After breakfast in the hotel, we walked around the new part
of town and stumbled upon an outdoor market. It was pretty big – mostly
produce, but also Chinese junk and clothes. We bought delicious cherries, big
yellow plums and funny looking flat peaches. Everything was fresh and
delicious. Then we got dressed up in our wedding attire and drove to the church
on top of the hill. The wedding was lovely, traditional Catholic – with a mass
in Spanish. There were about 100 people there, and probably almost equally
divided between Spanish and Italian, with very few English speakers here and
there. Everybody was formally dressed. After the wedding, there were endless
pictures in front of the church and then people started leaving for the nearby
(about 15 miles) town of Monroyo where the reception was going to start at 3
pm. Monroyo is another picturesque hill town and Posada de Guadalupe (the
reception venue) is an old, stone traditional building almost at the top. The
first stage of the reception was outside. There was a bar set up and several
bar tables and as people arrived, they got aperitifs and an endless stream of
appetizers, including a station where jamon iberico was being sliced and
served. This stage lasted about an 1.5 hours or so, until the newlyweds arrived
and had some drinks and appetizers. Then we moved inside to the dining room.
There were 14 tables with assigned seats – about 8-10 people at each table.
There were two main courses – seafood and lamb with apple sorbet in between,
and then ice cream, wedding cake and fruit for dessert. The wedding cake was
brought up in the dark, all lit up and the newlyweds cut the first piece with a
long sword. The whole reception was very well organized, the service was
fantastic and the atmosphere very lively.
Then we drove back to Valderrobres with a stop in yet another pretty
hill town, and took a long evening walk to try to burn some of the wedding
calories.
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