I’m so excited to share our wedding in Europe with you all! If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that we had not one, not two, but THREE weddings.
Wait, whaaat?!
That’s right! Tim and I met on a missions trip in Romania, where I grew up. We started dating, and in between his visits to Romania and my visit to the States, there were a lot of late night/early morning Skype conversations. Also, let’s not forget
Yahoo Messenger and AIM texting. Anyone remember those?! Haha.
In order for us to be able to get married legally, we had to do a civil ceremony in Romania (think about a courthouse wedding on steroids — we had a reception afterwards and everything). This meant that Tim could start filing for a spouse visa for me to be able to come to the States. After our civil ceremony in November 2011, Tim returned to the States and then came back to Romania in March for our church ceremony and reception.
The photos you will see below are from our March wedding. We were told that the paperwork would take about 5 months and we were hoping that I would be able to come home with him in March. What was supposed to take 5 months, ended up being 9 months. After our March wedding we traveled to Italy for our honeymoon, and then we had to say good-bye to each other once again. Tim came to visit me again in June, and then in August. We came home together in August 2012.
To say that was quite an adventure would be an understatement. Later that year, we had another wedding (more like a vow-renewal) for Tim’s family and friends here in the States. That was a very special time as well, as I got to wear his late grandma’s wedding dress which fit like a glove. Tim also proposed to me with a family heirloom which made everything extra special.
So, if you are curious to see what a Romanian wedding looks like, you’re in for a treat. There are quite a few differences that I’m sure you are going to find amusing to say the least.
Firstly, I would have never, ever imagined myself in a ruffled wedding dress. However, this dress just stole my heart from the moment I tried it on.
Let’s just say that first-looks were not very popular in the States when we got married. However, in Romania, it is pretty much the standard.
My beautiful little sister-in-law who was adopted from Romania over a decade ago. She is not so little anymore. Raise your hand if you think we look alike!
After we took some photos at the hotel we got ready at, we headed to the church. The Romanian ceremony is a lot different than a typical ceremony in the States. There are multiple guest speakers that talk about marriage, give advice, etc. and it is a lot lengthier than what you are probably used to :)
The reception is also a lot different. Romanian weddings always have a sit-down reception with a 5 course meal. Yep, you read that right!! :)
This is the appetizer, which was followed by soup, main dish, a traditional dish (sarmale) and dessert.
Romanian receptions are also very long. Our wedding ended around midnight, but most weddings go till early morning.
For our departure we decided to do flying lanterns which is a trend that I have yet to see in the US. They are so much fun!!
If you enjoyed the photos from our wedding in Europe, you are also going to love our wedding highlight video that our amazing videographers did for us.
we saw/attended 2 of them – watched church(2nd)wedding by computer hook up and attended the 3rd here at the lake – both beautiful & sweet