La Rumba de Una Boda Venezolana

My good friends Eliana and Roamir invited me to their wedding last weekend, giving me a genuine and incredible taste of a gigantic fiesta venezolana. Venezuelans commonly refer to a party as una rumba, and a wedding is probably one of the best examples. Think Jewish Bar Mitzva party meets Caribbean wedding, and Johnny Walker Whiskey substitutes the Manischewitz wine. After the church ceremony, the highlight of the evening was the infamous "hora loca" (crazy hour). This occurrence resembles carnaval more than anything else as masks, whistles and colorful hats were dispersed to the tunes of merengue, salsa, samba and tambor music. The rumba began to settle down by 3:30 am having begun around 10:00 pm. Take a look for yourself to get an idea of what it was like. You can see my album here. Though not a single champagne glass was broken during the evening, I offer a hearty mazel tov to Eliana and Roamir.