The wedding was of Jorgen Umbi to Darlyn Sumani. Jorgen is a staff member at Lae City Mission. I met him in January 2014 when I came to PNG on a work team to build the houses. In September 2014 he was away at Bible College so I didn't see him. Now he's back and working as one of the junior pastors here at LCM. He was at Chris and Nicole's farewell a few weeks ago and saw that I was taking photos for them and asked me to do the same. Pretty exciting to photograph a wedding. There were at least 25 other people there with their smart phone cameras, so plenty of photos were taken!
This wedding was really different to Freddie and Alo's wedding that I went to in March. Firstly, Jorgen and Darlyn were both living separately until their wedding day, when they moved into a house together. Also, Darlyn's parents gave her away by walking her down the aisle and the service itself was very different too. Pastor Bob (the new General Manager at LCM who is from USA) officiated and the service was conducted in quite an American way. It was short, very short! I think it was about 10-15 minutes all up :) The bride walked in, a short address was given, vows were made and basically it was finished. No singing, no long address, just wham bam!
It certainly wasn't done in the traditional PNG way - which involves lots of singing and a longer address. I still don't entirely understand what a regular PNG wedding is like as there were lots of things about this wedding that seemed to be quite new for the people here. I am making it my goal to figure out what the 'norm' is - which will be tricky, as a lot of people (especially the younger ones) are quite influenced by Western culture.
Anyway, here's the first lot of photos. More will be posted when I do Part 2 :)
The wedding program. Try as I might, I couldn't get it around the right way... sorry! I was impressed to receive a program, so great effort by the couple, I say!
The inside of the program. You will notice that there's a timeframe next to each section. I was very surprised to see this as time is approached differently here. We certainly didn't adhere to the times at all! I was told the wedding started at 1:00pm, so I was ready at that time. The bride didn't arrive until about 2:45pm.... I'm still learning how to guage 'PNG time'
The stage, all decorated for the ceremony
The beautifully decorated aisle. I love the flowers along the side! The photo doesn't capture how stunning it was.
The pastor, the groom and the groomsmen arriving - all dressed up in their suits. They must have been soooooo hot. It was a scorcher that day!
The bride arriving in the wedding car (the LCM ute decorated with balloons)
The bride walking down the aisle with her parents. She went first, followed by her bridesmaids. I was really surprised to see that she had a strapless gown on - which does go against the modesty code here. The bridesmaids were also very exposed considering normal standards for PNG. It just goes to show how much social media and the Western society influence other countries.
All of the photographers! Including some on the stage :) Here the pastor is asking the bride's parents, "Who gives this woman to this man?" Darlyn's father was very emotional, so he couldn't get his words out. He just stood there...
...until Jorgen went down, received his bride and brought her to the stage
The message - a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife. Woman was created from man's rib - so she could be by his side and be his equal. Not his head, that she could lord it over him, not his feet so she could be underneath him, but his side - to be his partner, his friend, his love and his support.
The vows and exchanging of rings
You may kiss your bride! (Again, I was very surprised to see this! Public displays of affection are never seen in PNG - men and women don't hold hands or touch in public, so this was very out of the ordinary!)
Introducing Mr and Mrs Umbi
Walking out of the ceremony.
Jorgen wanted lots of photos here. It was quite tricky to get them as there were at least 25 people in front of me with their smart phones :)
This was as close as I could get!
Photos in the garden at the top house - showcasing the beautiful view.
People here don't often smile in photos, especially when they are official ones.
The wedding bands with the stunning bouquet of frangipanis
The bride with her bridesmaids
The groom with his groomsmen - most of the photos were so serious, so I told them to have a bit of fun and this was the result!
The whole bridal party - in the nicest location we could find for a group this size to fit. All of the beautiful spots were just too small!
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