A Wedding Week!

     This June, our dear friend Lena got married!  She has been coming to help us once a week for several years now, so she feels like a part of our family.  We've been praying for God to bring her just the right husband, and it's so cool to see the man that He gave to her!  It really struck me how BIG of a deal weddings are here.... especially in the church culture.  (And they should be, as they mark the beginning of bringing two people together for life.) We had a bridal shower for Lena, and one of the games was to put in order the pictures of many different married couples from the church from longest married to most recent.  The fascinating thing to me was how people knew the years and months of these weddings so easily!

     Everyone who gets married in Russia has a civil wedding at a special courthouse for marriage.  Then many people have a reception as well.  We got all dressed up and went to the civil wedding.


     The officiant of the court house stood up front and said some flowery words about marriage, and then Lena and Sasha signed their papers with us all as witnesses.



     There's a special room in the marriage courthouse for taking pictures of the bride with her bridesmaids and with children who are present.


The registration all takes place downtown, right next to the city square, opera house and fountain.  It is also a tradition for the bride and groom to take pictures with family and friends at the fountain.
   

We got a little distracted along the way, as it was a hot day and the water felt so nice!

     Ahhh!  That feels much better!

Our family with Lena and Sasha

     Then we all headed out into nature for a picnic!  Everyone brought something special that they had prepared.  It was a beautiful place and everyone was in good spirits.

The kids tried their hand at fishing.

... and were so proud to carry around little fish in a baggie!

... or in a cup.

     Then, three days later was the rehearsal for the church wedding ceremony. Ike was invited to be the ring bearer.  He took this job very seriously and did an awesome job!  For the practice he carried this ring of wood.



     And the next day, he did an awesome job of sitting very still up front for the whole church service and wedding.  It was a very hot day.

Between the wedding and reception were pictures for the wedding party.

     Ike and I didn't have time to travel all the way back home and back to the reception.  Bruce lives right downtown and offered for us to rest a bit in his cool apartment.

     Then we took the tram together to the reception and met up with Leif and the girls.  

     The reception was beautiful!  There was course after course of amazing food.

All of the kids even had their own kids' table with kid-friendly foods!  Everyone was happy.

     The kids played both inside and outside.

     There was even a dance instructor who taught us a couple of dances as a group.  It was truly a lovely celebration of a special couple- a day that we'll cherish for a long time!