Caro says some kind words about family and friends – I thought that she said “Santi was the menu number” for her…apparently I translated that very badly. Much like my own wedding I didn’t eat any of their wedding cake, in fact I don’t know what happened to my wedding cake after Agus and I cut it.
La fiesta – llega la noche y tambien la fiesta! Alfie’s grief at the loss of the ball pit is pretty quickly turned into glee when he sees the DJs lights go up and turn on. He is now entering party mode that only gets more and more energetic the night progresses. The most important person for me arrives – the guy who is carving the pernil de cerdo (slow cooked leg of pork). I may have had a lot of sandwichitos from him that night. Santi & Caro’s friends arrive in a constant stream from 6pm. It has been years since I have seen a lot of them, all of them remember me (apparently I stand out as the only Aussie in the Echagüe clan), I remember some, I apologise to those I didn’t and re-introduced myself to. Agus is jumping & hugging people she hasn’t seen for ages, Alfie is running around like a madman, dancing behid the DJ booth, circling Caro like a shark and harassing everyone on standing on the floor in-front of the temporary bar (Santi’s Parrilla area) to dance with him. He is so hot at 8:30pm he doesn’t mind us pouring cold water on his head.
If you know about Argentine weddings, they kick on until the early hours of the morning. We would have loved to have stayed and partied on, but we had a toddler who was crashing and burning, also a hangover the next day with Alfie is something you don’t want to experience. After 3 cancelled Ubers (it’s a thing in BA for Uber drivers to try and get you to cancel after the 5min grace period so that they get paid for doing nothing) Agus finally agreed to pay cash and the 4th one showed up around 9pm. We probably made it 10mins down the road and Aflie passed out on Agus. Home in Florida at 9:30-ish and it was straight to bed for him and we followed pretty quickly. What a great day – ¡Felicitaciones Santi y Caro!
3 meses en Argentina 
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