A wedding’s marenn (godmother) and parenn (godfather) is the same as Maid or Matron of Honor and Best Man respectively.
It is also said that the marenn and parenn baptize the wedding.
The marenn’s duties in a Haitian wedding can be overwhelming especially if the wedding is happening in Haiti.
Besides the traditional Maid of Honor’s duties, the marenn can be expected to pay for the bride’s dress, shoes, and sometimes the cake. And the parenn will foot up the bill for the groom’s suit, the reception hall and sometimes the wedding transportation. This happens less overseas and more in Haiti. This also depends on how well the bride and groom and their family are doing financially. The poorer the bride the more that is expected of you.
This may seem unfair and it is! It is common practice in Haiti that some bride and groom-to-be seek out people that are well off and ask them to baptize their wedding.
Since your friend’s wedding is in approx 5 days I’m assuming that all these things are already taken care of.
You are probably working on the Bridal Shower and/or the Bachelorette Party. The marenn may give a speech at the Bachelorette Party. Usually it is the parenn who presents a toast at the wedding reception. No other surprises, other than the usual stuff, should be thrown at you at this point in time.
I cannot think of anything out of the ordinary that would happen at the ceremony that you may not already know about.
The next few days, you should be expected to take care of last minute changes if there are any, complete the details of the rehearsal dinner, get the bridesmaids organized, finish last minute details, and help make your friend’s wedding day memorable.
