Village Weddings

I woke up to a wet, cold grey sky feeling a little down as I had chosen not to visit one of the larger more established touristic cities with some of the other volunteers. I went downstairs to the sounds of host mom’s friend’s voice to find that she had come for a favor – to shorten the trouser length that her son, was to wear at a village wedding this afternoon. I enthusiastically accepted her invitation to go and watch the wedding.  
It was early afternoon and raining and cold before we made our way through rivulets of water, mixed with silt and mud, gingerly stepping on stones and /or broken asphalt on the many angled roads to the groom’s house on the north end of town. After standing around for quite a few minutes in the rain it made more sense to go directly to the bride’s house near the church as the groom and his family were going to drive down. There was no one else there but us. At the bride’s house we would have opportunity to see the bride and groom just before they made their way to the church and some of the festivities. I felt a bit awkward at first standing among the women and children, either just inside the yard taking shelter from the rain under the awning of the garage and or storeroom or just outside the gates with our umbrellas. However, I was soon to share my umbrella with another women, who was getting wet and I loved the way she grabbed my arm with glee proud of her ‘Americanka’ friend in the rain! The village children were also there and came up a few times to say hello. When I could understand a word or two, it appeared to mirror what happens at many weddings – gossip about the many young people in attendance!
We stood for about half hour just watching the male guests come out of the second floor of the house to help themselves to beer from a chest on the covered terrace. I was able to ask one young man about the corsage on his left lapel and was informed that unmarried men from the groom’s family sported a corsage on the left lapel, whereas the married men were identified with the corsage on the right. 
Since, I had no idea what was happening inside while I tried to keep myself as dry as I could under the shared umbrella, I was glad when the three-man band – with an accordion, a sax and percussion/drum, started the music. The drum was elliptical, slung around the neck of the musician who beat on what looked like an 8-10 surface with his fingers! It took the family about 15-20 minutes to descend from the second floor of the house with their arms laden with gifts/trousseau/dowry of the bride, which was packed in the waiting cars. At the foot of the steps, they started the ora-traditional dance with the rich baritone of the accordionist singing wedding songs. The bride came down led by her young brother and joined the dance, only after everyone else in the family wedding party was dancing. As soon as she started her descent, a man started firing shots in the air from a long barreled rifle soon joined by another man firing pistol shots! I am quite sure a young woman borrowed that pistol to fire a shot! After circling twice doing the ora, the bride delicately stepped towards the fancy white Land Rover all dressed up to take the couple to the village church for the wedding ceremony.

Seeing no point in standing outside the church, we stopped at the ‘prodavnitsca’ more like the village seven-eleven for a tasty treat – chocolate rice crispy treats, followed by a visit to another friend’s home close by. This was the silver lining to the grey clouds that greeted me in the morning.