Last Saturday I went to my neighbor's wedding. I have never been to a full on Croatian wedding and I was overwhelmed by how, well, very different it is from American weddings. In fact, weddings in Croatia are in whole different world than the wedding in the United States.
Croatian weddings begin five days before the actual wedding itself. For an entire week before, people come over to give gifts and drink and celebrate with the bride and groom. There is food, drinking, and music that plays until the wee hours of the morning and then it starts all over the next day. The wedding day itself starts pretty early as there is a celebration as the bride moves her things into her soon-to-be husband's house. A giant Croatian flag is hung out in front of the family house as people come in to see the bride and begin the celebration. In most weddings in the United States the bride and groom wait to see each other until the ceremony begins. That is not the tradition here. The groom comes in with all of his friends and they all dance and celebrate together before the ceremony even begins.
As I was getting ready, my mom came in and said that they are getting ready to shoot off some guns and not to be alarmed. All I could do was laugh as I tried to picture that happening in America. When the guns went off, they weren't shot guns but machine guns. Everyone was cheering as the guns went off to announce the marriage of these two people. After that, we all got into our cars and began the long procession to the church. In Croatia, it is customary to honk your horns as you drive to let everyone know of the wedding.
At the church, there is more alcohol being passed around as the bride and groom are married and then another procession to the reception. As the bride and groom come out as husband and wife, flares go off and huge cheers and celebration. As the newlyweds come in for the reception, fireworks go off.
The reception itself lasts until 4 or 5 in the morning. We sit down and drink a little, then eat a little, then everyone dances for a bit and then back to eat again. The main course is served around midnight and cake around 1 or 2am. After that, it's just dancing, singing and drinking until your body can no longer take it.
It was one of the craziest weddings that I have ever been too, but it was absolutely beautiful. The bride looked gorgeous and the ceremony and reception were beautiful and elegant. To host over 300 people at a wedding as well as the week leading up to the wedding takes a lot of work. It was done flawlessly and I have to commend the bride, groom, and their families for making that wedding so utterly beautiful.
I'm not sure that I could ever have a wedding of that magnitude, but it sure was fun to be apart of it and experience something new.
Congratulations to Nikolina and Ivo.
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