Our wedding day started at 9:00 a.m., when I went to the dress rental shop and salon, where they did my hair, painted my nails, applied my make up, cinched me into my dress and sent me on my way. G’s best men picked me up and dropped me off at home, where I and my family waited for the groom, who had been calling for the last 45 minutes to find out when he could come up the hill.
When I gave him the green light, G and his entire group of family and friends finally walked up the hill to break down the door and “steal” me from my home. When I heard he was on the way, I hid in the wardrobe, only a little piece of my dress peeking out in hopes that he would find me that way. It worked. We emerged from the room together to a mass of family and friends crowded in the house and had a champagne toast. G’s family sang a song that I’m still hoping he will translate for me, since it made me cry it was so beautiful. Makeup ruined before we even get out of the house! No matter.
After some cake and champagne, we went outside to find our limousine waiting. The wedding party hopped in and we were off for a tour of the city, family and friends following close behind, honking their horns and vying for position close to our car.
First, we stopped at Metekhi Church for pictures and more toasting. We encountered many beggars there, as Metekhi is one of the favorite spots for wedding parties to stop. Our best men had apparently not studied the tricks of best men past, and were not prepared for the gypsies. Apparently it is common knowledge here for the best men (especially at Metekhi) to have pockets full of change that they throw far away from the wedding party so that the gypsy children run to collect it and the wedding party can have their photos taken in peace during the time it takes the children to collect the change. We did not have this luxury, so our stay at Metekhi was brief.
Back in the limo and off to Jvari Monastery, a 5th Century monastery high on the hill overlooking Mtsheta, the original capitol of Georgia and the city where we were to be married. We lit candles Jvari and had our photos taken with tourists who found us particularly interesting. Next stop: Mtsheta.In Mtsheta, we met up with the rest of our guests for the wedding and walked past our favorite busker, who sang a song for us as we walked through the fortress gate and into the church yard. On the inside was a priest throwing water on people who enter and leave. We had a good dousing before making our way to the church doors. On the way to the church, a group of French tourists stopped us to take our pictures again, particularly pleased with our look (likely because I am clearly not a Georgian and G was wearing the traditional Georgian costume called Chokha) over all of the other Georgian brides and grooms in the yard.
The special treatment continued: we entered the 12th Century church and services had begun, beautiful singing coming from the inside. We waited in the center of the church to be escorted into the small chapel where our marriage ceremony was then performed. As women, apparently it was a treat to be allowed in this chapel, where but for during marriage ceremonies, women are not allowed.
The priest positioned us and our wedding party in a semi-circle in front of him. He called G and his best men into the altar room to discuss the business of a donation and, as an aside, got G’s email address because he was interested in trying to get to Minnesota. When the business was sorted out, we lit candles to hold for the ceremony. The priest then took our rings, turned his back to us and walked up to the altar, presumably blessing them there. When he came down, he put the rings over the first knuckle of our fingers and went back to the altar to do some more praying. We were grateful for this brief moment to try to get our respective rings over the larger knuckle, which we had worried a bit about, since we had never tried them on before that time. When the priest came back down, he placed crowns on our heads, had us sip wine from the same cup and joined our hands under his cloth and walked us in a circle (carefully taking care to keep the candles lit), wedding party following, 3 times. (Apparently, this walk is supposed to be around the church, but in the interest of time, we stayed inside the chapel.) And that was it - we were officially married in the Orhodox church! We kissed each other on the cheeks and turned to receive our guests’ congratulations. Some people (who could fit in the chapel) came up to congratulate us and then we made our way back outside where we found more guests and G even found some friends who were attending another wedding at the same church.
After the ceremony, we headed back to the limo for a ride to the restaurant, where we had a champagne reception. After more greeting, we headed in for the meal.Originally, G and I had carefully selected the food items that we liked at the restaurant only to be thwarted by G’s family’s scolding that there wasn’t enough meat on the menu (we only had approximately 8 meat dishes and we apparently needed 10 or more, including the traditional boiled fish). In addition, saving money was a priority for the family, so approximately 10 family members and neighbors decided to get involved and purchase all of the food themselves so that they could have the leftovers at the end of the party. Mayhem ensued, as frozen chickens and large boxes of meat began pouring into our homes waiting for the large party. I’m not sure if we actually saved any money in the process, but it was a learning experience, namely that sometimes it’s better to pay a little extra for the convenience of less stress at such a time.
Our Tamada (G’s father’s eldest sister’s husband) unfortunately did not speak English, so much of the toasting was lost on me. Mom and Mike, however had rehearsed and presented a wonderful toast in Georgian, Mom speaking with a Swedish accent and Mike translating into Russian for the guests who didn’t catch the Swedish Georgian accent but were sufficiently impressed nonetheless.
The wedding party sat at a head table on stage, looking out over our guests, stepping down to dance a traditional Georgian dance and some fun American dancing as well. The musicians incorporated both cultures into their repertoire including songs like New York New York and other national ballads. G’s family, being the wonderful singers that they are, sang many traditional Georgian songs acapella for anyone interested in listening...
At the end of the evening, G and I did not drive off into the sunset in a car just for us to go on a honeymoon as might be expected. Instead, we packed up the gifts and food and organized a way for people to get home, all piling into various vehicles that were at the wedding. Recalling the circus clown cars will give you a good idea about how Georgian transportation works: as many people as possible plus two pile into any vehicle, all getting out of the vehicle to drop people off at their respective homes, generally all piling out to let the first passenger off, who is invariably in the middle somewhere. My luxury for the evening was sitting in the front seat of the truck with my dress taking up the extra seat.
The next day, we all headed to Sopeli for the second day party, where we enjoyed the same meat dishes (as a vegetarian, my diet here consists of tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley and although I believe there may be many other wonderful dishes that might taste good to me, I never see them ... meat is the biggest sign of wealth and hospitality, so, alas, meat is what is served to all).
The party in the village felt even better than the wedding party: with a smaller group of friends and family, Soso at the head of the table, and grapes hanging above. Food and wine taste better and friends and family love better when under the grapes in Sopeli. Even my Georgian gets better with a few glasses of Soso’s wine! We danced on the uneven pavement under the grapes, snuck bones to the stray dogs, and sang about love.
G recited a poem that he had written when he was 16 for the woman he would marry some day and I cried.
We spent the night and woke up to a symphony of farm animals the next morning. A little fresh mint tea relaxed us into the day and we headed back to Tbilisi for the next adventure…
