Things ended up being super last minute. We knew we wanted to get married on the 27th and we had registered at the mayor's office and everything but we had one major obstacle: my SO's paperwork. It's a boring and complicated story so I won't go into it--but just know that I woke up the day before and said to my SO: we don't even know if we're getting married tomorrow and I'm freakin' out!!
So I ran over the mayor's office and they agreed to bend the rules a bit. So the green light had been given! I spent the rest of the day getting my henna done, my hair done, doing my daughter's hair, writing a letter to my SO, etc. My SO went out to go pick up our outfits (we hadn't seen them yet!). That night, we decided to sleep in different beds to make it more exciting or something haha.
So the morning of the 27th: We woke up and my SO made us breakfast. I got myself and baby girl ready. She was so funny because she really didn't understand what this whole wedding thing was about. I said "Today is our wedding", she was like, "And me too?' haha sure! So basically her understanding was that we were going to go listen to some old man speak and then we were going to the park!
Our witnesses arrived and we all went to the mayor's office. There were 2 other couples getting married (they do several weddings at a time here in Mali). We all sat down and waited on the mayor. The ceremony was standard for Mali: the mayor has you confirm all the information on the certificates, confirm that the bride price was paid (this is in Malian law), confirm that you choose either a polygamist or monogamist marriage, and then he reads the marriage code, which means you have to listen to super sexist things like "The husband is the head of the household", "The wife must be obedient", etc. Then we all stood up, he asked each bride and groom if they agree to love each other and be married for better or worse.
The whole ceremony is conducted in French and Bambara so you listen to everything twice. We ended up saying "I do" three times- once in French, we whispered it to each other in English, and then again in Bambara. I think everyone in the room (the families of the other couples) were wondering if I spoke Bambara--so I made sure to yell out "YES" in Bambara when the time came. Everyone had a good laugh at that.
We kissed, took some pics with the mayor, got our marriage certificate, and booked it outta there (we didn't want to deal with all of the griot singing and loud drumming that the other couples had).
Me signing the marriage certificate:
...more to follow
Your pics were gorgeous, the three of you looked so happy, and I couldn't have been more thrilled for you all!