My partner, Nina, picked me up in her boyfriend's car and we headed to a village I've only been to once, to a home I've never seen, full of people I'd never met. Yet, despite Nina being the only mutual connection to any of this, the bride welcomed me to not only her wedding, but her wedding party. Nina served as Cristina's "vornicica de onare," a role similar to a maid of honor. Months ago, Nina asked Cristina if I could tag along and see a Moldovan wedding from the inside out.
And so it was set, I helped the rest of the girls dress the bride, decorate cars for the motorcade, destroy beautiful roses to create bags of petals we needed for tossing over the love-birds at various points in the night, create the arch of flowers (with the ones that survived) for the couple to walk through, and welcome the guests with a voice-snatching screech that accompanied our hora dancing.
Oh, and I also was given a special corsage to wear. If you knew what you were looking for, it literally proclaimed, "Hello, I'm Melissa, a very unmarried, eligible, single young-lady." Opa!
It also turned out that my camera was the only one present for most of this 18-hour experience, so I really didn't see it all night. One of the groom's friends just kind of took it over until the battery gave out sometime between the "first meal" and the "undressing of the bride." This slideshow then, is mostly of his creation, but is unfortunately incomplete.
As things wrapped up around 4 am this morning, we could barely walk to the car. All night long we danced, and we danced, and we danced. Unlike many American weddings, it would have been a huge taboo to shake the shoes off under the table.
Overall, I must say the experience was incredibly memorable, a perfect example of everything I love and still quite don't understand about Moldova all at once. I wish Cristina and Viorel all the best.
For scoop on the religious part of most Moldovan wedding's, see my previous post Sergiu's Church Wedding
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