Ira's Wedding!

A couple months ago, I went to my good friend, Ira’s wedding. This was my second Ukrainian wedding and I was just as excited for this experience as I was for the first. We started the festivities around 10am and eventually finished around midnight! (definitely the longest wedding that I’ve EVER been to!) My site-mate Meghan and I arrived to Ira’s apartment where she was getting ready and her dad was photographing her. Eventually, her fiancé and his friends arrived. And after some toasts (of course), we headed to the courthouse for the official ceremony, which was really nice. Then we headed to various sites around town, where we took some pictures, had some chocolate and made some champagne toasts. One of the sights that we went to was the beautiful cathedral in town. We also went atop a hill overlooking the center. After this excursion we headed to a nice restaurant, Astoria


In typical Ukrainian fashion, there was TONS of food. We would go back and forth between eating and dancing. (At least I could tell myself that I danced off a lot of the food that I ate!). I was really surprised at the amount of food! Every time I thought that we were done eating, the waitresses would bring out even food. We also experienced some familiarity with American weddings, with the bouquet toss and the garter belt toss. I was determined to catch this bouquet (how cool would it have been to have caught the bouquet at this Ukrainian wedding?!). However, the bouquet went in the complete opposite direction towards the “druzhka” (Ira’s maid of honor). Since it wasn’t me who got it, then I’m glad that she did. I also took part in a Ukrainian tradition where the un-married females took turns dancing with Ira after she put her vale on us.

We also played a game where you guess what the gender of their first child will be. There were two jars that went around the room (one for a boy, one for a girl) and we put money in either jar. Lastly, we got cake. There were literally FIVE cakes at this wedding! Not only did we eat cake, but we also got a bag-full to take home as well.

Ira’s wedding was such a good experience! So many memories that I will always cherish.

Now, a few months later, Ira is pregnant! And I could not be happier for her!