Hubby and I attended a Polish wedding this weekend. The groom works in Hubby's team and happens to be French, the bride is Polish and the couple have been living in London for several years. Needless to say I was quite excited to attend this wedding. Having had to overcome similar multi-cultural planning hurdles when Hubby and I got married I was curious to see how they were going to pull off a tri-lingual multi-country event; how the would mesh customs and traditions, how they would overcome the language barriers and what would the result look like.
The wedding was happening in the the bride's hometown of Tomaszów Mazowiecki in central Poland so we expected the majority of the traditional rites would be more leaning towards the polish side. First there was the wedding mass at the bride's childhood church. The building was quite modern and huge which surprised me a bit as I was expecting a small cozy little medieval chapel like the ones you find scattered all over Europe (although I later realized that Poland having been heavily bombarded during WWII probably doesn't have many medieval buildings left!). In any case, all that was overlooked when the beautiful bride stepped out of the cutest little car when she arrived.
On we went for the ceremony and again, a cute touch was added when we suddenly realized the priest was conducting the ceremony in both Polish and French! It was nicely done too, he switched from one language to the other for each passage (as opposed to translating everything twice which makes the whole thing sooooo long!).
I couldn't really tell any huge differences from other traditional catholic weddings I've attended in the past (mainly in Mexico) except for the fact that there didn't seem to be much involvement required from any one else than the bride and groom. In Mexico, both sets of parents, siblings, nieces and nephews and "padrinos" play major roles in a traditional catholic wedding ceremony, but that didn't seem to be the case here.
The ceremony lasted a nice tolerable 50mins (if you don't count the additional 30mins outside the church where all the guests stood in line to personally congratulate the newlyweds)..... I guess everyone was in a hurry to get to the food and reception.....
.... and I was about to understand why.
The French influence was felt right away when the first course arrived to our plates later that evening at the reception dinner. Deep fried Camembert. Now this might sound too extreme to you, but it is one of the most delicious dishes in French gastronomy, and for obvious reasons, we only eat it on very rare occasions (what obvious reasons you ask?: well, other than the fact that it's an entire 500gr circle of non pasteurized cheese for each individual....it's breaded and deep fried. Enough said).
The fried Camembert was just the beginning. Over the course of the next 7 hours (which is how much I lasted but was not by any means the end of the fete) I counted NO LESS than 8 courses!! There was the cheese, then came a lovely spinach soup, followed by a delicious fish dish. We thought this was the end so we confidently headed for the dessert table afterwards. Big mistake. By the time we were finishing our chocolate cakes and our coffees, the next course was put on the table: Greek salads, herring shish kebabs, veal cold cuts and mozzarella & tomato salads. We were also informed that the beer and sausage stand was now open.
We somehow managed to activate a second stomach and have a taste of all. Of course we figured that would be the end so we went back for more from the dessert table (this time for the chocolate dipped marshmallows) and once again, the joke was on us. I do have to say that the borsch soup was quite tasty, beef & mushrooms and all.
Here I must add that Hubby and I were sitting at a table with a mix of Aussis and Polish. The Aussis kept requesting the wine and vodka bottles to keep coming, the Polish kept warning us that there was more food coming. We just kept praying nobody noticed us when we eclipsed ourselves to go outside and get some fresh air.
I'll say it again: I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A WEDDING WITH SO MUCH FOOD.
NEVER.
And let's not forget the alcohol. As per the Aussie's wishes Vodka bottles kept appearing out of nowhere whenever we turned around. I did find it quite amusing that a Finnish vodka was chosen (as well a Chilean wine) but when I asked our polish table neighbors about that, they shrugged and said that vodka was vodka and it's always good no matter where it comes from. I doubt the French would have said the same about the wine.
And then there were the games. I remember the first time I attended a French wedding and was clued into the tradition of the friends of the groom and bride preparing sort of funny/embarrassing "animations" to entertain the guests. The idea is that instead of toasts, friends present sketches or funny PowerPoint slides.
In this wedding though, the "animations" we're of a slightly different nature. Although we couldn't get all the instructions from the polish deejay (nor the somewhat sketchy French translated version - which I attribute to the vodka, not the translator) it sure was fun watching guests participate in a sort of "twister" contest, Michael Jackson dance-off and something to do with the bride's shoes.
The winning prize for each game? You guessed it: vodka.
On the whole, we had a great time and although we retired "early" at 2am (or around course 12) we did enjoy ourselves immensely.
Nasdrovia!
Fned.
 |
| Lovely bride arriving |
On we went for the ceremony and again, a cute touch was added when we suddenly realized the priest was conducting the ceremony in both Polish and French! It was nicely done too, he switched from one language to the other for each passage (as opposed to translating everything twice which makes the whole thing sooooo long!).
I couldn't really tell any huge differences from other traditional catholic weddings I've attended in the past (mainly in Mexico) except for the fact that there didn't seem to be much involvement required from any one else than the bride and groom. In Mexico, both sets of parents, siblings, nieces and nephews and "padrinos" play major roles in a traditional catholic wedding ceremony, but that didn't seem to be the case here.
The ceremony lasted a nice tolerable 50mins (if you don't count the additional 30mins outside the church where all the guests stood in line to personally congratulate the newlyweds)..... I guess everyone was in a hurry to get to the food and reception.....
.... and I was about to understand why.
The French influence was felt right away when the first course arrived to our plates later that evening at the reception dinner. Deep fried Camembert. Now this might sound too extreme to you, but it is one of the most delicious dishes in French gastronomy, and for obvious reasons, we only eat it on very rare occasions (what obvious reasons you ask?: well, other than the fact that it's an entire 500gr circle of non pasteurized cheese for each individual....it's breaded and deep fried. Enough said).
 |
| Yum! (and uh-oh) |
 |
| Food, food, and more food! |
Here I must add that Hubby and I were sitting at a table with a mix of Aussis and Polish. The Aussis kept requesting the wine and vodka bottles to keep coming, the Polish kept warning us that there was more food coming. We just kept praying nobody noticed us when we eclipsed ourselves to go outside and get some fresh air.
I'll say it again: I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A WEDDING WITH SO MUCH FOOD.
NEVER.
And let's not forget the alcohol. As per the Aussie's wishes Vodka bottles kept appearing out of nowhere whenever we turned around. I did find it quite amusing that a Finnish vodka was chosen (as well a Chilean wine) but when I asked our polish table neighbors about that, they shrugged and said that vodka was vodka and it's always good no matter where it comes from. I doubt the French would have said the same about the wine.
And then there were the games. I remember the first time I attended a French wedding and was clued into the tradition of the friends of the groom and bride preparing sort of funny/embarrassing "animations" to entertain the guests. The idea is that instead of toasts, friends present sketches or funny PowerPoint slides.
In this wedding though, the "animations" we're of a slightly different nature. Although we couldn't get all the instructions from the polish deejay (nor the somewhat sketchy French translated version - which I attribute to the vodka, not the translator) it sure was fun watching guests participate in a sort of "twister" contest, Michael Jackson dance-off and something to do with the bride's shoes.
 |
| One lucky winner's haul |
Nasdrovia!
Fned.
3 comments:
Wow, what a fun and memorable wedding!!! Thanks for sharing...
Bravo ...;mais pas vraiment polonais!
Moderne , europeen !
Bravo pour ton post , !!
helene
Le camemebert pané est une trés vieille recette , on a meme une histoire marrante avec Mamé enfant ...l'ayant pris pour un gateaux!!
What a feast! It sounds like a lot of fun - I'd love to go to a wedding with a beer and sausage stand, not to mention all the other goodies.
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