Catherine, the girl I met on a bus on my way to Donegal, invited me for her wedding with her now Venezuelan husband in Venezuela. This was the excuse I used to go to Venezuela, not that I needed one, but let's say it just tipped the balance in favour of this wonderful country. The wedding was held in Merida where Ricardo's parents live and where the couple got a huge (by Irish standards) house.

The celebrations started off with the civil wedding celebrated two days before the church wedding. The wedding had to start at around six but in pure Venezuelan fashion it only really got going at around 8, but that's ok, nobody was in a rush. The civil wedding was very civil (pun intended) and pleasantly informal, with the groom wearing shorts. Oh, how I'd love to do that myself – if ever I get brainwashed into marrying that is. All of Catherine's family flew over from Ireland for the wedding and in fact you can note an Irish touch to the décor of the chairs and tables.

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The wedding, which also started an hour and a half late, took place in one of the churches in Merida city centre. The only innovative thing in the celebration was that there were two weddings going on simultaneously. Ricardo's brother Reginald also got married during the same ceremony so it was like a 2-in-1 sort of wedding mass. As for the rest it was the same church wedding celebration as back home.

The reception took place in a hall somewhere in the city. Each group of people sat around a table and a bottle of vodka or whiskey was placed on the table for everybody to help himself. I was with the polish folk so naturally we had vodka. When we arrived the band had already started playing music, as you'd expect in this music adoring country. After the customary photos almost everybody was out dancing, myself included. In the words of my dance companion, I felt like being tortured.

  

At around 1am after having the umpteen vodka on an empty stomach I went out in the garden for a breath of fresh air because the hall was very hot and stuffy. Feeling mildly sick I sat down in a corner on the side and slept peacefully for an hour until Riccardo's uncle came over with some sort of miracle effervescent drug which got me back to the drinking table in no time. The reception ended at around 3am but then the after party started back in the room at the posada we were staying in.

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