Magaria!!

I have now fully experienced a Georgian wedding.  I say fully because by the end of the night I was completely immersed in Georgian culture.  To start, Georgian ceremonies are incredibly casual in certain respects and to be honest, quite boring.  This may be a biased opinion since I have only attended one thus far but from what I gather from other volunteers, ceremonies are pretty standard.  We arrived to the church about 10 minutes  before the bridal party did and we were the first ones there.  There are no chairs set up or even available.  I don’t believe during regular church services they sit either, but that is just a guess seeing as how I saw no sign of chairs/chair storage anywhere at all.  It seems to me church is more of a coming and going occasion, you don’t necessarily just sit and listen for a whole service.  

Just waiting for our ride to the church

Tsiltelkhevi's church

Isn't she beautiful?!!!

You could hear the bridal party approaching from a-ways away because, if you by chance ever visit Georgia, you are very likely to hear horns blasting constantly as 3 to 10+ cars race down the street and that you’ll know is a wedding party.  The bride and groom then walked into the church, up to the front section while the priest? (I’m not sure what Georgian Orthodox leaders are called) finished his preparations and began the marriage.  While he read from a book with the bride and groom just behind him the rest of the guests just behind them came and went from the church.  It dragged on for quite some time and then finally that was it.  Now came the fun part.  We all headed to the reception where there was approximately 150-200 guests I would say.  Granted at the ceremony itself I probably only saw about 30 or so people.  There was a large amount of food laid out as you can see by the pictures I took, although this is mostly standard supra (feast) I’d say.  The bride and groom took their places at the front of the reception hall and everyone else just found a chair where they could and dug in.  Food kept coming over the course of the night, it was ridiculous.  Practically every Georgian dish that I have been exposed to thus far was present that night.  Everyone was eating and the men in particular were drinking.  

The feast at the start

An awesome eggplant dish that I love here.

Smiling in photos - still not big here.

Post feast

My host dad Valeri and host mom Iza

Another TLGer was at the wedding as well

As you can probably guess this was after quite a lot of wine was consumed.

The Tamada (toaster) giving Judith a big hug post a toast to the 2 American girls

Dancing queen

My aunt Nino and her daughter Lizi

A men's toast to deceased relatives I believe??  Took place in the middle of the dance floor randomly so I was a bit confused.

The music was incredibly/ridiculously loud and for awhile there was only eating and...then began the Georgian dancing, which is great fun to watch.  Georgian men really get into it, impressively so, and the girls have this pretty way in which they flutter around the room.  In Georgian dance men and women don’t touch, they sort of follow after each other in a way almost giving it an appearance of the man desperately trying to impress the woman with his elaborate steps, while the she is simply content to move about in a somewhat coy manner.  Dances were intervened by very long winded toasts from one gentleman in particular with a microphone and then more dancing took place.  As the night progressed the dancing went from just one girl and one boy dancing traditional Georgian dance to the more common freestyle dancing you see at American weddings.  It took me awhile to warm up to joining the dance floor, having nothing to drink and all certainly didn’t help, but finally I gave in and decided to embrace the time at hand.  Plus I could tell Tiko really wanted to dance but wouldn’t go without me; I very well couldn’t keep her from having her fun after all =).  By 10 o’clock the dancing was in full swing mixed with the occasional long winded toast, slower couples dances, and traditional dances.  I hate to say it because my mom begged and pleaded with me not to get a Georgian boyfriend while I was here, but I may have gained one last night....I just didn’t mean to, you just never know how these things work here in Georgia.  The groom’s brother, whom I’d met before since he’s a neighbor of ours apparently decided that from a certain point on I was only going to dance with him.  It was actually pretty entertaining to have other guys dance with me only to have Giorgi interrupt them shortly thereafter. 
I know I’ve said this before but I absolutely adore my host family.  Despite the fact that I rarely get to see Valeri, my host dad, when I do I’m more often than not I’m in constant fits of laughter.  He had plenty to drink that night no doubt, which is also pretty clear in the pictures, and so the whole night he was not only the dancing king, but my protector/matchmaker.  At one point he shot an imaginary shotgun at Giorgi and his persistent manner while other times I’d see him giving me inquisitive thumbs up regarding whatever boy I was dancing with at that particular moment.  Needless to say I laughed a lot that night.

My trip to Batumi last weekend was great as well.  Batumi’s a really lovely city on the Black Sea and while I know some people weren’t so impressed with how quiet it is at this time of year, I can definitely appreciate it.  Folly’s the same way in the winter and I think it’s refreshing to be there during the off season.  We spent a lot of time just walking around exploring the different streets and the walkway along the water.  I definitely look forward to going back and visiting again at some point and also when it starts to pick up again in spring/summer I’ll be sure to make some trips back that way.