Well… our wedding was spectacular… we had a wonderful day!
If you’ll indulge me just one more time I might treat this like a trip report so I can share our day with those people here that I wish could have been with us.
Firstly, arranging a wedding in 4 weeks (nearly 5) is possible but it isn’t easy. There were some things like limousines, flowers, invitations, etc that were easy to do. The difficult things related to space and time for reception venues, fiddly things like decorations, and Mama’s Visa and travel arrangements. As it was Mama’s Visa was finalised on the Friday, tickets purchased on Monday and she flew out of Moscow on Tuesday.
Her arrival was a real buzz for all of us, as has been every moment of showing Mama our city.
The night before our wedding My Girl and Mama stayed in a city hotel and apparently talked late into the night about the things that mothers and daughters talk about before weddings. Actually My Girl said that Mama gave her a very long lecture on how to be a good wife and what our future would be like. Mama also gave me a similar talk and reminded me of a few things that were very sweet and heartfelt.
One that I remember and might be pertinent here is her description of the roles of husband and wife in marriage. Mama said the husband should be strong like a stone wall and his wife should always be protected by the stone wall. This way she said, a wife will stay soft and beautiful, and the husband shows he protects his wife from any difficulties.
On the morning of the wedding I was strangely nervous. I think 11 years of being single and standing on the threshold of “one woman forever” really hit me. I’m entering my marriage totally confident it is the relationship of my life, but still knowing my old life is now behind me gave me a few reality checks to ponder.
Our wedding was at 11am and I woke around 5am as normal. Coffee, news, more coffee and then the phone calls and TXT started. Many people that we couldn’t invite for various reasons were calling to give their best wishes, and while it was nice to receive so many calls I stopped answering the phone because I was starting to run late.
The ceremony was to be at the Nepalese Pagoda in a large city centre park in my city. I was a little worried that we may have interruptions to our day as the park is a major destination for tourists and locals – especially on weekends. On arrival I saw just how many people would be in the park that day and crossed my fingers we wouldn’t have too many interruptions.
Friends and family we waiting and when My Girl arrived with Mama and everyone was in awe at her beauty and composure. It was important to her to walk through the adjoining rain forest gardens, and to share those few minutes with you I’ve attached an MP3 of Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah which was played as she walked.
One of the traditions My Girl wanted to observe was us stepping over a rope (or cord) placed at the entrance to the pagoda, symbolic of us stepping into married life and leaving our single lives behind.
Before she arrived I had a quiet moment alone as I stepped over the cord, happy that now I was entering life as a married man and cherishing all of the wonders that would come with that.
As My Girl reached the edge of the Garden and stood at the courtyard to the pagoda, the music changed to La Valse D'Amélie. She didn’t want the traditional “Here Comes the Bride” and I think her choice was just perfect.
As she reached the front of the pagoda she stood at the rope and in her typical fun filled experience of life she didn’t step over the cord, she lifted her dress to mid-calf height and smiled broadly before jumping over it with great animation.
I thought it was fabulous and we all couldn’t help but to burst into spontaneous applause.
It was certainly a unique entry to a wedding ceremony and something fitting of her fun and charismatic personality.
The music to Amelie still played as she walked to me and we joined hands listening to the final strings of the music and marveling at how far we’d come.
She is truly the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen… and not just the way she looked, but the beauty and effervescence that bubbles inside this most precious creature.
As we stood in front of our friends she indeed did let me step on the mat (can’t remember the name AJ gave it) - so now I guess I am head of the household and therefore will always be at fault for every bad decision.
The service was brief but heartfelt. We made comment of the family in Russia that couldn’t be with us, and welcomed both of our mothers as the witnesses to our marriage. We also wanted to acknowledge other family members that had passed on who we knew would be sharing our day in some way.
We exchanged our vows with pride and love, swapped rings – and then the fun really started.
At the end of the ceremony I looked up to see at least 70 Asian tourists all standing at the back (but outside) of the pagoda watching our wedding and taking photos. At that point we didn’t realize how much fun the tourists would add to our wedding day.
Congratulations were received and as our photographer was trying to muster the appropriate people for photos we noticed a few tourists still hanging around and trying to take discrete photos. My (now) Wife’s love of the camera means she can never turn away so we found ourselves posing for a line of tourists that wanted photos, and to add to the fun I motioned for some to come in and stand with us as others took their photo “in the wedding party”.
Lots of professional pics followed in the rainforest gardens and around the pagoda and then as we walked along the arbour to a new location many people (locals and tourists, young and old) passed and offered their congratulations.
That walk was a lot of fun and My Wife commented later that it was such a pleasure to have so many friendly people offer their congratulations, and “so much fun” to have people wanting to take photos with us.
We continued to welcome some eager tourists for photos with us and I think at some point our photographer stood back to take photos of people getting photos with us.
If anything I was a little worried about the venue for our ceremony but so many strangers gave us something special and different to remember about our wedding day.
Back to the pagoda and off to the reception, and our day love, laughter and fun was just starting.
I have been a little disappointed there were many people we couldn’t invite to the wedding because of the sheer numbers and limitations that resulted from the space availability this close to Christmas. Also, sadly two of my close friends have very recently suffered serious health issues meaning one was unable to join us, and the other had flown to Las Vegas to marry his long time fiancé while his health still allows him.
The vodka flowed thanks to Mama bringing 2 bottles to add to the 2 bottles brought by a friend who just returned from Ukraine, and everyone shared at least one vodka toast to our health and happiness before the rest of us continued on to celebrate in a way we won’t be likely to forget in a hurry.
As the shots continued throughout the afternoon more people “dropped out” – first Mama, sometime later My Girl, but funnily as the last toast was proposed I noticed my 75 yr old mother was still at it with us raising her shot glass and calling out something like “I don’t think I should drive home”.
Later we went back to our apartment with Mama and a few friends, and then other friends (some that couldn’t join us at the wedding) called from my nearby local and beckoned us to come over.
Hmmm… just married and off to the local pub?
Why not!
So My Wife (still in her wedding dress) and I (still suited), mama and a few friends headed over the road for a few quick drinks with friends and then returned back home to let the memories of our day soak in.
Our wedding day was everything we wanted… a heartfelt sharing of our love and commitment to each other, Ukrainians traditions to acknowledge our family heritage, and lots of fun, laughter and joy afterwards.
We won’t be having a honeymoon until Christmas but for now we’re just happy and contented to be Mr and Mrs Kuna.
I’ve PM’ed a few pics to people but there is a 5 PM per hour limit in RWD now so I haven’t sent photos to many I’d like to share with. If you’d like to see some photos PM and I will send them… I’m more than happy to share our wedding day with many great friends at RWD.
