Married

Sunday May 31st, 2009 I got married to Liliana in downtown Sofia, Bulgaria. Since it was a "once in a life time experience" we choose to do all of the traditional Bulgarian traditions at the bride's door, at the wedding hall and at the reception hall.

Preamble

Lili and I brought my mom and dad from Texas to Bulgaria over several days before hand. My best friend Wayne and his wife came also from Texas just before the wedding. We took some trips into the Bulgarian country side, ate some traditional, fully flavoured food, drank some Rakia, visited some friends and there was some shopping as well. Despite only a few hours of sleep the night before, I did managed a brief outing with my male friends for beer (not quite a bachelor party but it was all I was up for.) I wanted to stay later but I was falling asleep as it was.

Bride's Door

After attempting a dialog at the bride's door, it was decided to force the door to gain entry. Luckily, Wayne used to play football so getting the door open (safely) was fairly OK. Once through the front door however, I had one more door, loosely guarded by Lili's mom Antoaneta. However, I was able to get through without bribery or force.

Liliana had put many efforts into her bridal presentation of course. I have to say it was very effective and I had never seen her look more lovely!

Wedding Hall

Full Bulgarian weddings have two parts: civil and religious. Lili and I decided to only take the civil ceremony. We choose a nice hall in down town Sofia. We arranged for the choir to be present as well. We had some designated translators for my parents and for me during the ceremony. In addition to being unfamiliar with the specific form of this event, the pause for translation caused an unintentional "dramatic pause" before I answered "Da!" (in place of "I do!") I believe the people in the back could hear me and there some was laughter. We also had the traditional "stepping on toes" - the bride got me when I wasn't looking.

After the signing the documents, we headed to one of the several lovely city parks for photos.

Reception Hall

The wedding reception was held at a restaurant. The staff and location was well know for professional service and experience. I was very impressed before, during and after the reception.

There were some traditions during the time, orchestrated by the DJ who did a splendid job: welcoming drink, salt and honey welcoming bread, kick a cup of water with two flowers, breaking of the wedding bread, the first dances and traditional dances.

Though we have put some efforts into selecting the meals, I didn't have much of it: Though we were told that most weddings don't go more than about 5 hours, we managed to dance pretty much non-stop, paying for an extra hour and a half.

HoneyMoon in Tuscany

Liliana and I took a short honeymoon in the Tuscany area of Italy. We visited Luka, Florence, Sienia, Piza and many small cities in the area. We stayed at a lovely Villa in a large suite and we went to one wine tasting.