Romanian Wedding

I was at a Romanian wedding. I was given a dress and shoes by my neighbor. It cost me 5 Ron or about 2 dollars for a lady to alter the dress to fit me =O SErious!
I think I'll be bringing her more clothes to fix for me =)

Guests are supposed to bring money as presents though, to pay for the dinner too, and in the country in costed me 150 Ron, though 200 Ron is common too, for just one person. Most people came in pairs.

Here's a bunch of pictures because ...I was the photographer at this event. There was another digital camera too, but it was a tiny awkward for me, maybe it didn't have to be but it felt strange still because:
I am the co-worker of the mother of the bride, so the bride didn't know me, I was single where everyone else had a partner (almost everyone), I was Asian and from America, and I was THE photographer for the wedding so they asked me to be visible when I wanted to blend in and observe. Anyway, it was lots of fun.
In the Romanian wedding: it starts about 3pm and lasts until 7am. We ate dinner at 12am until 4am and we danced ALLLLL night long. I did the hora a lot, so I didn't need a partner, though the heels I wore kept me walking funny for 4 days after.
So sad, but after a point, I wasn't graceful anymore.

Here are pics (just about all the good ones since I WAS the photographer =p

(Okay, done loading pictures, realizing how ridiculous it is to jam a full cultural aspect into one blog entry, good luck people!)

On my invite (sorry no pic, and too lazy at this point) it said wedding started at 6:30pm and dinner at 8pm...so I was called at 2:30pm and told to be ready in 30 minutes and a boy was going to pick me up!!

30 minutes later: Make up by neighbor Cosmina, and dress tailored, and shoes kinda on, I was picked up by a guy. The mother of the bride had things arranged for me (sweet!) she is the secretary of the Mayor's office.

Video of the Hora before the Groom came. Bride is inside the his house waiting for him, he was in the city?? People couldn't or wouldn't explain to me why he was in the city and why we were waiting for him at his house, and why her parents weren't there, or when he would arrive.




I will make these as short and quick as possible, because it is late and I have a super busy week I do want to tell you all about.
Groom and Bride have Godparents.
Godmother happens to be a co-worker of mine, and their daughter was in my summer English class for 2 classes. Godparents of Groom and Bride are different from Godparents of babies, though they can be the same if the couple chooses so.

To my knowledge due to explanations given to me, Godparents' roles aren't so much spiritual leaders as much as people who have money to buy presents and gifts. Godparents of babies and of Bride and Groom. Godparents here bought the bride her jewelery and perfume, and the godmother goes into the house with a crowd and "does up" the bride and groom can be present. The bride then adds the corsages onto her "godsister" and the crowd that arrived with the godfamily.
Bride was there, godfamily came later, and then groom arrive with his people last.

Bride and groom shared wine with the groom's parents (like the Chinese do but with tea). A crowd of people from the neighborhood all gather to watch, which looked like it was normal.

They then did the hora, just the bride and groom and godparents, and best man and woman, and "important people." Notice what the groom and bride are holding.
p.s. I love her dress!! I was breathless when I saw her and her dress, but really, it's a dress I can't say anything bad about, it's what I would want I think (but I don't want to copy her now).

Yeah, it's called a Crozanac and then the crack it over the two couples' heads and throw the chunks into the audience (incentive to be in audience). It's sweet bread (a very common desert here).

Yep, then we walked by foot, in heels to the Church to get married. Everyone had a couple almost, but the bride's cousin accompanied me and held a bag with my flip flops (I was warned about the all night dancing ahead of time).

In the local church, here on this table are the tools used to get people married. In that basket there are corsages for everyone apparently. I got a coursage too, it was a white flower with silver and gold ribbon. Closer family got bigger flowers, and different colors represented different relations to the couple. (Unlike the Chinese wedding where we all have red flowers and it's just close family (not cousins though)). My cousin was married just last December, so I have a recent wedding to compare the Romanian wedding to, sorta (my cousin didn't do a traditional Chinese wedding). p.s. Cousins if you're reading this, what ever happened to the pictures? I never saw them or got a link to them. =(

Here's the priest waving the thing that has fire in it that sparks as he swings it. There'e the apprentice? He's a teenager and he has a deep voice and a bad ...I can't say too much negative about him, but it was a wedding and he had an air of "I don't care, this is boring, again..." attitiude and it pissed me off because it's a wedding! His role was to repeat parts of prayers in his deep voice for dramatic effect (or religious?).

I started in the back, but was asked to stand in front to take pictures. Priest reading prayers from silver book (I didn't understand a lot of it). Bride and Groom got crowned with silver crowns and had to eat bread dipped in wine.

Then they had to walk in circles around the table. God parents brought giant candles with them eariler at the house, and they had to carry it all throughout the day, and it was next to them at the dinner table at night.

Then the godfather accompanied the groom to place head on table, and then they had to kiss the bible and the hand of the godfather, the hand of the priest, and the crown too, and then the crown was off.

Then they were married, and I did not hear any part where they said vows to each other.

I did not see it, but I think the rings were placed on their fingers while the crowns were being placed on their heads.

Rice and flowers were tossed at them. I was given a chocolate and a cookie after that ceremony. Oberserve the giant candles. They were only lit during the ceremony.

Then we walked to the church. I saw the bride change shoes in a car parked next to the church for the long walk. The bride wears the same dress ALL NIGHT. (At my cousin's wedding, and I know this for a tradition, the bride in a Chinese wedding changes into a couple to several dresses). However, I observed that other females in the party did change their dresses.
p.s. This cultural difference confused me. Girl to the left, she's not wearing a conservative outfit, nor will she be wearing a something better later that night, But my neighbors and co-workers all told me she was the Best dressed for the wedding. I think she was the scankiest and most unappropriately dressed for a wedding. Weddings are conservative to my mind, and we live in a village. It's not nice to unstage the bride. That's my thinking anyway. Cultural opinions differ here.

I was with the cousins of the bride, so we went back to the bride's house and had wine and danced and ate part of a giant placinta before heading to the Camin (the town hall/my classroom for the summer) for the wedding party!
Placinta is...a pie crust/danish outside with a goat cheese and sugar and egg mix filling in the inside. I didn't like the taste at first, but it's growing on me.

Wow, when I saw the people waiting at the Camin.
The bride was there, but I was with the bride's parents and family. A good part of the village was there just to watch and some to dance the hora outside with us, until it got too dark.

One of my students is the cousin of the cousin of the bride. She was a giant help to me because I didn't know anyone. She held me by the hand and introduced me to all the people she knew. She's also an artist and she's given me a few pictures of me she's drawn.
Here are my neighbors and Tina gave me the dress I was wearing, for free! Even though I offered to pay her or something. She's such a giver!

Me with co-workders. Bride having fun with her family and friends.

Here's my class room, look familiar?

Girls' drink, and guys' drink. We got sherry and guys got tuica (strong strong stuff). Sherry tastes yummy, so yay.

Dinner started at 12am, and it was course 1 and then 2. Ha! People asked me if it was a lot of food. Yes it was a good amount and yes I was full after, but PLEASE, you've seen nothing until you've seen a Chinese dinner.
I eat more food at my grandparents' home...sorry, but the truth. My cousin's wedding dinner lasted over 3 hours and most of it was constant eating. Over 11 different dishes came out, not including the rice, and desserts, and some dishes has several different foods on it. I wish I had pictures.

Lots of different types of meat, cheese and tomatoe and olives for course 1. Course 2 is one of my fav types of foods called Sarmales or Sarmalute (in Romania you add -lute to things you want to mean "small").
I had an earlier blog entry on Sarmalute if you want to learn more.
I danced with old men and young me, here without my heals.

I danced a lot of hora's and I only knew 2 and we repeated them over and over again. I am soooo short!! I wanted my heals back, but my feet were in pain.

Here's a fun tradition: The dance and showing of chickens???


That was a totally odd part of the wedding to me. Here's a picture of the bride's mother passing out frozen chickens to selected families. I didn't get one and I couldn't tell why some people did and some people didn't get one.

Then there was the dancing of the cakes, and some ladies came out dancing with cakes like they did with the chickens.




Then they brought out the big cake. It had lots of giant sparklers (I don't think I can call them that, but I don't know what else to call them, torches? flame guns?) on it. I don't know if it's traditional, but everyone acted like it was normal, so I guess its traditional.

Then we all went outside while they lite real fireworks (medium sized ones) and we watched them. Something that would be very illegal in San Jose or anywhere in CA.

Then came a part of the wedding that I disliked very much but it's part of the tradition. The MC and the godfather went around to every couple and they announced their relation to the couple and how much money they wanted to give the newly weds as a present. Sure the money probably covers the food and entertainment, but every couple was put in the spotlight. I donated the least money, but I was a normal guest and alone, so I gave what 40% of other guests gave, but it was embarassing, but I wasn't about to cough up an extra 50 or 100 RON to not feel awkward, plus I took all the pictures for them and I edited them all.
Then we ate cake, someone counted up how much money was gathered, and the husband got a chunck of money to hold on to.

The next day: Sunday, there was soup at the mothers' of the bride and groom, but I got home about 6am, and I slept until 10am, and I missed the soup. Oh bother. I didn't mind too much.

Hope you all enjoyed that experience