Their Big Fat Romanian Wedding: Saturday Morning

A Killer Look

Wedding day.

Now I had tried on the tux the day before to make sure it fit, which it did, but when I put it on the day of…looking at it was kind of like visually getting the wind knocked out of you.

The tuxes were brown and pink. Yes, brown and pink. And although I did not give Andrew much crap that weekend, I will never let him forget the humiliation he put me, and nine other men, through. Andrew did not wear anything like the groomsmen did.

You would think with such a feminine color available that the bridesmaids might have worn some,too. Nope. They just had cute, little, normal-looking,dark brown dresses. The bridesmaids all looked great and the groomsmen all looked hideous.

The bride herself made the comment, “Oh look at your shoes; they look like little turds.” Thanks, Andrew.

Photos

The photos for the bride and groom were actually taken Wednesday for the sake of practicality, so the photos that were taken the day of were focused on the wedding party. When you have ten people standing up on each side this is a trick and largely resulted in the Best Man doing a lot of frantic yelling, thankfully, in English.

There was a bit of down time during this photo shoot (by “a bit” I mean “a lot”) so as I was sitting down waiting to be called upon one of the bridesmaids came over and introduced herself. The first words out of her mouth were “Are you American or Romanian?” If only more introductions started that way. She then introduced herself to me as Denise.

Unless you are one of my sisters hoping beyond hopes this is some sign of me falling in love this isn’t very interesting; however, it is important to an event that happened on Sunday.

Romanian Time

One of the groomsmen was Joel (the Kansas license white guy). I had met him over Thanksgiving when he and his wife visited Andrew and Oana. Because we had met before we tended to gravitate toward each other.

The wedding party left the photo shoot a little later than desired. Joel and I, along with the bridesmaids we were walking down with, Helena (Romanian) and Ashlynn (Hawaiian), arrived at the church at 9:52am, eight minutes before the wedding was supposed to start. We were also the only ones among the wedding party who arrived before the wedding was supposed to start.

9:56am Joel, who is a tank commander in the Army and used to everything being fifteen minutes early, was in a difficult position. He didn’t eat breakfast and at this point was starving. Like a good soldier, he did not deviate from course.

10:09am We then learned something about Romanians: they operate on different time paradigm than Americans. Everything is about 15-20 minutes behind “American time” which Americans usually just call real time. 15 minutes after we were supposed to start guests were still showing up and no sense of urgency to get things started was detectable. The wedding started at 10:24am. We would have had plenty of time to grab something to eat.

And They're Off

We were warned that a Romanian wedding could last 2 ½ hours. The wedding starts with us walking down (all ten couples) and everyone standing for Oana who looked as beautiful as a bride should. Then one of the pastors started with the welcome--in Romanian.

At some point he had the congregation sit down. Fortunately for all of us in the wedding party that meant us too. In fact, even the bride and groom got to sit down in antique chairs which I think were brought over from Romania. Everyone got to sit except for any individual who was speaking at the time. Perhaps this is to encourage short sermons.

A young lady got up on stage and started speaking--in Romanian. Then she started speaking in English. I couldn’t believe it. A flicker of hope ran through me. Then it diminished. It was Shakespeare. All I could tell is that it was some sonnet about love, and how strong love was and how much they loved each other, I think.

Then a song…in Romanian. I don’t know what it was about but it seemed epic.

Then Justin leaned over and asked me if I would like him to translate. I accepted. I was so thankful that he did it. It made the ceremony for me. The first message likened the signs God gives us to street signs and he used three streets sign, Stop, One Way and Yield, as points for Andrew and Oana. It was about forty-five minutes long.

Then two more songs, one in Romanian and one in English.

Another message was given about loving God by loving people and for the bride and groom to love each other. This one was about forty-five minutes long.

After that the pastor who gave the welcome came up and gave them some last words of advice before Andrew and Oana gave their vows to one another. After this both Andrew and Oana kneeled facing each other while two pastors laid hands on their heads and prayed over them. I don’t remember if it was in English or Romanian but I do remember there being a sense of real urgency in their prayers. It was a beautiful scene.

Then they stood up, were pronounced man and wife, and the pastor said, “Andrew, I do not think it is a scene; but rather very appropriate for you to kiss your bride.”

Everyone cheered. I should note that they did not cheer as loudly as they do in most American weddings I have been to or have been a part of. I think it was because the ceremony was two hours long.

Apparently, in some Romanian denominations, it is inappropriate for a husband and wife to kiss in public thus the words spoken by the pastor. I am happy to report that Andrew and Oana were quite inappropriate for the rest of the day.