Time zips along and many traditions of Russian wedding remain in the past, slightly changing towards more modern Western traditions. Still, many aspects may surprise American people, so if you are going to take part in the Russian wedding, better be prepared for this:
1. Engagement. In the past, a man asked father for his daughter’s hand and if parents of the daughter gave their blessing, the wedding took place. Today man proposes to a girl and if she agrees, he asks her parents for permission and blessing.
2. After the engagement the couple applies to the registry office, selecting the date of the wedding – usually within 1-3 months after applying.
3. Planning of the wedding includes: buying, renting or tailoring a wedding dress and a suit, hiring cars and booking a place of celebration. The girl also searches for a hairdresser and a make-up master: if you look at the pictures of murmansk brides dating on the online dating sites, you’ll see that professional help turn any girl into a fairy tale princess.
4. The wedding day. The groom and the best man will have to pick up the bride and the maid of honor from bride’s parents home. They will have to demonstrate all their singing and dancing talents, solve riddles and pay a buyout for the bride. After the registration the couple makes a tour through the city and takes pictures. And if the bride is one of the girls who were registered at Kovla, you may rest assured that the pictures will be splendid, as the girls there are breathtakingly beautiful.
5. One of the older traditions insists that the couple has to drive through three bridges and at the last one bride and groom have to drink champagne and crash wineglasses.
6. During the celebration one of the family members (or, in most cases, hired toastmaster) makes sure that the wedding is entertaining: he organizes different contests and makes toasts.
7. The guests often shout the word Gor’ko! (means Bitter), so the newlyweds have to kiss to sweeten the drinks of their guests.
8. The groom’s friends can steal the bride and ask for a buyout and the bride’s friends may steal the bride’s shoe.
9. Traditional wedding lasts for at least 2 days – the second day is a gipsy wedding (a man in a wedding dress plays a role of a bride and a woman in a man’s suite plays a role of a groom). The third day is the dumplings day – and it is the time when only relatives take part in the celebration. They eat homemade dumplings with different fillings and the one who finds a dumpling filled with salt and pepper only is considered to be the luckiest person.’
Still, nowadays the traditions change and more and more weddings last one day only and after a couple of hours in a restaurant the newlyweds depart for a honeymoon.
