A Wedding Adventure

This weekend I was able attend my first wedding in Moldova. I took a bus to Congaz, where I spent Orthodox Christmas, Friday afternoon and sat next to a man who is the president of the society for raising sheep and goats in Moldova. He gave me his business card. I got to the bus station in Chisinau about 30 minutes before departure but there were only a couple of spots left in the back of the bus, which only had about 15 seats anyway. This was fine until we got to Comrat, the capital of Gagauzia, and 10 people crammed on the bus where there was standing room only. The windows were all fogged up and I couldn’t see anything so I was lucky that the guy sitting next to me could tell me when I needed to get off in Congaz and told people I needed to get through. Somehow I squeezed past everyone and got off at the bus stop where my friend was meeting me.

A bunch of her relatives were already at the house when I arrived Friday night and there was a lot to do in preparation for the wedding. The real excitement started Saturday morning. We got up around 8 am and a bunch of relatives were at the house by 10 am. They were all really nice people and excited to talk to me about America which was good because my friend was gone for about 3 hours getting her hair done. Some musicians came to the house with an accordion and drum and they played music and we did the hora and ate this round bread called colac in Romanian and everyone had to have some wine. The best man and his mom and the groom stood in the middle of the circle and we danced around them and the they would pour wine into a shot glass and each guest had to have some of it and then was given a piece of the sweet bread. There was also a professional photographer and videographer and at one point I was in another room and heard him talking to my friend about me saying something in English so I was pulled into the living room and had no idea what was going on and then this guy was filming me and the groom had given me a shot of wine to hold so then on the spot I had to be filmed giving a toast. To say the least I haven’t had as much experience giving beautiful, poetic toasts like the Moldovans but I stumbled through it. Soon after that we were on our way to the real start of the wedding adventure.

It was time to drive to the home of the godmother and godfather of the bride and groom’s future children. They are actually the most important members of the wedding party. I got in a car with some of Aliona’s relatives and there were a couple other cars as well. Everyone else got in a big wedding bus. We drove about 20 minutes to the house where the musicians played outside and we danced and then went inside where there was wine and chocolate. After that, it was time to drive to the bride’s house in Comrat. It’s a tradition for the bride to be hidden, but she can always be found under an icon of the Virgin Mary in the house. So we got to the house and everyone went inside where, yes, there was more chocolate and wine and then the groom stood outside the room where the bride was and her relatives teased him and told him they wouldn’t let him marry her and asked for money and this kind of thing. Eventually the groom was able to go into the room with her and she got in one of the cars too so we could all drive back to Congaz.

Once we arrived back in Congaz, we went to a building where they could sign the official marriage documents. The lady there gave a nice speech about love and honoring parents and stuff like that and then the members of the wedding party gave toasts. After that, the bride and groom had their first dance as husband and wife. The next thing to do was to go to where the party would be that night, which was in a nice new building. The room was already set up with all the tables and food and space for dancing. There was more dancing with the circular bread and champagne for the wedding party, and another tradition was for the groom’s mother to feed everyone in the room a spoonful of honey for a sweet life. I was able to partake in this as well. Hopefully no one was sick because all 40 people or so used the same spoon.

The course of events up to this point had already taken about 6 hours, so finally we got to go back to the house and get all dressed up for the dinner and party that would start around 8 pm. When we got back to the place for the party, the bride and groom stood under a decorated arch at the head of the room and all the guests went up to greet them and give them flowers and/or gifts. After that we all sat down at our tables. There were about 200 people there I would say. I got to sit with some of my friend’s cousins who are my age and got along well with them. The next 11 hours (yes the party lasted until 7 am) consisted of eating lots of food, hearing lots of toasts, drinking, watching a dance troupe from Cahul perform, and dancing a lot ourselves. It was very fun. When we got back to the house at 7 am there wasn’t really any place to sleep so I sat around with my friend’s family for a couple hours then got on a bus back to Chisinau with a couple of her cousins. I went to bed right when I got home around noon and slept until 5, had some dinner, and felt recovered. It was quite an experience and I’m glad I had the opportunity to be a part of a wedding that was so different from anything I’ve seen in the US.

Also, perhaps my favorite part of the wedding party is that they played the song "We No Speak Americano" and dedicated it to me. Fun people.