Do you remember the crazy Californian bridesmaid party from San Diego? Refresh your mind here .

So, logically after every bridesmaid party, comes the day – the wedding!

I was waiting one year to write about this wedding as now these my two lovely friends recently got married again. So in 2 years we have experienced one American and one Bulgarian wedding. Crazy, isn’t it? I am waiting to see where will be the third wedding…

So I will use the two summer weddings (happened 2015/2016) to share with you the funniest moments and I will try to compare the 2 weddings, as the distance between Bulgaria and California, which is 6 599.51 miles or 10 620.60 km by air, means something.

We are starting with the first wedding, summer 2015. We are in California, Lake Arrowhead – 2 hours away from Los Angelis by car. I will not spend time to express my feelings when I first saw my friend, as we didn’t see each other for a year. The emotional part of our first meeting is not travellifestory, so skipping it.

The lake Arrowhead area is very green and relaxing one. People were friendly and showed us some of the attraction of the Lake. We took a boat and toured around the lake – water splashes and fast speed moments.

The day before the wedding was the rehearsal day. As me and more 5 girls – the same from the bridesmaid party in San Diego were engaged with the wedding process, we made some repetitions how to move on the alley together with our groomsmen. It was nice, funny, not so long rehearsal, so it was not boring at all. The lady, who explained us what we are supposed to do, was worried about not to get drunk before the official ceremony. She saw 6 girls – 3 Bulgarian and 3 Irish, crazy enough to be able to do this. Also the groomsmen were very crazy, so it seemed to be a funny day.

After the rehearsal, we had barbecue, typical American and my favorite. After the good food came wine time. We met all close friends of our bride and groom and exchanged information on so many different topics 🙂

And here is the day – the wedding! The wedding was very nice, relaxing, no rush. It was outdoor and the weather was warm and sunny. Everything was green, the water from the lake slightly twitched on the sun. I like the idea of the bride and the groom to have catering, because this frees all guests to feel like home, to eat what they want and how much they want, to stand up, go around, dance, play with the kids or just to relax with a glass of champagne.

Good thing was that the civil marriage ceremony was interesting speech and not boring at all.

The wedding was during the day and continued till 10:30 pm. I have enough time to broke my shoes, so I went home barefoot. But I am used to party a lot more late than this hour.

On the wedding there were people from more than 20 countries, so imagine how colorful it was! Great experience! Great California and people.

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Now we are travelling in the time and one year later is the summer of 2016. We are in Bulgaria, in small village nearby city of Haskovo, called Mineralni bani. As I grew there, the words are not enough to explain the beauty of the place (actually I am planning to try in another post, but not now). The crew is here.

Everything is prepared for the wedding and the day has begun. What to expect from one Bulgarian traditional wedding. The recipe:

1. The wedding starts parallel in the home of the bride and in the home of the best man. Lunch time. Everybody starts drinking rakia (typical Bulgarian drink) and other alcoholic drinks. Imagine plenty of food also. After some parallel traditional Bulgarian dancing “horo” on the road outside, the party from the best men has to be combined with the party in the bride’s home.
   

   
2. The best men and all his group should “steal” the bride, but the guests of the bride take good care of her. So actually is a “fight” in front of her door. After the two groups find an agreement, the party continues with more food and drinks.
3. The typical Bulgarian wedding includes religious marriage and civil marriage. Personally, this is so long procedures for me.
4. After everybody gets exhausted because of the long procedures during the mention in point 3 marriages, it’s time the real party to start.
5. Here there is an official ceremony and after that it’s a dancing party till guests want to sleep. Which actually happens early in the morning, so it counts the Bulgarian wedding continues usually 2 days.

I cannot say which of the weddings is better, as they are so different. For sure both were very emotional and people had fun. It is nice to gather different languages, different cultures, plenty of traditions and to watch how the interaction magic happens.