An American Blonde In Lugansk: A Hungarian Wedding

I had an amazing opportunity this weekend to attend a Hungarian wedding. A friend who is serving in the Peace Corps in Ukraine with me had a close friend from Budapest via San Diego getting married in his brides hometown, a couple hours south of Budapest. After a conversation a couple of weeks ago with Chris and Christina, I was invited along to Ron and Gabi’s wedding. And it was awesome. Many of the below pictures were taken by Chris.

Yup, this room is the same room, exactly one day later. LOL!!! Christina and I completely moved in. And the view looking down the river from in front of the hostel.

And the same place, but looking up the river. Later we will be up by the bridge for the civil ceremony.

Ron and Gabi as the Opening Reception gets started. The wedding occasion began at 2P and was scheduled to last until 6A. The celebration was very well planned.
We started with an opening reception at 2P.

The food for the opening reception was amazing. It was mostly your basic finger food. The above was the non alcoholic drink station. Yeh, Ginger Ale. And there was an open bar with beer, wine and spirits that opened at 2P. There was definitely plenty of awesome food and drinks.

The décor for the formal dinner to be held at a later time was beautiful. Simple and elegant. The place and menu cards were incredible. The wedding planners did a fantastic job.

The dress was incredible. It was a perfect blend of all things lace, elegance, girlieness and seemed comfortable. Gabi spent about twelve hours in the dress and seemed perfectly relaxed.

Lovely…

Christina holding court. I love it. Being as I was and still am taken, I played wingman to Christina all weekend…and it was a blast.

This girl and I had a great time all weekend. I always had a partner in crime. I am sure we drove the boys crazy at times, but Christina and I had a incredibly memorable weekend. Thanks for all the great memories, girlie…

After the opening reception, we all gathered in the courtyard of the restaurant. The families were formally introduced to each other, and Ron and Gabi began their wedding processional. The ceremony was mostly completed in Hungarian.

The wedding processional. I had never participated in such a thing, it was very cool. We walked to the river first for the civil ceremony, then to the city center and the church for the religious ceremony, and then back to the palace at the river for group pictures. And we all headed back to the restaurant for the wedding reception and dinner.

Really cool…

The civil ceremony was conducted by the mayor of the town in Hungarian and there was a translator who repeated everything in English. It was a perfect example of a cross cultural, multi language wedding. Ron and Gabi did a great job understanding and incorporating all facets.

Ah, the processional band. This was the coolest thing ever and reminded me so much of New Orleans.

The church ceremony was also conducted in both Hungarian and English. And it was seamless. Again, kudos to Gabi and Ron doing such a great job with the organization of their wedding.

Definitely married now. Both the civil ceremony and religious ceremony are complete.

All the boys. Ron is of Pilipino decent from San Diego and he had a ton of family who made the journey for the wedding. It was amazing. Ron and Gabi met in a bar in Budapest several years ago. Communicated via the internet and Ron decided to move to Budapest. No he does not speak Hungarian, but he and Gabi figured out a way to make it work.