OUR Royal Wedding – Belizean style – April 30, 2011

Marge keeps up with the news pretty well using the internet but I don’t spend the time; she updates me with items that are of interest but all the extra fluff, like the royal wedding in the UK, passes right by me, and that is ok with me. When I found out that there was a royal wedding, my immediate thought was it was the wedding that happened yesterday, April 30, 2011; the bride was Norma Canto from San Antonio, Belize; the groom, George Humes, from next door to us.

We were invited to the wedding about a month ago, George came over to hand deliver the invitation. It was great news since George and Norma had been dating for a couple of years. We chatted in the driveway for a few minutes and then it hit me why he was working so hard on his mother’s house for the past few months and had a deadline of the end of April. He had just the front porch to finish, fill the frame with dirt and rocks and pour concrete on top. Our wheelbarrow proceeded him down the driveway with a couple of shovels, he now had tools to move dirt and rocks a bit faster.

The wedding invitation said the ceremony would start at 2pm. We are now pretty used to not knowing what a set time means so we were planning on leaving our house around 1:30pm to get to the church in time. As we were getting ready yesterday, Marixa and Zulmi, George’s nieces from next door, arrived at around 1:25 to see if they could ride in our truck to the ceremony, along with their mother. “Sure, not a problem”. They told us that their mother, Marta, was just finishing her hair so they would wait here at our house while we finished dressing and then they could ride down to their house with us in the car. We arrived at their house, waited for Marta, and as it turned out, about 6 others and we set off for the church, a little over a mile away, at 2pm (of course, I, being uptight about schedules, am thinking “we are late, we are late”, but I am getting a bit more accustomed to things not starting exactly on schedule).

We arrived at the chuch around 2:10, the second car to arrive of about 25 that ended up at the church for the event – of course we were early! We stayed outside the church since there was a nice breeze and watched as everyone arrived. It was great seeing people all dressed up for the occasion.

George was accompanied by his Padrino, Damion, who is his oldest brother since their father is deceased.

The ring bearers/flower girls were very pretty in their suits and dresses.

We had 2 of George’s nephews guarding the front steps.

At around 3:15, some of the men started to joke around that we may have to go out and find another woman who is ready to get married since everything was ready in the church and for the reception! (Men are the same all around the world).

The bride finally arrived in a vehicle with balloons on it around 3:30 and everyone went into the church for the ceremony.

There was a bridesmaid that entered before the bride to cut the path making it ready for the bride to enter.

The ring bearers were following.

Norma, the bride, of course was beautiful. She was escorted down the aisle by her father, Juan Canto.

The ceremony was nice with advice given to the newlyweds with some light humor with a lot of meaning. The pastor put a double looped cord around Norma and George’s necks tying them together for life.

Rings were exchanged and then the pastor needed help to get George to kiss the bride, so the entire congregation had to yell,”BESO, BESO, BESO” (Kiss, Kiss, Kiss). Finally, George gave up trying to hold out and kissed the bride.

At the weddings here in Belize, the marriage certificate is signed at the end of the ceremony, so George and his new wife, Norma, had to sign for the first time as a married couple.

The bride and groom then walked out of the church as husband and wife!



As Marge and I were walking out of the church we were surprised to get a message that Norma and George wanted us to drive them back to George’s mother’s house for the reception; had I known that, I would have washed the car. So, our little truck became the limo back to the wedding reception with me driving, George’s oldest sister Marta in the front seat with me, the newlyweds in the back seat, and then about 12 people – including Marge – in the back of the truck. I drove very slowly since we were so loaded down, the road is very bumpy, and there are still some very deep ponds in sections due to our one annual dry season shower we got the other day.

Norma and George then took the traditional path to “their” house (George’s mother’s really, George will be building their own house soon).

As they neared the house, they passed under a large paper machete bell….

George pulled the string, and confetti showered down on both of them.

Norma and George on their porch.

…and with the ring bearers.



Congratulations Norma and George!!!