Romanian wedding - part I

As a reply to this, I have been thinking about describing to unwarned audience (aka you) a Romanian wedding. The perfect opportunity arrived when I actually was at a Romanian wedding, two weeks ago.
I have to admit it was not a typical Romanian wedding, so not much material for this blog. Shame on you, T&E!

So what happens at a Romanian wedding?

There are three steps, officially:

1. civil ceremony
2. church ceremony
3. party... all night long ... 

and maybe...

• I think the really traditional ones also involve some kind of after party (the next morning) with some weird food - at least weird to be eaten at 8am after a party, me thinks. One of the things on the menu would be a kind of borsch (or however you can call that). Then again, maybe I was never drunk enough to appreciate this as a gourmet breakfast.

Nowadays, young couples are choosing between steps and mixing and matching as they wish. Normally the first one is always there, but it might be done weeks/months/years before the others. I did 1+2 the same day, as "my wedding", for example, but not 3 (and definitely not 4). Our friends chose 1+3. Nice choice, as the church ceremony lasts for at least one hour and it's a special story all by itself.

At the civil ceremony - which lasts for like... 5 minutes? - nothing unusual to report. The funny things start outside, where you (as the newly married couple) are to pass through a sort of arch made of flowers that the guests were nice enough to bring to the ceremony - to give to the bride, eventually - and nice enough to hold over your head). Something like this. (disclaimer: no idea who those people are, just took a picture I found on the internet that was nice enough; disclaimer again: it's usually a lot less organized in terms of flowers, shapes and sizes of the bouquets held over their head - some might be dangerous if they accidentally fall from the hand holding them). Throwing rice - aim for the eyes, aim for the eyes! - happens now as well, if any of the guests is an octopus or lazy enough and had not brought flowers. However, this remains optional.
The other people that are expecting - anxiously and enthusiastically - the new family and their soon-to-be-desperate guests is a small crowd of 2+ guys, with accordions and loud traditional music. It is traditional, but it is also quite bad :-) I tried to find something on youtube - it should go like this. You can only imagine that most of the people participating would do anything to make it stop, so - usually the god-father of the couple (yeees, we have that sort of thing) pays them to shut up. As my husband and I were the god-father and god-mother (even if God was not invited at this wedding), he payed them and they were so happy that they stayed! Makes it tough to talk and enjoy the glass of champagne that you get to drink on a 40°C hot summer day, usually standing in the sun.

After this step, everybody goes wherever they wish to go and the party starts in the evening. To be continued...