Saturday was the wedding itself, and on Sunday their loved ones enjoyed a goodbye breakfast at Cusco’s San Pedro market. “Anyone who’s visiting, the first thing I would tell them to do is go there and eat everything,” Megan says. “So we did that. We didn’t organize anything; people could meet us there, then walk through the market and pick out whatever they wanted. It was so fun to have everyone we knew bumping into each other, and reconvening around the same juice stall.”
Celebrate local food
The couple’s wedding menu was designed entirely around local products. “Everything was made in Peru. That was really important to us, again, to show people the culture and to put money back into Peru with our wedding,” Megan says. Dinner revolved around pork cooked in a Caja China, or big roasting box, with pastel de papa, or potato pie (“There’s nothing ‘more Peruvian than the potato,’ goes the saying,” Megan notes) and local veggies. Dessert was small local doughnuts known as picarones, and late in the night the couple served pizzettas and anticuchos, or grilled cow hearts on skewers. An overflowing table of Andean cheeses and breads was also laid out for grazing.
In addition, their drinks were based around Pisco, local vermouths, and Peruvian wine. “We had cases of Matacuy, a digestif that we served after lunch… and then people ended up drinking from the leftover bottles later at night,” the bride laughs.
Get ready to hug
Though only some of Megan’s guests could speak Spanish, and much of Henry’s family doesn’t speak English, the camaraderie was easy and apparent at the welcome cocktail party—particularly after many of the aforementioned drinks. “At the end of the night, people were dancing and they couldn’t speak but they were all hugging. [In Peruvian culture], we touch a lot,” says Henry. “So it was hugging, hugging, hugging. They were surprised just by the hugging, and then you get used to it after two or three days.”
Pack in all the Peruvian traditions
Cultural differences were apparent again when the wedding planner warned Megan that their guests would likely expect to party for at least 12 hours. “I was like, ‘excuse me?!’ And she said, ‘Peruvians love a party, no one’s going to want to leave,’” she recalls.
To keep everyone entertained, the couple brought in salsa performer Jordan Valle, and handed out cigars. They also hosted an hora loca, or crazy hour, to reinvigorate the party, a common tradition in many Latin American cultures. “You can choose a theme, from your favorite soccer team to celebrity impersonators to Disney movies,” Megan says. As another nod to their location, Megan and Henry opted for an Andean theme, hosting dancers in costumes who demonstrated traditional moves—then led the guests in the Macarena and other more modern dances.
Include a nod to home, too
Once the energy was up from the hora loca and the couple started blasting more dance music, they brought out a special prop: foam hats that resembled the crown on the Statue of Liberty, as a touch of their current home in New York. While that was a clear visual marker, one wedding tradition from the U.S. snuck its way into the proceedings: speeches, which they held during the wedding luncheon, so as not to interrupt the evening’s party.
“We had [members of] both of our families speak, and it was amazing to me how many Peruvians came up after to say, ‘It was so nice to hear from your family! We don’t usually do this at weddings!’” Megan says.
Keep your eye on the prize
In the months leading up to the wedding, Henry felt the pressure of plotting such a major occasion. “I was getting in my head a bit, because I have never planned this kind of big thing, and it was really tough for me to worry about letting a lot of people down,” he says. But once he was at the wedding, looking around at friends and family from all over the world grooving on the dance floor, he realized it was all worth it.
“Seeing all my family and her family dancing together, eating Peruvian food, being happy in my country, creating these memories in a place that I really love—that was my favorite part,” he says.
