Vitya and Nina were married today. Here is the wedding invitation we received:
Mel and I, together with Melinda, went over to Nina's home for the pre-wedding festivities. Unfortunately it was beginning to rain and a cold wind was blowing. We 3 were in the background and it took a bit to understand all that was going on. Finally, though, by watching we realized that Nina was locked in her house and Vitya couldn't get in to claim his bride. The key for the door was in one of 4 pint sized jars of whole milk. He had to choose a jar and drink the milk to find the key. He chose - no key. One other person (I didn't see who) also drank a jar full and no key. Finally his sister took a jar and there in the bottom of her jar was the key. She drank all of the milk, Vitya took the key and unlocked the door. Other stuff went on there at the house, including the wedding party putting on their sashes indicating who they were, pinning of corsages on the men and then a toast. Vodka. I took a sip, Mel took a sip. It was the most mild vodka I've had here. Even so, vodka is not my choice of drink - it hurts all the way down, even a sip!
A marshrutka came and those of us not in the wedding party piled in and off we went to ZAGS (an acronym for the wedding hall). Fortunately we were able to go inside and wait because the rain was really coming down. I think we were there about half an hour before the wedding party arrived. A lot more people arrived then as well, a nice big group.
We all followed Nina and Vitya in to the main hall. Here is the woman who led the official government ceremony, all in Ukrainian so I didn't understand any of it:
Vova (Nina's brother), was 'best man'. Alyesa (a 3rd cousin of Nina), in kind of a maroon color, was the 'bride's maid'. Here you can see a Ukrainian tradition - standing on this cloth. One explanation we have heard is that after the cloth is laid on the floor, whichever person's foot touches it first will be the head, or boss, in the marriage. There may be other traditions associated with it, too (Olya B - you can let me know!).
Here is Nina signing the wedding certificate:
Here is a closer photo of the desk. Again Olya, if you would like to comment about what these items all are, I would appreciate it. This is a case of I think I know, but would rather have someone say who really does know! :) :)
The wedding car - I love seeing those wedding rings on cars driving around town. We see a lot of them in the summer. I was sorry it rained today, but even rain couldn't spoil the wedding.
Here comes the bride! This photo is at the little cafe where the religious blessing, meal and dancing was held. The woman in red is Vitya's mother, Sasha. You can see a waitress there on the side who was carrying plates of salads in to the side room where the meal was held. Unfortunately I did not get a good photo of Nina, but she is very serious and has a Mona Lisa smile anyway.
Just before the blessing:
(Note the woman in the black dress - this is Natasha, Vitya's aunt. She crocheted that dress!!! I had a long talk with her and we plan to meet together again some time. I've met her before {here:Babushka, altho she is the daughter of Babushka, not a neice} and really like both her and Sasha.) Here are Jamie and Sergei. Jamie did the blessing in English and Sergei translated:
At the wedding feast. Great food, very good wine, vodka for those who wanted it, lots of toasting the happy couple with many cries of "Gorka!" which means 'bitter - we feel bitter so kiss and make us feel sweet again!' - all in one word, heh heh. The key is to see how long they can kiss, how long you can keep them from eating anything by interupting and so forth. It's a lot of fun, really.
Vitya and Nina, Ira and Yuri watch Vitya's mother and aunt sing (following photo) a Ukrainian love song/wedding song to them:
After this, dancing, which is really hard to photograph. :) I'll post another post with a bit of video instead.After some dancing, we were all invited back to the tables for more food and fruit and drinks and giving of gifts. Each gift is given with words of well wishes and prayers. There is a formula to it, but I can never get it right. More toasting and a couple of money raising games (the bride and groom need all the financial help they can get) and then off for more dancing. We Americans all left at that time, Jamie and Julia first and then about 10 minutes later, Mel, Melinda and I.
It was a lot of fun. I have a feeling the party is still going on...
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