Getting Married in Mexico

This weekend I went to Juarez Mexico for a wedding of a dear friend of mine, Danny. Danny is the son of a pastor, whose entire family I first fell in love with nine years ago during my first trip to Juarez. Below are a bunch of pictures from my trip.


Three of my friends from Chicago and St. Louis picked me up in Dallas and we drove across Texas late Friday night. We stayed at a very questionable hotel that night and then finished the trip to El Paso Saturday. While this bathroom may not have been much on the inside, I loved the sign. :)


For dinner on Saturday we went to a place called Cattleman's Steakhouse out in the middle of nowhere'sville Texas (just outside of El Paso). It was on a beautiful piece of land with a small lake and a little zoo! Here are some pictures.



Me being goofy. There actually were baby rattlers in here (Winnie the Pooh and noisey ones).



I love these things.


Probably the best thing about the zoo were the llamas. Just that afternoon we watched Napoleon Dynamite. Unfortunately we didn't have any ham to feed these two and they didn't respond to "Tina."



After dinner we drove into El Paso, spent some time at Wal-mart and then to the scenic overlook above El Paso and Juarez. This picture isn't that great, but on the mountain in the background it says, "Cd Juarez, La Biblia es la verdad. Leela." Which means, "City of Juarez, the Bible is the Truth. Read it." It's awesome to drive into the city and see that from wherever you are.


Up on the scenic overlook, we made t-shirts to welcome Grace (Graciela) whom we had to pick up from the airport later that night. It was funny but chilly! Probably the first time I've been up at the overlook and about froze my butt off.


That night we stayed at a cute older couple's house who have been married for 64 years! 64 years! Their house was like a museum with pictures of family and little nick nacks everywhere. Then, we got into their garage and there are several train sets dating back as far back as 1933. It was amazing! This man had dozens of cars, a little town built including people, mountains, trees. It was so cool. You could see the pride beaming off of the old man's face.


Donnie and Charlie - they're weirdos. Donnie's shirt says "God=Love" and Charlie's says "Hot, hot, hot." But you gotta love 'em.


Children are beautiful but Mexican children are angels. This is Natalia, she's the granddaughter of the oldest son Mundo, who recently got married. Isn't she beautiful?



This is Brenda, one of the three flower girls - she and I became buddies by the end of the night.



Donnie and Charlie actually clean up pretty well.



This picture was taken less than 45 minutes before Danny's wedding is supposed to start. He's sitting on the couch with Laura and I playing with his new cell phone - making us laugh. We just finished an awesome Mexican lunch that Pastor Saucedo made for us. I couldn't believe that the afternoon before their youngest son's wedding, they would take the time to make us a meal! And Danny would then sit and eat with us. They were so grateful.


Moreover, Danny's parents Catalina y Carlos, asked us to sit at their table at the dinner reception! I felt so honored. They are truly my family away from home.


These two can't speak but a few words of the other's language but have some of the funniest conversations!



Here's the happy couple. They are awesome! Her colors were red and everything about the wedding was beautiful (which lasted about 2 hours - then the reception, we we left after 4 hours and included mariachis, a laso entertainment team, performances by Danny and other amazingly talented people. The live band had almost ten members. There were 500 people at the reception. It was incredible.)



This is Danny singing to his new bride. He is amazingly talented. All of his brothers are in the same mariachi band. It was a great testimony of love. They sure knew how to throw a party.


The happy couple. Just after this, Danny had the biggest smile on his face. It was great to see. I have another wedding next weekend too. Welcome to the life of a single mid-20's girl.