Here Comes The Bride

Tonight we had steak y’all.

With blue cheese and caramelized onions! Steak! Steaaaaakkkkkk!!!!!

We got it here: The Forum. And It. Was. So. Freakin’. Yummy.

I also had wine. Lots and lots so I am a little tipsy at the present moment. Okay. Maybe a LOT tipsy.

But I digress.

The other day I wanted to know from where the tradition of the bride throwing the bouquet originated, and boy did Yahoo! Answers come through. Why did I want to know this?

I will tell you in a minute.

As it turns out, it really is a hell of a lot longer explanation than I anticipated and quite frankly I found myself getting distracted after the first few paragraphs (probably related to all of the wine?), but evidently it has something to do with 14th century folks ripping the clothing off of brides for good luck. Interesting, no?

Anyway, this past weekend Yana, Ryan’s coworker, got married and Ryan and I were invited. Bulgarian weddings are actually really, really cool and we had a blast. There was a ceremony via the municipality in the center of town that involved, among other things, a charming piano compilation of the “Wedding March”, “Everything I Do I Do It For You” and “Chariots of Fire”. We presented flowers to the now legally married couple and pretended we understood what was going on.

There was also a spectacularly gorgeous religious ceremony that reminded me of the myriad Greek weddings I went to when I was young and made me get all creative and stuff with the camera and want to cry except I thought I would look stupid so I didn’t. We took pictures of the now religiously married couple and pretended we understood what was going on.

And then we went to the reception. Which was amazing. Throughout which we danced, and ate, and pretended we understood what was going on.

When we arrived, there were salads and salami/cheese plates on our tables with jumbo bottles of vodka and homemade rakia (a really potent Bulgarian brandy that tastes sort of like rubbing alcohol but possibly stronger). I promptly devoured all of the salami and looked around for more. It was seriously good salami. I shouldn't have worried because later we got beer and grilled meat followed by wine and caramel torte... all yummy stuff. But the salami remained my favorite.

Bulgarian weddings typically involve a lot of tradition and this one was no different. As Yana and Nicolai entered the reception hall, a man and woman (performers dressed in traditional Bulgarian attire) performed a dance involving a white sheet and brilliant red petals to line the walking path of the new bride and groom. Yana and Nicolai (along with the Maid of Honor and Best Man) made a champagne toast to the newly married couple's happiness, and then threw the glasses over their shoulders.

It kind of surprised us too. But it was cool.

They also played tug o’ war with some sesame bread drizzled in honey. This tradition states that whoever gets the largest piece will then have the bigger role in the new family. (Although Nicolai snagged the proverbial lion's share of cake, Yana’s pretty feisty and I suspect she might have something to say about this.) There was lots of toasting and shouting of “Gorchivo”. This literally means "bitter" and is the equivalent of dinging your spoon against a glass to get the bride and groom to kiss)...

...and of course there was some horo-ing. And – oh - did Ryan and I horo! Once. We did the easy one. I’m not sure, but I do believe we made quite an impression since the DJ said "Мяваонтяо ьвнтяасхе явасносьсхъл ьавосадьоах яаоявнхяасе ьяавонхъсехвь ъхьвасехжв ьхъньасодге хх жявяаосе хвяаоскесхънх RYAN EE MEAGAN!!!” (Translation: "Bulgarian I don’t understand…. Bulgarian I don’t understand… Bulgarian I still don’t freakin’ understand… RYAN AND MEAGAN!!!")

We didn’t horo too much after that as most of them were much too confusing and it was more fun to watch than break our ankles or fall on the ground or something. But we did dance to some slow songs and get our groove on to some fast ones. And we were good, so nyah! But these gals were better.

There were some other things we didn’t quite understand (and believe me I’ve done some research and haven’t been able to figure it out). Like when the Maid of Honor (MOH) and Best Man (BM) sat in chairs as the perofrmers held out cakes, dancing in an attempt to entice them. When the MOH and BM joined in the festivities they placed money on top of the cakes trying to charm the professional dancers into giving them the treats. Even though I didn't "get it", I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the reception because it was just neat.

But the best part of the evening was when I caught the bouquet.

I need to preface this with I have always loathed this tradition. I freely admit this is mostly because I have never, ever caught the bouquet before. I am a bitter old maid. It is true. So this time when all of the single chickies lined up, I honestly figured I’d wind up in pretty much the same sad flower-less state. And I thought I didn't care.

But this time the bouquet came flying our way and I kind of raised my arms, prepared to make some sort of a half-hearted attempt at catching it.... annnnddd it.....landed on the floor.

People, I threw myself on top of it. Seriously. And then I snatched it up and sort of waved it in the air. And trembled a lot and almost cried like I had just won American Idol. (Which, I must say with their whole "America Gives Back" really did make me cry buckets last night. I am officially a FREAK.)

So I caught the bouquet. And Ryan caught the garter. And they took lots of pictures of us and said our names a few times and a lot of other Bulgarian stuff. And some little girl tried to get me to give her the flowers. She was really cute and at first I didn’t understand her. But once I did I pretended I totally didn’t because, bitch, those flowers were MINE!!! All MINE!!!

(She really was a cute little girl, though, and I felt bad afterwards... But not that bad.)

So it was fun. And since Ryan and I have pretty much decided we are getting married (maybe two years down the road... not, like, tomorrow Mom - sorry!), it gave me free reign to get all giddy about this for all of one evening. That was fun for awhile, but I think I started to freak Ryan out a little bit.

Now instead of obsessing about menu items and bridal parties (because, um, premature much??), I am reading awesome blogs like this one: Amalah: The Queen of Everything and spending some time trying to convince my old roommate Laura I am not too skinny. Okay, so this picture does make me look as though I have freakishly thin arms.

But really, I am not as skinny as it appears. We eat plenty (did you see the part about the steaaakkkkk!!!!)?? We run regularly. And THIS is a picture we took the weekend before last at the Shipka Pass. Here you can see that even though we walked up 1000 flippin’ steps, I still have my curves and my booty and all. See, Laura? I love you for caring about me, though! And - hi! - I miss you! So much! And everyone else back home too!

Here are some more pictures of Shipka Pass and Shipka, ‘cause they are pretty.

Peace Out. It is past my bedtime.