While being home last time, I was honored to participate in a celebration of traditional Polish wedding. I was absolutely blown away and nervous at the same time, when one of my high school friends asked me to go with him. Why? Firstly, I did not know neither a bride nor a groom. Secondly, I had no clothes (apart from my snickers, jeans and fancy Thai hat). However, my sister was organised enough to get me motivated and ready for the party!
Me and my partner Daniel
What are the Polish weddings like? How to behave? What food can you expect? Now is the time to answer these questions. After hours of eating food and dancing on the floor followed by a long mass in the church, I feel like a professional wedding advisor :):):).
Me dancing like crazy, that’s the spirit!
Things to know
All you need to know before you crash a Polish wedding is that Polish people are very hospitable, friendly and they like drinking a lot of vodka. Each holiday or celebration is an excellent opportunity for us to overeat and overdrink :).
Polish vodka with faces of the bride and groom
Polish wedding are, without a doubt, one of the funniest in Europe and the wedding party can last even a few days. Traditional Polish weddings often pull family together to celebrate such an important moment in the life of their relatives. There is no way you will get bored or go home before 5 am!
Traditions, customs and superstitions
Marriage and weddings are often subjects to a number of traditions, customs and superstitions in Poland.
Friends and family gather together in front of the church
The church in Zagan where the wedding mass took place
Friends and family of the bride and groom
To start with, according to the tradition, an engagement lasts up to one year. Therefore, the wedding must take place within 365 days from the date of engagement. In Poland, there is a superstition that the wedding should take place in a month, which contains letter “r”. Planning the wedding ceremony on the 1st April is not recommended for obvious reasons – April Fool likes to make mischief, not only in terms of weather (April in Polish is “kwiecień” and thus does not contain letter “r”).
The bride and groom are picking up some money to bring them wealth and good luck
Selecting a wedding dress is also shrouded in tradition. The groom should not see the bride in her wedding dress until the wedding ceremony. Moreover, A woman must bear in mind that the wedding dress should be wore only once when trying it on. Unnecessary parades in the dress carry a bad omen.
Making a toast
The just married couple is surrounded by their friends and members of the family
Wedding dress should contain at least one white element that is a symbol of purity and blue component, which bodes marital fidelity. In addition, the bride should also have something borrowed (and the favor of her husband’s family), something old (if necessary guarantees help from relatives) and something new (a symbol of abundance).
First dance
and … first kiss
On the way to the church or registry office just wed should look out for the pigeons that bring happiness in contrast to the crows, ravens and that can be a bad symbol. Also, the weather on their wedding day has some symbolic meaning – it is probably obvious that beautiful sunny skies heralds happiness, and thunder and rain augur bad luck. It is interesting that a light rain is considered a blessing of God.
The table full of delicious meals including cakes and fruits
Journey to the church should go without turning, even if we forgot something and the bride’s father should accompany her till the end. The first moments of marriage require a thread of tradition. Young couple is showered by guests with rice or barley grain to provide them in this way fertility and abundance. The first joint toast should end up throwing glasses so that they break.
Champagne and the fresh bread
Wedding party
Wedding party is something everyone looks forward to. All guests are dancing like crazy to the music played by a band. There is no way you can stop dancing (maybe if you want to have another vodka shot). The whole place is decorated by fancy balloons and colourful ribbons.
Let’s dance!
Cool wedding band
Everyone is over the moon!
At midnight, there is time for “Oczepiny”, a wedding ceremony during which the bride symbolically passed from maiden to married status, for example the groom needs to find out which legs (there are 10 women sitting on the chair with their skirts and dresses rolled up) belong to his wife, without looking.
Just wed are just about to cut the wedding cake into small pieces
Wedding cake
That’s my piece of cake
Wedding food and drinks
Weddings are one of Polish traditions (after Christmas) when you will never feel hungry or thirsty. You will be stuffed with enormous amount of Polish food and drinks. Overeating and hangover are guaranteed. There are many traditional Polish dishes served, such as Polish dumplings, herring in oil or vegetable salad with mayonnaise so everyone can find something for themselves.
Vegetable salad with mayonnaise and eggs
The food is being served by waitresses every few minutes so you can taste them all and pick up your favourite.
Polish galareta with vegetables
Polish variety of pork breaded cutlets coated with breadcrumbs similar and chicken breasts
The whole party is over when everyone is drunk or falls asleep on the floor. The next day all guests gather together again to have a dinner. Although I am not a big fan of parties and drinking too much, I had a lot of fun and met great people.
I wish the bridge and the groom all the best and hope their dreams will come true.
Have you ever crashed a wedding? How was it? Different or similar to Polish? Share your thoughts with us in comments!
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From Travel Junkie Indonesia:
wow! what a great post. thank you for sharing. hugs from Indonesia ;)
From Agness Walewinder:
Thanks for your comment. Hugs from China.
From Sam D:
Hi there!
Beautiful wedding, the cake is bonkers!
It is really interesting to see the different traditions.
Great read!
From Agness Walewinder:
Hey Sam! Thanks a lot for your comment :). It was a beautiful wedding and an awesome wedding party :)
From Alex Gibson:
That is one hell of a party, I got scared when you said, as a groom, I have to identy the brides legs without looking. How do you do that? The bad omen signals are scary also, because you have no control over them.
From Agness:
Hahahaha, you should know the bride’s legs, c’mon!
From Colleen Brynn:
This looks like it was a great experience, Agness. I have never been to a Polish wedding, but I want to go to one now!
Actually, you share a lot of the same customs and beliefs surrounding marriage as North Americans do. Maybe not as much vodka though…
xo
From Agness:
Hahha vodka custom is typically reserved for Poland :):):). It was a great experience, really miss it now.
From Cassandra:
This was a really interesting read, Agness! I’ve only ever attended weddings with my family in the states. Since my relatives are strict Southern Baptists, I’ve never been to a wedding (or any other family event!) where there was alcohol ! This would be unheard of in Poland, I imagine? ;)
I found it really interesting how the Polish interpret wedding-day weather; how nifty that a light rain is a positive sign, while heavy rain is not!
From Agness:
Thanks Cassandra for sharing. Actually I don’t drink much alcohol either and it’s hard to believe but I didn’t drink at that wedding at all. Of course, people tried to convince me many times during the wedding party but as long as you keep saying no while smiling, you are gonna be ok ;-)
From Noelfy:
Where are your shoes, Miss Walewinder? ;)
Spanish wedding are way the same as the one you described,except for the Oczepiny and the huge amount of vodka :P
From Agness:
I lost my shoes somewhere LOL had so much fun, was dancing like crazy!! Spanish weddings rock as well :) Nobody drinks that much vodka so I’m not surprised :)
From DebbZie:
Whoa, Polish wedding looks so much fun. And lots of food too ! Very interesting experience :)
From Agness:
Not as good as Malaysian food though.
From Freya:
Looks like Polish weddings are a lot of fun and of course lots of great food and drinks. Hope to go to a Polish wedding myself one day and experience it all.
From Agness:
I love the food and dancing part the most. Hope you can experience what I have :)
From Franca:
Nice to read about Polish traditions and interesting to see that some are the same as in Italy. Like the fact that the groom doesn’t have to see the bride dress before the wedding, or the ‘something old, new and borrowed’. The amount of food, drinking and dancing sounds similar too..
I guess that was fun! Why didn’t you were your Thai hat? That would had been epic! :)
From Agness:
Good to know Polish weddings are so like Italian weddings. That was a lot of fun! I was going to wear my Thai hat and my favourite snickers I always wear when travel, but my sister started shouting “Are you mad!????? You are attending a serious wedding, not a party for backpackers” :-) so I gave up ;-P
From Sarah:
Polish weddings sound like a lot of fun! I love learning about different wedding traditions, especially all the quirky superstitions. You look beautiful Agness :)
From Agness:
Thank you Sarah. If you ever crash a foreign wedding, just let me know. I am also interested in different wedding traditions!
From ardun:
You’re so lucky Agness! I can’t wait to crash a foreign wedding ceremony. Maybe I will try my luck in South America :)
From Agness:
You need to tell me as much as possible about the weddings in South America once you crash it :):)
From Julika:
What a great post, Agness! I love learning about a country’s culture and traditions through attending weddings abroad! I once crashed a wedding in the States, and was surprised to find out that it is exactly like all in the movies! And after reading this, I really want to go to a Polish wedding now! They sound like so much fun!
From Agness:
I’m so jealous of your wedding in the States. I watched a lot of American movies and thought the weddings like this don’t happen. Good to know they are exactly like in the movies!
From Our Dear Lady Expatriate:
What a gorgeous wedding! Congrats to the bride and groom.
Such an interesting post, Agness. It’s amazing how many superstitions there are surrounding the wedding ceremony in Poland. The ones about the wedding planning and 365 day max engagement were the ones that really blew me away!
From Agness:
They are many superstitions – that’s why I don’t wanna get married LOL Some of them are so silly like the one with 365 day max engagement :P
From Mariella:
Love this – but now I’m hungry with all the food pictures! Agness, you look so pretty in those shots you posted! I so want to go to a Polish wedding… Aggy of dreamexplorewander.com and I had a twitter talk on that just recently. Way high on my Bucketlist.
From Agness:
The food was just amazing. Thank you! Maybe one day I can take you to Poland with me and we can crash a wedding together :). Would be a lot of fun!
From Mariella:
I loooove that idea!!! :) But only if we both wear fancy Thai hats :) Jezeli wszystko sie uda co mam na mysli, to chyba od sierpnia bede mieszkala w Polsce na rok – chyba w tym roku damy rade z tym planem :D
From Agness:
That’s so awesome Mariella! Hope we can meet up one day for a coffee in a nice Polish coffee shop :-). 3mam kciuki kochana, zeby wszystkie plany poszly Ci po mysli :):)
From Aggy:
“Overeating and hangover are guaranteed” SO TRUE!
I went to one this Summer! My friend’s sister’s wedding and it was so much fun. I danced and danced and danced and ate and ate and ate…and of course vodka! Oh I’d love to go to another one. I’m liking your facts on Polish wedding, so many interesting things.
I did a little story on it too: http://dreamexplorewander.com/poland-a-wedding-popitka-and-milky-bar/
From Agness:
Hahaha! So glad you crashed a Polish wedding. So happy you liked it :):) Dancing is crazy :P, people never stop.
From The Guy:
Lovely detail there Agness. We were invited to a Polish wedding for 2011 yet sadly were unable to make it. We’d heard about some of the traditions but not as many as you mentioned there. There are loads.
We’d also heard about the long party and extensive drinking.
You have got me worried now. We get married in May, can I re-write the calendar month as rMay?
From Agness:
Not to worry the Guy, most of these superstitions are very silly, but you can re-write the calandar month as rMay LOL. Maybe you can attend the wedding in Poland next time :):)
From Jessica:
What a fun post! It was interesting to see how some Polish wedding traditions overlap with those in North America (like the something new, something borrowed, and something blue), but other aspects of the ceremony are completely unique (like Oczepiny, which sounds hilarious). Personally I think you should have worn the fancy Thai hat to the reception, though, haha.
From Agness:
Yeah, Polish weddings have a lot in common with North American weddings. Oczepiny is one of the funniest Polish words I know, makes me laugh every time I say it. YES, I should have worn the fancy Thai hat, would have been a lot of fun and what’s more I would have felt sooooo embarrassed!