We Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Say Goodbye

Moldovan wedding

Georgian wedding

Kazakh wedding

Spanish wedding

Japanese solo wedding

Bulgarian wedding

Russian wedding

Uzbek wedding

Dear readers,

I’ve spent too much time thinking about how should I start this post, since its my last post for the wedding rituals. Wow… I guess I just did. So, I want to share my thoughts and feelings about this exciting journey with you, my dear readers, because you were the ones who stand by me for the last 4 months. Also, I’d like to say thank you for all your warm words and support.

Another «thank you» goes to all people who agreed to give me the interviews and who were patiently answering all my questions. Thank you. Without you, I wouldn’t know even a half of those amazing wedding rituals that you shared with me.

And last, but definitely not least «thank you» is for our multimedia journalism professor, Melody Gilbert. Thank you for being an inspiration and teaching us so many useful and just cool tools.

When the sentimental part is over, it is time to recall what have been learned for the 4 months.

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American Wedding 

Interviewee: Dan Fellner

Ritual: «it’s almost impossible to define the «traditional» american wedding, since American culture is such a melting pot. But most of the rituals depend on the origins of newly weds»

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Russian Wedding

Interviewee: Kristina Chernikova

Ritual: « «svatovstvo», when the relatives of a future groom came to a future bride’s house and basically proposed to her parents. Even if they did not mind, they must reject the offer for the first time»

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Uzbek Wedding

Ritual: «the morning pilaf, a special breakfast which is prepared in the houses of the groom and bride. I got even chance to try it later»

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Bulgarian Wedding

Interviewee: Nedyalko Delchev

Ritual: « «buying a bride»,  the groom should pay some amount of money to the male guardians of the bride»

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Japanese Wedding 

Interviewee: Hristina Balabanova

Ritual: solo weddings

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Spanish Wedding

Interviewee: Roberto Herranz

Ritual: «A couple always gives presents to all guests on their wedding»

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Kazakh Wedding

Interviewee: Aida Kentassova

Ritual: «“Betashar” means a “revealing the face” of the bride to groom’s family.»

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Georgian Wedding

Interviewee: Alexander Parunov

Ritual: «toastmaster, who is called tamada, plays one of the most important roles on such weddings»

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Moldovan Wedding

Interviewee: Gretta Talmaci

Ritual: «nanasi are like godparents for a new married couple»

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I created this blog because I was wondering «How do wedding traditions reflect different cultures?». And now, when I wrote about so many different from each other cultures and learned more about their traditional weddings, I can see that wedding rituals reflect the philosophy of the members of different cultures. For example wedding traditions of Russian and Spanish weddings would be very different. And, there’re reasons behind that (historical, climatic etc)

So, when I found the answer to the question that I had in the beginning of the journey, I don’t think that it will be interesting for me to continue this blog. However, I will definitely use those knowledge if I decide to make a wedding planning to become my career.

It’s a little bit sad that it is my last post for this blog. However, I think, we shouldn’t be afraid to say goodbye to certain things or sometimes even people in our lives. That is what make us growing.

And, I don’t think that it’s fair towards the readers to say that you’ll continue blog, when you know that you won’t.

Moreover, the blog helped me to discover a new hobby; I really enjoy making videos. And I think to improve that skill. So, I might create another blog, where I’ll be posting more videos.

Also, many people have asked me what was my favorite wedding ritual or what is the country that, in my opinion, has the most interesting wedding traditions, and I couldn’t answer those questions. Frankly speaking, I don’t even feel that I have to choose, since each culture is unique and beautiful in its own way. It is true that most of the countries have different wedding rituals and what is traditional in one country can be offensive in another. However, I noticed something important, even though the wedding traditions might be different around the world, all of them celebrate one thing – Love. So, after hearing lots of stories and watching tons of wedding photos, I can assure you that two people who just got married and who are in love with each other look like equally happy around the word. And, here is a short video that only proves that.

Here’s a short video to add some cheesiness to your life:)

Moldovan wedding. Wine and Nanasi

Dear readers,

Sine the semester is coming to an end and there’re only few posts have left, I spent some time thinking thoroughly about the topic for my next blog post. I wanted to learn something new and exciting, so I thought why not to choose to write about Moldovan wedding rituals. Even though most of Moldavians in AUBG speak the same language as I do, I mean Russian, I don’t know much about their culture. So, that’s how I asked my colleague for Multimedia Journalism Class, Gretta Talmaci, who is from Moldova, to help me to find out more about Moldovan wedding traditions. Gretta is also writing a blog, which is called Stupid Stuff I Did, make sure to check it out.

Moldovan bride and groom

The first thing that surprised me about Moldovan weddings was that people there are very specific about celebrating their weddings during the fall time. When I asked Gretta why is that so, she answered that

«This is because of several reasons. The first one is because of our church. Usually we have a period of a time when we keep the fast. It’s not allowed to have parties or weddings or anything»

Gretta with her dad drinking wine

The next reason why weddings should be celebrated during the fall is because Moldovan homemade wine is produced by the time of the fall season. And, it is hard to imagine Moldavian wedding without Moldovan wine.

«Usually everybody makes wine during the autumn and that’s why you’re able to have a wedding. Because you have a wine»

Gretta also shared with me one of the wedding rituals that she personally finds to be the most interesting one in Moldovan culture; and this is «stealing a bride».

Usually someone from the guests of the wedding would steal the bride in the middle of the celebration, as soon as the groom takes his eyes off the bride. In order to get the bride back, the groom should pay some amount of money. However, most of the times, after paying for the first time, he wouldn’t get his wife back; Someone else would wear her wedding dress and pretend to be her. So, if the groom wants to continue the celebration with the same woman he just got married to, he should pay twice.

Moldovan wedding

I enjoyed learning about many Moldovan wedding traditions, but if I had to choose my favorite one, it would all rituals connected to nanasi. Nanasi are like godparents for a new married couple.

The role of nanasi is huge, not only during the wedding, but they automatically become mentors of the couple that just got married. It is usually a married couple, who should be older than the groom and the bride, but younger than their parents, is chosen for being nanasi.

I hope you enjoyed those rituals of Moldovan weddings as much as I did.

Why Should You Never Decline A Georgian Wedding Invitation?

“stealing” the bride

the bride and the groom dancing

modern bride and groom

the bride and the groom dancing

“stealing” a bride

Georgian groom

Georgian wedding

the bride and the groom

If one day your mom calls you and tells that her former colleague (that she was working with in 90’s) invites you to his daughter’s wedding, there’s only one right answer that you should remember, “I’ll be there”. Moreover, it doesn’t matter that you don’t even know the names of the bride and the groom. And, don’t even try to tell how many things you need to do, because all that simply doesn’t matter as long as your mom’s former colleague is Georgian.

“The worst thing that you could do is to refuse to come to the Georgian wedding since it is a big insult for the inviting party.”

You might be surprise to receive such invitation from almost a stranger, but only if you’re not familiar with the famous Georgian hospitality.

 “… The number of guests on Georgian weddings sometimes reaches several hundreds”

Georgian weddings are very cheerful and noisy (no surprise, given the fact that there’re hundreds of guests have been invited). And, toastmaster, who is called tamada, plays one of the most important roles on such weddings. Tamada usually will urge anyone to tell the toast to the groom and the bride. If you’re interested to learn more about tamada, make sure to check out the video of AUBG student from Georgia, Alexander Parunov, telling about Georgian toastmasters.

Georgians tend to take marriage very seriously; it’s more likely for Georgians to get married once and spend the whole life with one partner, rather than get divorced. So, having this idea in mind, a couple would want to get their parents approval, before announcing about the engagement. The parents from both sides would try to find out as much as possible about their potential relatives. Because, according to the Georgian culture, a couple will share all that the future may bring, including the relatives from both sides. So, they become one big family. The basic expenses related to wedding organization are borne by the family of the groom, and that’s for the reason. In a Georgian family, a man plays a role of a breadwinner, he’s a physical protector; while a woman is a spiritual force, and she’s responsible for the “mood” within a family. That’s why the financial position of the bride has no special value. Her main treasures are her modesty and chastity. Georgian culture has lots of different traditions, including wedding rituals. For example, when the bride enters their future house, the groom should climb on the roof and free a white bird.

“The newlyweds are offered a glass of a good wine. The first to drink is always the groom, because he puts the wedding ring in the glass and passes it to the bride, who also drinks from the glass.“

Then the groom gets the ring out and officially hands it over to the bride. That is accompanied by the words of devotion and love of the groom toward his future wife. Another interesting wedding ritual, which might seem unusual in most parts of the world, is a “stealing a bride”. I should add that today the ritual has more entertaining purpose rather than a real abduction of the bride like it used to be in the past. Often it happens to avoid the high expenses connected with the organization the wedding. As Georgians may joke:

“If there’s no bride- there’s no wedding”

Moreover, there is always an option to organize the proper wedding in the future, once a new family gets a chance to save some money.

Several “Weddings” in Kazakh culture

Dear readers,

Today I would like to take you with me on a trip to Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is a fast developing country, which lies directly between Europe and Asia. Most people around the world have very poor knowledge about the Kazakh culture, and some may do not even know where this country is located. But since I’m studying at AUBG, which has many international students, I was lucky to meet people from all over the world, and Kazakhstan was not an exception. So, during 3 years of studying in Bulgaria, I met very nice people from Kazakhstan. One of those people is Aida Kentassova, who comes from North-Western part of the Kazakstan. Aida kindly agreed to answer all my questions about Kazakh culture and their wedding traditions.

«Kazakhstan is quite a big country, each region celebrates weddings differently. We have quite different customs and traditions…but the basics are usually the same»

First, we want to keep in mind that the main religion of Kazakhstan is Islam. So, many Islamic traditions have been preserved for centuries. For example, like marriages in most Muslim societies, Kazakh marriage often involves a contract between families which requires negotiation. In some cases, the fathers of the future bride and groom negotiated their marriage immediately following the birth of the children. Today, most of Kazakh parents reconsidered those strict rules and now allow their children to choose future wife or husband. However, for most Kazakh families, it is still preferable to marry someone the same nationality and religion.

Kazakh wedding usually consists from several wedding ceremonies which could last for days. First one is «qyz uzatu toy» and it is celebrated in the house of the bride’s parents.

«…«qyz uzatu toy», which symbolizes the last day of a bride being a member of the family where she was born and raised in»

Because Kazakh people believe that once a girl got married, she should leave the house of her parents and «become a daughter» for her husband’s parents.

«The father of the bride would usually talk to the groom and make a statement that he is trusting his daughter to her future husband, and that from now on the groom becomes responsible for the bride.» 

Due to coupled “weddings” Kazakh bride would usually have different wedding dresses, one for each ceremony. For example, during the «qyz uzatu toy», bride should wear a special headdress which is called saukele. Saukele is probably the most important part of the bride’s wedding costume. It is often embellished with precious stones. When a girl wears saukele, it means that she is taking leave of her juvenility, and from this moment she starts to become a woman.

Early in the morning, the bride with matchmakers is sent to the groom’s house.

Upon arriving to groom’s place, the “betashar” ceremony, the wedding on a groom’s side, takes place. “Betashar” means a “revealing the face” of the bride to groom’s family. You can learn more about the ceremony from the video down below, where Aida is giving more details on “betashar”.

Here is a video, in which Aida explains about the meaning of “betashar”.

So, when the face of the bride is finally «revealed», the next step of Kazakh weddings is Neke Qiyu. Neke Qiyu is the religious part of wedding ceremony, and it usually takes place on the evening. Neke Qiyu is considered to be an intimate ceremony, so close relatives of the couple are invited only.

Neke Qiyu starts with several hours a feasting, and continues when a mullah arrives. So, the teacher of Islam recites some verses from the Quran and asks the couple to confess the faith of Islam. When this Neke Qiyu is over, it is time for couple to become husband and wife officially. For that reason, they would register their marriage at the state registry office, and such a practice has its roots from the Soviet times.

Spanish weddings or how I became inspired to learn Spanish

Spanish bride

Spanish wedding

spanish couple

13 coins

Black silk wedding dress

Spanish bride

orange tree flower

ceremony in church

spanish bride

¡Hola, amigos!

What picture would appear in your mind, if I said that today you are invited to attend Spanish wedding? Would you hear a lot of Spanish music? Would you see loud and friendly people? Or would you imagine yourself dancing flamenco?

Each of us has our own perceptions of other cultures. I had mine too. If I was asked to close my eyes and try to imagine a Spanish wedding, I would not have a clear conception, but I would rather describe the feeling that appeared, as something colorful, bright, and very warm.

Today I asked Roberto Herranz, a future journalist from Madrid, to introduce me to a Spanish culture and share about his experience attending Spanish weddings.

Roberto noted that for the last decades, Spanish culture has been changing appreciable. The older generation has been usually dating the same person since high school till the wedding day, and highly valued marriage; young people’s perception about marriage is very different from the one their parents have. The average age at which people get married in Spain is 34.1 years for women, while for man would be 37.2 years (ladies who consider to marry a Spanish guy, sorry, be patient to wait :D)

Today more and more people in Spain consider to never get married. Since 2003 the number of marriages has decreased around 21%.

But today I want to put emphasis on those spanish couples who still celebrate weddings, because there are a lot of rituals and traditions which make Spanish culture vivid and authentic. 

One of those rituals is proposal. The parents of a future groom would come to the house of his fiancée to talk to her parents before announcing about the wedding officially. In most cases, the parents of the couple would agree on sharing the wedding costs between both sides. After this meeting, a couple should exchange presents; a guy would give a bride-to-be a ring, while she would get him a watch or cufflinks.

It is also important to mention about the clothes on Spanish wedding. Spanish people believe that during the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds should wear something blue,something that was rented, and something old. When blue color means loyalty, rented thing symbolizes good relationships with other people, and something old associates with our past that we should never forget about.

The wedding dress of spanish bride is usually white, however, a long time ago, women were wearing black silk dress, that was lace trimmed, to the wedding ceremony. In Andalusia, which many people consider the most «spanish» part of the Spain and associate with flamenco, brides would most likely to choose a dress that reminds a traditional flamenco costume.

Flowers are also an important element of spanish weddings. It is common to decorate with flowers a room, the dress of the bride, a bride’s bouquet, but one most popular symbols of spanish weddings is an orange tree flower that bride puts into her hair.

Another wedding tradition seemed a little bit superstitious to me at first. People in Spain would never get married on tuesdays 13th, because they say that it is a bad day for weddings and sailings. But Roberto explained that people believe people will not get married on tuesday 13th, not because they believe that something bad will happen then, but because it shows a respect to the tradition. 

Even though Spanish people would prefer not to have their wedding day on 13th, they do not think that this number is evil. For example, they have another beautiful ritual, where a groom should give a bride 13 coins during the wedding ceremony in a church. She would keep them till the rest of her life. The meaning of the ritual is that man will take care of his wife and can guarantee a good life.

There are two options of where you can choose to conduct your wedding in a Spain, in a church or in a city hall. But most people prefer to have their wedding in a church.

“..not because of their belief but because of tradition…and always it is fancier and more cool to get married inside the church than only inside the city hall…”

“When the ceremony is over and they go out of the church it is typical that people throwing  rice. Either rice or flowers. But it is more typical rice.”

After the official part, newlyweds head to a restaurant, where the most fun part with dancing  begins. A couple always gives presents to all guests on their wedding, which are about 100-200 people. A groom usually gets good cigars for men, when a bride can get a small perfume for every women on the wedding. Most of the time, all women, who are not married, receive pins that they should attach to their clothes. Those of them who lost their pins till the end of the wedding, are believed to get married soon. So, the ladies on Spanish weddings have the incentive to party hard. (:

I want to end this post with Roberto’s words that he said in the beginning of the interview

«We don’t have… at least what I know… so much traditional things on a wedding. It’s like a normal one»

What was a «normal» wedding for Roberto turned out to be a unique and very interesting for me. So, that shows how different each culture is. Moreover, what is usually been taken for granted by us, might become a subject of wonder for others.

Click here for more information about legalization of gay marriage in Spain

To sum up

Hello, everyone!

Since the first part of the Spring semester has passed, it’s the perfect time to look back and to wrap everything what’s learned so far up.

My MMJ journey started with the first post about American weddings. Even though I’ve been to the U.S. twice, I’ve never got a chance to attend an American wedding. So, my general idea of the American wedding ceremony originated from a great amount of American movies I’ve watched. What kind of wedding do you see in romantic movies? Usually they’re depicted as a glamorous event, bride always wears white princess-like wedding dress, the groom is always handsome guy waiting for her by the altar, then they cut enormous cake together, and dance to Stevie Wonder’s «I Just Called to Say I Love You» song. A good thing that I didn’t write the post having in mind this idea of American wedding, but first asked Professor Dan Fellner, with whom Im taking Intercultural Communication class. Professor Fellner, being an American, said that it’s almost impossible to define the «traditional» american wedding, since American culture is such a melting pot. But most of the rituals depend on the origins of newly weds. For example, Greece wedding in America in most cases would be different from an Indian one. However, Fellner said that if he had make generalization about American weddings, he’d say that

"..the most of they take place in a church or other religious house of worship and then they are followed by a reception often times at a hotel or restaurant, and there is a lot of alcohol generally consumed, there is a big wedding cake, both the bride and the groom have what is called the wedding party, where they have a best man, the bride has bridesmaids. And, often times there is a party before the wedding for the bachelor and a party for the bachelorette.»

Since I’m from Russia, I wanted my readers to become familiar with the wedding rituals of my culture. Surprisingly for me, it turned out that I didn’t know most of the wedding traditions myself, such as «svatovstvo» etc. I was interviewing my roommate, Kristina Chernikova, a student from Russia. She kindly shared her experience of attending her aunt’s wedding.

“Before the wedding the couple had a civil ceremony called “rospis v zagse”, during which the rings were exchanged and the couple was officially pronounced husband and wife. Then newly-weds headed to the restaurant, where they were greeted by the wedding planner with a special bread and salt, which represented that they were welcomed there. After bride and groom had their first dance, the fun part began. We were dancing, playing wedding games, singing, making toasts.”

For the next post I’d chosen to write about Uzbek wedding traditions. It was interesting to learn about the Uzbek culture through learning about the wedding rituals. Frankly speaking, I didm’t know much about Uzbek culture, but thanks to Alina Ramazanova, who was my interviewee I changed that. Alina said that most Uzbek weddings usually follow customs that pertain to Islamic culture.

«If you decide to marry someone, you better have sort of approval from the side of your parents or any other relatives.»

I also learned about the tradition to cook a morning pilaf, a special breakfast which is prepared in the houses of the groom and bride. Later I even got lucky enough to try some Uzbek pilaf, which Alina has prepared and invited me to try it. Trust me, it was absolutely tasty.

One of my latest posts was about Bulgarian wedding traditions. I found that post particularly useful for me and all AUBG students who now live in Bulgaria and want to get to know Bulgarian culture better. And, to explain some of Bulgarian wedding rituals, I asked Professor Nedyalko Delchev. One of those rituals was a ceremony of «buying the bride»

«buying means that the groom should pay some small amount of money to the male guardians of the bride, and its again a mockery type of payment»

What about my last post, which was written during the midterm, it caused more controversy than the others. I found the news about Japanese solo wedding and wrote a post about it. Some of my readers said that they simply didn’t understand why Japanese women need this sort of «entertainment». While the others shared that it seemed unusual but interesting; one of those people was Hristina Balabanova, Aubg student who is fascinated with Japanese culture.

«I think, it’s interesting. It’s not a traditional wedding but I guess it’s some kind of a way for women to boost their self-esteem.»

I’m grateful that thanks to the blog, I met a lot of nice people and had amazing interviews and discussions with them. I don’t want to spoil everything, so I’ll just say that I’ve prepared more interesting topics for you. And, dear readers, if you have something in mind or would like to share some wedding traditions of your culture, I’m always open for that.

Check out «wedding ritual»’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Dan Fellner

Nedyalko Delchev

Alina Ramazanova

Japanese bride

Kristina Chernikova

Midterm Post: Japanese Women Taking Feminism to Another Level

Today is the day. I’m wondering if it is just me the one who has a feeling that the time here in AUBG flies way too fast? But anyway, today is a midterm day and I’m even closer to becoming a backpack journalist, excited, huh?

Our task was to find news related to our topic and have fun. Let’s see what we have.

Have you ever heard about «solo-weddings»? Me neither, before I found out a very interesting article about a Japanese travel agency in Kyoto, which  started organizing bridal ceremonies for single women.

So, what this «solo-wedding» is?

According to the article, Cerca Travel agency is offering two-day “solo wedding” package which includes «choosing your own special gown, bouquet and hairstyle, a limousine service, a stay at a hotel and a commemorative photo album.» More and more Japanese women want to become “solo brides». Interesting enough, that those women aren’t single ones only; almost half of them are married women who simply didn’t get a chance to have a proper wedding or weren’t satisfied with the experience that they had.

After I read the article, I had an ambiguous feeling about this kind of wedding. I decided to interview one of the biggest fans of Japanese culture here, in AUBG, Hristina Balabanova.

I always thought that Japanese people are quite conservative, so I was really surprised with their invention, but Hristina explained to me that:

«Japan unlike most people opinion is actually very open country and it is actually a country that manages to accept a lot of Western traditions…. It is also a country that always manages to invent new things and many of the new trends that started worldwide are actually started from Asian countries like Japan is.»

Since she said about Japan setting the trends, I asked her if there’s a chance that it can go vital and in few decades no one would be surprised to get an invitation to the «solo-wedding». But Hristina said that she doesn’t think that it can happen any time soon:

«I’m not quite sure, I think it depends on the country and the traditions. Because for example, in the Balkans we have this tradition that women marry men. And most of the time we even still have this tradition when the mother choses who the girl should marry, and I think we’re kind of close in this sense.»

She also added that she doesn’t judge the women who decide to have a single wedding, they should do so, if they want to.

«I think, it’s interesting. It’s not a traditional wedding but I guess it’s some kind of a way for women to boost their self-esteem.»

She was so open-minded about that, so I asked her if she wants to have a «solo-wedding» for herself one day, but she said «probably not»:

«You could use it as a symbol that you’re independent and you can be on your own, but no, I don’t think I’d do that for myself»

Personally, I agree with Hristina, I don’t mind that Japanese women have this unusual sort of wedding. It’s definitely not something which you can call traditional, but if it brings joy and makes them feel more confident about themselves, then why not. But I think, the most important about that topic is not to take it too seriously.

Please, tell me, what do you think about “solo-weddings.”

And thanks for following me on Facebook and Twitter.

«Заповядай» to Bulgarian Wedding

Dear readers,

I have to confess to you. As you already know, it’s my third year studying at AUBG and living in Bulgaria. For all this time, I’ve been waiting for someone of my Bulgarian friends to get married, so I could attend Bulgarian wedding. I don’t know what’s wrong with those people that nobody wants to tie the knot, but I can’t wait any longer. So, here comes my next blog. «Заповядай» to Bulgarian Wedding.

When I was doing the research about Bulgarian wedding traditions, I found out an interesting fact about Bulgarian culture; most of the young people have never been on a traditional Bulgarian wedding (and I’d like to highlight the word «traditional») Because, when I asked my Bulgarian friends to share their experience about attending Bulgarian traditional weddings, I thought they’re describing a wedding from a modern American movie. Wasn’t satisfied with the answers I got, I decided to ask one of my favorite AUBG professors, Nedyalko Delchev, who’s Bulgarian.

He said that there is a lot of different wedding traditions in Bulgarian folklore. Wedding cerebrations started three days before the official ceremony, during those the bride-to-be should had a bachelorette party, which of course, is pretty different from the ones we’re familiar with today. The girls were singing, playing games, but the main significance of those pre-wedding parties was to prepare a dowry for the bride

«In Bulgarian tradition, again, the bride has to provide the household with all the necessary things for the future home»

The groom’s also gathering with his friends to celebrate the coming changes in his bachelor life. There’s an important ritual of groom’s shaving by his best friend.Then the groom with his friends was going to the house of the future bride to conduct a special ritual called «buying the bride».

«buying means that the groom should pay some small amount of money to the male guardians of the bride, and its again a mockery type of payment»

When it comes to the wedding ceremony, it’s important to mention bride’s dress which always had some reddish elements. According to Bulgarian wedding customs, «the bride should wear some red color on her bridal veil against adversity in her married life.» The most suspicious ones were even wearing a clove of garlic believing that this ritual will help to avoid bad luck on the wedding.   

When I asked Nedyalko if young generation still follows those wedding traditions, I already knew the answer from my Bulgarian friends perception on weddings, but I wanted to hear what Nedyalko’d say.

«My impression that the traditions are respected in a very tiny percentage of newlyweds.»

He explained that the weddings traditions have simply changed:

«First, what they respect nowadays is the majority of them. if they decide to marry officially first, because I guess it’s 50% of the cases, they’ll go to the church, not only to the civil institution, where they’re supposed to sign the contract.»

Nedyalko also shared his perception on a wedding in general, which for me was interesting to hear. You can check this below. And I’d also enjoy to hear you opinion about the importance of weddings nowadays.

And don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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A Russian Wedding: have fun and follow traditions

Dear readers, here comes my second post. Enjoy!

Since I was born in Russia, I thought that my next post should be dedicated to traditional Russian weddings. I have been to Russian weddings quite a few times and even helped with some planning. So, I thought that there is nothing that can surprise me about that topic.

Russians respect traditions and  most of us would prefer a traditional wedding rather that a modern one. However, most of Russians do not know that the way traditional wedding is organized today is quite different from what it was before.

For example, if today a man proposes to a woman he wants to marry, for one ancestors things were much more complicated. It was a special ritual, «svatovstvo», when the relatives of a future groom came to a future bride’s house and basically proposed to her parents. Even if they did not mind, they must reject the offer for the first time. Later, her parents went to the man’s house to make sure that their daughter will be in easy circumstances. And if her parents were not convinced that the he is wealthy enough, they declined the offer. Future bride’s opinion was not taken into account.

Last time I was writing about an American wedding (check it out if you still did not). But for today, I talked to Kristina Chernikova, who said that American weddings are much more formal that Russian ones. She also shared her experience of attending her aunt’s wedding in Moscow. Even though she said it was a traditional wedding, her aunt and her husband decided to avoid «svatovstvo».

“Before the wedding the couple had a civil ceremony called “rospis v zagse”, during which the rings were exchanged and the couple was officially pronounced husband and wife. Then newly-weds headed to the restaurant, where they were greeted by the wedding planner with a special bread and salt, which represented that they were welcomed there. After bride and groom had their first dance, the fun part began. We were dancing, playing wedding games, singing, making toasts.”

From my observation, I can tell you no matter if the traditions have changed, weddings are still a big thing in Russia. It is important day not only for a groom and bride, but also for their parents and hundred of wedding guests. If you have not got a chance to attend a Russian wedding, I strongly recommend you to do so. You will have fun or at least eat plenty of tasty food.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Facebook, thank you 🙂

Russian wedding

Kristina Chernikova