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The Offbeat Bride: Mihaela, Software tester, Photographer
Her offbeat partner: Dimitar (Mitko), Hardware engineer
Date and location of wedding: Vega Hotel, Stara Sofia Restaurant, Sofia, Bulgaria — March 15, 2014
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: I wanted a small wedding, but Mitko wanted a big one. So we split our wedding in two parts. The first part was the official ceremony in the city hall on March 14th, and we invited just our families. I didn't want a traditional white dress so my mother suggested a crocheted one. I fell in love with the idea! I wanted a crocheted tie for Mitko with the same elements, but my friend who made the dress didn't have the time, so she crocheted three hearts for me, Mitko, and our baby, and sewed them onto a tie.
The next day, we had a big wedding with our families and friends. I wore a vintage dress with a Paris theme, because I graduated from French studies and I just love Paris. Mitko had a bow from the same cloth as the dress. Everything was Paris-themed: our wedding favors were small biscuits with the Eiffel Tower, our wedding glasses and champagne featured the Eiffel Tower, and even our wedding cake was made of French macarons.
Tell us about the ceremony:
In Bulgaria, although the wedding ceremonies are already quite Westernized (including bouquet toss, garter toss, etc.), there are a lot of specific traditions that people keep. But I didn't want to incorporate most of them. We kept three Bulgarian traditions: the first one is when the couple enters in the restaurant, they are welcomed by the two mothers. They have a big wedding bread called pitka in their hands. The mother of the groom gives to the bride some bread with honey for welcoming her into the family and wishing her a happy wedded life. The mother of the bride does the same for the groom. Then the bride and groom give some bread with honey to the mothers-in-law, meaning that they will love and respect their new families.
After that, the bride kicks a can with water for good luck. In Bulgaria, if the couple doesn't have children, people put a white and a red rose (a boy and a girl), and when she kicks, whichever rose comes out would be their first child. As we already had a son, I kicked it just for good luck in marriage.
The final tradition we kept was the bread-breaking. The couple get yet another pitka (there are many, many pitkas in Bulgarian traditions — in fact, for every important moment in life, there is at least one!) and take it over their heads. Then they break it and whoever has the bigger part will be head of the family.
We didn't send invitations, but rather made a video invitation which I uploaded on our wedding site and just sent the link to the invited.
Our biggest challenge:
I had asked my best friend to officiate the second wedding, but a couple of days before the wedding, she had a serious conflict and couldn't do it. I was disappointed, but Mitko's ex-roommate, Nasya, agreed to help us and did a wonderful job!
My funniest moment:
When we had to dance a specific Bulgarian dance, horo. I am very bad at it! So when they all had their right foot up, I had my left and so on. And then I finally got it, but the song was over 30 seconds later. Oops.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Photography: Nikolai Mitev
- Paris vintage dress: Vintage Sofia
- Cake: Ananda Healthy Cooking
- Wedding glasses and champagne decoration: Marina's Workshop
- Wedding favors: Nina Cakes
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
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I am so in love with that cake and I love that the dress and bowtie match too! Happy you both found a way to incorporate everything you both wanted.
Those dresses are stunning! Both weddings look so happy 🙂
(I was a bridesmaid in a Bulgarian Australian wedding last year. Despite *weeks* of practice, I still messed up the horo. Fun, but kind of hard! :P)
As a bread lover, I love the traditions with the pitka!