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The Traditional Russian Marriage Ceremony

Here are a few helpful hints on preparing a Russian marriage ceremony or at least on understanding Russian traditions and the meaning of Russian customs. If you are on this site for this reason, it will be a wonderful surprise for your “maybe” bride- to- be to discover that you are not only interested in her culture but you are also a romantic at heart.

The biggest concern at the wedding is to have enough liquor. A Russian Wedding is an event where everybody must be drunk. No one will be surprised if people drink themselves to unconscious on the wedding - and many do. Having plenty of food is typical for any Russian function, and a wedding is not an exception. If you have enough liquor and food, the wedding is basically ready. By the way, Russian weddings last for two days!

Some Customs:

• A loaf of bread, symbolizing health, long life and prosperity, is bitten into during the ceremony by both the bride and the groom. Whoever takes the biggest bite wears the pants in the family!

• Russian wedding parties ride around their city in decorated cars, leaving flowers at historical sites.

• If a Russian groom takes his eyes off his bride, she can be "kidnapped" and the groom must pay a ransom.

• Russians wear their wedding rings on their right hand. The bands are traditionally three interwoven bands of gold or tri-gold.

• Wedding guests do not only give presents-they get them! The bride gives friends and relatives favors of sweets. They give her money after the wedding.

• After the couple is crowned in a Russian Orthodox ceremony, they race to stand on a white rug. It is believed that whoever steps on it first will be the master of the household.

Order of Events:
Nowadays many couples opt for a marriage in a church but church marriages in Russia still do not have official status, and the church requires a civil marriage certificate to arrange the ceremony for the couple (the couple must be officially married by ZAGS before the marriage in church). So if the couple plans to have a church ceremony, they will usually go through the civil ceremony a few days before the wedding.

(The missing part in a Russian marriage ceremony, both civil and church, compared to the western one is the question if there is somebody who knows why those two people cannot marry.)

• After the marriage ceremony the coupe leaves the guests for a tour around the city sights.

• Then at the reception, the first toast is of course for the new couple one of the witnesses will announce the first toast, and then the parents have their say.

• Then people have time to dance. First dance is opened by the new couple.

• There is no tradition of a wedding cake in Russia though they will probably adopt this western tradition soon; Russians enjoy rituals. They give a cake at the end of the reception (which most guests miss dancing and having fun; there is much more dancing at Russian weddings), but there is no custom of bride and groom cutting it together.

The second day the party is held at the place where the newlyweds are going to live (usually at one of the parents' place - most young families live with wives or husband's parents first). It starts in the morning or early afternoon. Guests arrive with a terrible hangover from yesterday, and the most popular drink on the second day is beer (switching to stronger liquor later).

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