The reason that I went to Macedonia was really the Macedonian Wedding. Marjan and Elena were already married. They had to get married so that Elena could move to Israel with Marjan while he did his masters degree. However, they had not had the traditional Macedonian religious wedding ceremony that is why seven of us came from Israel to Macedonia. Here is the link to the pictures from the wedding!
Now, if you want the details of the wedding...The day began around noon with the women going to Elena's family's house and the boys going to Marjan's family's house. At Marjan's house everyone was outside dancing and drinking while the gypsies played. At Elena's house, where I was with Idit and Tali, we were sat in the "bride's room" where we had some beer and helped her not be too nervous and not want to kill her mother too much. A few of Elena's friends spoke English, so we had lots of people to talk to. And Elena's brother spoke English, so some people explained to us what was going on. Elena's Mom and Aunt talked to us a lot in Macedonian and hugged and kissed us. They were so thrilled to have out of town guests. It was explained that in many ways we were more important than the bride and groom. We listened to Macedonian music and drank beer and helped Elena get into her dress. When the men arrived with the gypsies we had to block Marjan's entrance and prevent him from getting to his bride. After Marjan got to Elena, everyone went into the room that had a huge table of food and danced on chairs while the gypsies played music. It was hot, smokey and crowded in there! After that we proceeded outside where we did some traditional Macedonian dances in circles and the neighbors watched. Then we went to the Monastery for the ceremony. After the ceremony, we had about 1.5 hours to go back to the hotel and change into our fancy clothes for the reception. The reception involved lots of eating, lots of circle dancing, not much dancing on chairs and lots of drinking. A good time was had by all!
Mark and I also went with our designated Macedonian, Risto, to the Strumica Open Festival after the reception to see the most famous Macedonian singer and then we went to a club. It was a long day since we got home around 3:30 in the morning.
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