A Normal Wedding - part 1

Wanted to say "traditional romanian wedding" but it really wasn't all that traditional.

1. Marian and I decided to do the whole thing (civil ceremony, church, reception) in one day, to get it over and done with. First, it was the wedding ceremony. I tried to wear a cheongsam, which is a traditional Chinese dress. I say try because I found that after nepal, my marathon, etc, and with the thesis defense, sampling an enormous amount of food now that i was leaving singapore, etc, I HAD GAINED WEIGHT! So, one week to go before the wedding and I could barely walk in the dress, let alone sit down. Mysterious ballooning of the thighs. Ah well, little did I know that this ballooning was all going to take care of itself during the stressful days before the wedding. I will spare you an account of all the stupid arguments we had, but I will say that I fought with Marian's parents (each at one time), and with my mother, whereas Marian only fought with his parents. He's the wiser of the two of us, indeed.

Anyway, fast-forward to the wedding morning. After being woken up at ungodly hours the previous nights by either Sandra (whose watch was on Singapore time) or various party-mother-fuckers, I woke up this morning at a fantastic 6:30 am! Rushed to the hair dresser with the girls and then back again. Lo and behold, the dress fit!!

We left on time for the mayor's office but while descending the stairs of the hotel, my mother slipped!
And fell headfirst!! Super shocking moment, but thankfully she only had a badly bruised wrist! Whew! Tragic moment averted, this only left us with running to the mayors office, instead of gently strolling.



Of course, Marian was even more late than I was, and everybody was there already. Did I mention that my grandma and my grandpa managed to come?!




It wasn't long before the people responsible for shooing us in had us organized (two in a row) to go in. Next thing we knew, we were in front of the mayor.


You will never guess what I am thinking about. I am thinking that I had not practiced saying "YES" with a strong, convincing voice. And after Marian's sheepish "yeees" (and the mayor's beckoning for him to say it louder), the pressure was on me! I did ok, with only a slight tremor. Here is Marian signing away half his Travian troops to me. HAHAHAHAHHA!




After that it was time to go outside and take lotsa and lotsa pictures. Here are most of my relatives, together with my grandma, grandpa, and three of grandma's sisters and brother. My grandma is almost 80, and my grandpa is 85 - that's why I am harpingso long about that :)





With the girls, of cors:



Now, the wedding photographer made us pose and do all sorts of stuff ... I tried not to tell him to stuff it, and as such I am laughing like a mad woman in most of the photos.



2. After the civil ceremony, the mad rush from hell ensured. Marian had to get ready, with his best man shaving him. They had to then go get the god parents. In the meantime, I had to get ready.


Apple and wine are used as shaving gel, and a biig knife as a razor.



Then, it was off to the god parents. The groom gets a BIG flower in his chest (background: marian took half an hour to pick this one, out of a sample of three flowers).



....
In the meantime, back at the hotel, my grandmother's sisters were preparing a special song for my veiling ceremony. The song was a cover after a traditional song, and included singapore, the girls, marian's folks, them coming all the way from Moldova to Oltenia... it was fantastic. It also made me cry during the veiling.



Now, the veiling. The godmother, in the meantime transported from the previous picture, puts my veil on. My special godmother also got me that BIG red flower, which I totally loved.

I managed not to look like Hulk's sister (Jensen's exact words), and for this, I am happy.




When Marian came to fetch me, somebody else (aka Dodo) was given in return.



Will Marian give up a tremulous existence with me and take up a relatively mild one with dodo?! (although she might risk poisoning or electrocuting him accidentally?!!) Stand by for the next post!