Wedding in Slovakia

This past weekend we were invited to a wedding in Slovakia, We first thought we wouldn't go but after Jason spoke with his friend we decided we needed to make the trip. It wasn't that we weren't excited to go to the wedding in Slovakia. It was the 8 hour drive to get there with the kids. We asked our babysitter if she could watch them for the weekend but she unfortunately wasn't available. We decided to make the drive anyway. The eight hour drive on a holiday weekend ended up taking us 11 hours. We were all pretty tired and grumpy when we arrived. We hadn't really had dinner and had tried to pass off snacks as dinner but when we got to the hotel at 9pm and got the kids ready for bed Sofia said, "but we didn't have dinner". We convinced her that the snacks were dinner. She was tired enough that she did accept that which was good as there was no where to buy food. The next morning came and the weather was beautiful. We finally got our first look of the Slovakian countryside since the night before it was pitch black when we arrived. It was beautiful. We decided to head to a castle ruin we had seen all lit up on our drive in. The kids had fun exploring the castle and since our kids get up early we were the first ones there. After exploring the castle we headed back to the hotel for lunch and getting dressed for the wedding. The girls were very excited to put on their fancy clothes. I think we were all excited to go to the wedding since none of us knew what to expect from a Slovakian/Russian wedding.

The first bus pick up:
A bus picked up everyone staying at our hotel. We were all a little perplexed as to why the bus was picking up so early since it picked up at 1:30 and the wedding wasn't until 3pm and the church was only a 10 minute drive away. To our surprise the bus took us to Elena's (the bride) parent's home. At their home there garden was set up with tables and a buffet of breads, sausages, and pork meat as well as a bar for beer and wine. There were also four men dressed in traditional slovakian garb playing music. The setting was stunning. Everyone there was given a flower to attach to their suit/dress and Sofia and Ali were given baskets with rose petals in them.

Going to the church:
After about 45 minutes we got back on the bus and made the 3 minute drive to the church. It was interesting to see everyone who lived in the village standing at the fences and waving as we went by. It really felt like a village event. The ceremony took place at an Orthodox church. We all got out of the bus and others from their cars and we lined up to enter the church. We filed into the church and some people sat down and some people stood in the center aisle behind the bride and groom. We chose to sit. The church was very nice and occupied some our the kids time but the service was about an hour long and in Slovakian. I was happy that the kids behaved so well. Ali was exhausted and ended up falling asleep on my lap resting her head on the pew in front of us. All went well until she started snoring. Luckily it wasn't very loud and the people around us just thought it was cute. One of the interesting thing to me about the ceremony is that for most of the ceremony the people standing behind the bride/groom would hold a crown over the bride and grooms heads. I don't know what the significance of this is though since noone seemed to know other than it was tradition. At the end of the service we went and stood by the door so that as Ilya and Elena came out of the church the girls could throw the flower petals at them. Ali had just woken up and didn't want to do any throwing but Sofia really seemed to enjoy it. It was so nice of them to include the children in their wedding. Once this part was over we got back on the bus to head back to the hotel for the reception. To my surprise (again), shots of vodka were the celebration toast. I haven't had a shot of vodka since college and it was still just as painful. The girls were fascinated by this process. They asked if it tasted good to which I replied, "no!". Then they asked, "can we smell your breath?" I figured it wouldn't hurt so I let them smell and they both thought it smelled gross. Let's hope they remember that when they get to high school and college.

Arrival at hotel:
We arrived at the hotel to champagned and snacks on the terrace. I had to laugh since we hadn't even reached the reception yet and we already had a shot of vodka and a glass of champagne. Once everyone had arrived and had their champagne we went up to the reception. The amount of food was astounding. The dinner started off with an appetizer then soup then the main course and dessert. At this point I assumed the food was done. I couldn't believe it when a couple hours later another main course was brought out which was followed by dessert. Jason tells me that a couple hours later a third maincourse was served as well followed by dessert. The dancing started after the first main course was finished. The girls had a blast dancing the night away. They made friends with another little girl, Iga. The three of them had so much fun. They were dancing near the wedding cakes though which made me a little nervous and I did stand guard over the cakes for quite a while. They never did have any close calls with the cake though which made me happy. Part way into the dancing Sofia ran over to me and told me there was going to be fireworks. I was surprised but then when everyone was heading outside we followed suit. Sure enough there was fireworks. They weren't just your average backyard fireworks either. This was a full-fledged fireworks show. The kids really enjoyed it and so did we. What a nice way to celebrate a marriage! After the fireworks we went bck in for more dancing. Ali lasted until about 9pm but then needed to go to bed. I took her up stairs and then Jason brought Sofia up around 10pm. Jason went back to the party since we knew that these parties lasted a long time. There was a lot of drinking vodka and hruskovice (pear brandy) and Jason came in at 6am (he disputes this time and believes it was 4:30am - see previous coment on drinking). Jason may make an addendum to this post for the things that happened at the wedding between 9pm and 6am.

The next morning:
We got up and packed up our things and had breakfast. Elena's parents had graciuosly offered us the use of their country house in the High Tatra mountains. We originally were going to stay there for one night but Elena's mom convinced us to stay for two nights. I'm so glad we did.