Bringing in the bounty

Kaleen's neice is getting married this week. And it has been all the activity of our family. 3 days before the actual wedding, 10 representatives of the groom's family (5 women and 5 men) come to the bride's family with a large pasel of gifts for her family. The bride is not allowed to be present and the mother of the groom does not come, as they say it is bad luck for either to be seen before the wedding.

This is Kaleen, the new bride, and her acquivilant to a maid of honor

Jenni, displaying my newly darkened eyebrows, and the new bride who'll pluck her eyebrows for the first time on her wedding day. It's all about the brows!

Kaleen and I got to her sister's house super early, so we could help get things ready for the future in-laws' arrival. It provided opportunity to poke around and get some pictures of things I otherwise wouldn't have. Thus the picture with the bride. She left soon after we got there.

These are the numerous hats that the bride will wear for her wedding and then anytime she is out in public for the first year of marriage.

These are the new floor pillows that various members of the bride's extended family have given her as gifts. I'm really excited about the "modern" style of fabric young couples are using. One side is almost like chinese "chi pao" fabric and the other side is a cooler cotton for summer. We'll be needing some of these soon.

These were some of the gifts brought to the bride's family. The sacks are full of carrots, rice, potatoes, flour, etc. In the background you can see the shoes and canes of the male guests. The sheep is obviously for killing and eating. And the trunk is full of fabric, shoes, very conservative pajamas, a winter coat, etc for the bride.

This is the grandmother of the groom. She came as the primary representative for the mother-in-law. Each woman in the groom's family was given a wrapped package with beautiful fabric easily costing over $100, a matching head scarf, candy and nan. Before the guests left, this women was presented with special nan made with milk and oil. She broke off half to take back to the mother-in-law and the remaineder was broken into bits and passed out to every woman. We each took one for every unmarried girl in our immediate family. Then as we ate the nan, we said a prayer of blessing for their future weddings. How special to eat this bread and pray for Elli's wedding some day. And to realize my daughter will grow up with one picture of a wedding and then will probably be a bride in a very different culture.