I was invited to the wedding of a nice Polish couple, Marta & Robert and of course I accepted with joy.

Calling my knowledge of Polish language “poor” unluckily would be just an euphemism,
the truth is I cannot understand a single word;
so I went there together with another guest, who can speak English, and he was my guide as well as photographer,
Pawel Kepa.

The lovely bride, Marta Filipek, comes from Chrzczonow, wojewodztwo Malopolskie
and the pleasant groom, Robert Kopcial, comes from Stykow, województwo Swietokrzyskie.

They met each other in Krakow, since they were both in the same Students’ House.

If you, like me before attending this ceremony, don’t know anything about a traditional Polish wedding, let me give you some details....

Just before the church ceremony, at the bride’s home both parents bless the young couple using bread, salt and vodka (the bride and the groom must eat, taste and drink what is offered to them).
Bread symbolizes richness of life, salt that they would taste life, and vodka that they would cope with problems.
After this symbolic tradition there is the church ceremony.
At the end, guests wish the young couple all the best and give them presents.
When this ritual part is over, everyone goes to the wedding party which starts with the first toast and all guests take their places at the tables. Eating, drinking and dancing begin.
Music is life; the band plays traditional Polish songs and old never-forgotten songs which are enjoyable for the young and old.
At midnight, the bride, groom, and all the guests start performing all sorts of pranks and funny jokes.
After that all, female guests dance with the groom and male guests dance with bride.
There is lots of food and the main drink is vodka. There is wine, beer, and sometimes a Polish traditional home brewed “bimber” which is (it depends how it was made) 60-80% strong.
The party goes on till morning.
The next day, about at 16.00, another wedding party starts over again. In some parts of Poland (usually in villages) a wedding party can last for three or even more days.

You can easily understand now why my memories of the party with my Polish friend are a bit misty....
We had also a misfortune with the memory card and we ran the risk of losing all the photos. Luckily we could recover several of them, even though the quality has not remained at the top.