When I started this blog I never expected to be writing about brides and weddings. Those of you who have been following the blog will know that we encountered a number of brides in Paris. Well in Spain they abound ! It may just be that in Granada we were staying near one of the popular churches and we were there over the weekend but we saw, oh, about six weddings. Spain is a Catholic country and Franco made church weddings compulsory, so that may explain the fashion for the big wedding. I do like a mantilla - the Spanish lace trailing from the headdress and these were popular among the brides. Quite pricey - I spied some for 300+ euro, but a local told me the really good ones are closer to 1000 euros and are family treasures.
We became quite the critics in the end, judging dresses, hair, shoes: all pretty good. But the guests provided the real joy - boy can the Spaniards frock up ! Perhaps a little OTT for my taste, especially the matrons. Frilly dresses are still alive and well in Spain, especially for the young teenaged girl, and the little children are gloriously turned out. In our travels we have noticed the children's clothes shops and you can certainly spend big money on clothes for babies and toddlers. The children seem to attend these formal events, and we have also seen them out late at night with their families, so they probably have more cause to have 'formal' clothes than the tackers at home. Just on the topic of kids being everywhere, we ducked into a shoe shop (for Tom - not me) and in the corner was the baby play ring with a young chap inside. Antonio, the shop keeper's son, was playing happily and obviously comes into the shop while mum is at work. And yes, he was dressed very nicely in blue pantaloons and a soft blue knitted jumper - very 1950s.
 |
| A Grnadian Brides arrives at the church |
Weddings appear to be big business in Spain - but bucks and hens jaunts seem to be even bigger. Saturday afternoon seems to the time for these and we saw plenty as we walked around Granada. Our first thought at seeing a group of young men dressed in identical tee-shirts and drinking and chanting loudly was a football crowd, until we saw the guy dressed in the nappy. He was not the only prospective groom donning fancy dress for the occasion, we had a chap in cheekily short gold lame shorts, some Vikings and even a matador. The one constant across all the groups was the tee-shirt listing names on the back, the groom's mates I guess, and with a photo of the groom on the front. The Australian tradition of the end of year footy trip comes to mind.
 |
| The groom celebrating his impending nuptials |
The hens were not to be outdone either. Flamenco costumes were popular for the hens and they were as vocal as the blokes as they caroused the bars of Granada.
 |
| The hens party |
No comments:
Post a Comment