Russian Wedding Customs: A Guide to Traditional Celebrations

Russian wedding traditions are full with numerous ceremonies and wonderful songs. Most of them have a rich history and some of these ceremonies still exist. It's interesting that Russian wedding are celebrated for several days (at least two days) and have a lot of preparations. Let's talk about some local things you should know while preparing for the wedding with Russian brides.

Russian Pre-Wedding Rituals

One of the main wedding traditions in Russia is a matchmaking process or svatovstvo. During matchmaking procedures, the bride's parents get a lot of gifts from the groom's family. Since traditional customs are quite conservative, a future husband should be a breadwinner in a new family. It means he should be rich enough to provide good future for his wife.

During matchmaking two family interact with each other regularly and discuss wedding preparations in detail. It helps them to get closer which is good for newlyweds.

Before Russian weddings a bride organizes a bachelorette party with her bridesmaids. During this night girls are making flower crowns and singing traditional songs saying goodbye this part of life. Before the Russian wedding ceremony, a lot of brides would like to know about their fate and the future life. They make some fortune-telling trying to guess what waits for them in the future family life.

Russian Orthodox Wedding Ceremony

Church wedding is very important for Russian orthodox families. Russian wedding in church combine with a civil ceremony. A bride and groom go to church with other guests and a priests take special flower crowns above their heads while saying a prayer.

After that a bride and groom are changing rings with each other. A wedding ring is put on the right hand. It's a sing of loyalty and love. If you are superstitious, we recommend you to choose a smooth wedding ring without any ornaments. It's associated with a harmonic family life without quarrels.

After changing the rings, a priest leads newlyweds around an altar for three times. It symbolizes the start a new family life.

Bear in mind that a church ceremony will take for an hour at least, so you should be patient enough.

Wedding Reception

The tradition of bread in salt is a sign of hospitality when parents meet newlyweds with a big bread called karavai. Another curious custom is bratina which means a huge cup that guest give to each other and drink wine. It symbolizes friendship, loyalty and unity. Of course, now a wedding reception implies crystal glasses but you can combine it with this ancient tradition.

When guest arrive to the restaurant or to another place for the celebration, they see a huge table with a lot of nutritious meals and beverages. Most Russian weddings have a lot of alcohol since these people love to have fun.

Guests make a lot of toasts in honor of newlyweds and add to them some traditional expressions and songs. You should know that Russian people on a wedding party are very eloquent and these toasts are the part of Russian culture.

Traditional Music and Dance on Russian wedding

A traditional ceremony and a reception after that include a lot of music. An accordion and balalaika are Russian musical instrument that help to play slow or fast melodies. Music is the best way to make the celebration more energetic, besides, it reunites guests who don't know each other very well. After a couple of glasses they will become the best friends and will start dancing and singing together.

A round dance is traditional for a Russian wedding day. Guests are dancing in the round holding hands that symbolizes unity. Another dance called berezka which means birch. It's a very important tree in Russian culture and this dance imitates the moving of birch branches.

Unique Traditions Of Russia

Some customs on traditional Russian weddings are quite naughty and playful. For example, one of the guest can steal the bride's shoe while a groom will have to complete some tasks or to pay the ransom to get the shoe back. This game will definitely improve the mood of family members and guests, so you can add it to your celebration if you like such a humor.

Karavai or a huge bread with decorative flour details is a symbol of hospitality. Newlyweds split it for all guests showing their respect to them this way.

Some Russian wedding traditions are quite patriotic, especially Sovet Union traditions and some customs from modern times. After visiting a registry office a wife and husband go to some public places, for example, to Paul Cathedral, Peter Vassilevsky Islanld or Senate Square. These are beautiful places where you can organize a photoshoot. When Soviet State existed, guests often went to the war memorial to express soldiers and officers their respect.

Post-Wedding Celebrations

After newlyweds exchange rings and the reception ends, people are still celebrating! Russian wedding are quite long, sometimes they stretch for several days, when people are dancing, drinking and singing.

During these Russian wedding guests organize posidelki or evening receptions when they are telling funny stories, listening to music and dancing. It helps a couple to integrate to each other's families and to make friendship with male and female friends respectively.

Regional Variations in Traditions

Russia is a multinational country, so traditions from different regions are unique. For example, Siberian traditions include shaman rituals with nature details (flowers, flame, traditional musical instruments).

There are quite a lot of Tatar people in Russia who organize Islamic wedding called Nikhah. In this region it's impossible to registry the marriage without visiting public services, but some religious people prefer to combine it with the Islamic ritual. During this ceremony a bride should wear a bridal veil as a sign of innocence and chastity. Then a bride a groom conclude the agreement that contains the bride's responsibility and the rules for groom. This procedure organizes for free, but in most of cases a groom will have to pay some money to a priest.

These regional details show how Russian culture is rich and beautiful.

If you want to follow as more Russian wedding traditions as possible, we will give you some tips for organizing Russian weddings:

• A traditional ceremony includes a lot of singing and dancing, so if you want authentic music, you will have to look for professional in advance (it's not that easy since modern music is more popular).
• A traditional wedding cake is a karavai but you can use regular cakes as well.
• A long white dress is obligatory. If you plan church ceremonies, choose a humble dress without explicit parts. Combine it with a long beautiful veil.
• Traditional Russian weddings are quite expensive, besides people make preparations for several months before the celebration. Make sure you can afford it.
• Your task is to get along well with bride's relatives. You will have to interact a lot before the wedding day.
• It's interesting that Russian traditions don't have the stage of engagement, so you don't have to buy a special ring for it, it's enough to buy wedding rings (you should pay for both rings). But bear in mind that modern Russian brides know very well about European and American traditions and they've seen a lot of romcoms and melodramas. So if you don't organize an engagement, she might think you aren't interested in her enough.

Thus, Russian wedding traditions and church ceremonies are beautiful and unique. Following them, you will show your respect to your future wife and her relatives. If you want to learn more about these customs, you can discuss it with your Russian partner. She will definitely help you to organize a wonderful wedding day!