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Right after Zhenya got her Fiancee visa they started to plan the wedding, as Zhenya's wish was to have a church ceremony in Kharkov for her family and friends, and do the official registration after she arrives in the USA. Though we had little time for planning, the whole event turned out to be organized well enough so that the newly weds, their family and friends highly enjoyed it. Now, if you need help in organizing a Ukrainian wedding - come to us at "All Beautiful"! :-)(An advice to foreigners who plan to have a wedding in Ukraine - here church ceremony is allowed after the official registration only. In case you'd like to have a church ceremony first, and then official registration in your country, you need to apply for a special permit of the Head of Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in our case Patriarchy of Kharkov Church).). The Patriarchy considered John and Zhenya's case, and gave his permission for the wedding.

Here below are the photos with short description of the wedding day; we hope John will also kindly write his comments on the whole event sometime soon.

The Ukrainian wedding starts at the Fiancee's home, where the bridegroom arrives to pick her up and take to the church. Here you see Zhenya's been dressed up andprepared for the most important day in her life...

John arrived early with Natasha, his translator and assistant in Ukrainian traditions, and his best man Alexey.

According to the rules John and his people (usually family or friends) make their way inside the bride's house, while bride's relatives and friends stand in the way.

The bridegroom and the best man should "buy out" the bride; the both parties do it in a funny manner of boasting the merits and good sides of the bridegroom and the bride accordingly.

While John's merits were highly praised, with each step he made he had to say at least one adjective describing Zhenya's perfection and importance to him... Such a comic contest ends up with bridegroom giving small money to everyone who stands in his way. It is believed it should be done for the well-being of the future family, so that they don't forget the good qualities of each other after entering the marriage.

In our case the best man even had to fight with the god father of the bride, in favor of John, and of course won.

Finally John meets Zhenya, they go out and Zhenya's mother gives her blessing and pours a glass of champagne to their future happiness.

The bridegroom and the bride arrive to the church in different cars, and the bridegroom's car should be the first one of the cortege.

The ceremony in the church took about half an hour, the priest spoke English, that made it a bit easier for John to follow all the rules.

After the ceremony all guests came up to the newly weds with hearty congratulations, wishes and kisses, and the couple took some photos, and went off in a horse carriage to the Kharkov Memorial, a traditional place for newly weds to go to after the ceremony.

They took photos there, relaxed, and made a small promenade before starting the festive dinner.

The wedding dinner was arranged in cafe "Napoleon", in Petrovskogo Str., downtown Kharkov, a small and cozy place.
While John, Zhenya and the guests enjoyed their time at the Memorial, Zhenya's mother and family went off to "Napoleon" to prepare triumphant meeting the couple.

Zhenya's mother met them at the door, giving them to share caravai (round loaf), and salt. The caravai symbolizes the abundance and good times of the new family, and salt - their agreeing to stand up the life's hardships together.

After that the most relaxing and playful part starts.

I must say that the main difference between a Ukrainian (or Russian) and Western wedding is that here the wedding dinner is not only food and drinks (both are in a great abundance), but a festive mixture of a show and a fancy dress party, carefully staged and lead by a professional entertainer, where the main actors are guests, mostly best man and bridesmaid, and the newly weds are the honorable spectators.

Between the meals the entertainer announces guests' turns to give their presents to the newly weds, and to say speeches (toasts), and dancing is done.

Traditionally the first dance is between the mother of the bride and the bridegroom.

The guests in turns say their speeches, wish happiness and wellbeing to the newly created family, recall good qualities of them, funny stories from their childhood or experiences together and make jokes in regard to how many children and how soon they want to see in the new family.
Then, funny contests are arranged; to name a few is stealing the shoe of the young wife, and making the best man dance for it, stealing the husband (John) and making the bridesmaid dance for it, and so on.

Special attention deserves tradition to finish each toast with shouting of "Gor'ko" - (Bitterly), and applause, at that the newly weds should kiss as long as the guests are shouting and applauding.
Then costume performances start, to name a few is the swans' dance from "Swan Sea" ballet, also a visit of gypsies (who are guests of course), a play "Farm" with talking and singing animals:

Friends of Zhenya who are actors preformed for the newly weds a show of fakirs called "burning up the light of Love"...

The dinner started at 4pm and ended up at 2 in the morning...