The WEDDING

This is what has kept us busy lately. Well, preparations for it, then the actual wedding, and then recovering from it. It's been a while since we have been involved in a wedding! I had almost forgotten what they're like.

Kostya and Lyuda got married on Saturday. For anyone who doesn't know, Russian weddings are a big, all-day event. Usually the whole church is very involved. This wedding was no exception. They started out at 8:00 in the morning at ZAGS, which is what a friend of mine recently called "the wedding factory." Then, in a Christian wedding the next step is a church service:

From there they drove all the way to Energodar for photos! (Our family took naps while they were gone.)

When they came back to the church, their parents greeted them with traditional bread and salt:

And then the feast began:


This is probably where Russian weddings differ most from American; the feasting, skits, songs, congratulations, presentation of gifts and such goes on and on and on. . . .



Kostya and Lyuda posing with some of the children during a break:

Kostya ransoming his bride from her "kidnappers":

Her brother/kidnapper has the perfect mafia look, doesn't he?

This was one of the funniest parts of the entertainment. A lady from church was supposedly telling Lyuda about the best way to take care of her husband's shirts. (Something like that fits perfectly into the usual events of a wedding feast.) She called Will up to demonstrate. (Yes, this was planned in advance. Will had changed out of his good shirt. Some people were very upset, because they didn't know that!) She proceeded to cut all the "unnecessary" parts off of his shirt, and then showed that all you really need is a nice clean, starched collar and shirtfront!

But then she continued, "Really, lots of people do it this way!" Then she pointed to a guy that nobody knew and said, "Young man, please stand up and take off your coat."

And then there was another one, too!  It was hilarious!

(Thank you for your prayers and comments. Jaan fell out of a tree yesterday and bit most of the way through his tongue. He is doing somewhat better today, and he actually slept quite well last night. Please continue to pray, especially that he would heal without any infection.)