Weddings

For some reason I have become completely surrounded by weddings here. Trust me, this is something that definitely had not crossed my mind as happening in Romania! Cluj, at least, is a place with oodles of brides. If you ever have the illusion (more likely, a delusion) that you are the only person getting married or that your wedding is more important than other people’s, just come on over to Cluj and check out the Piata Unirii near Saint Michael’s church or Central Park on a weekend afternoon. Last weekend, I went for a walk through the park and saw no less than 12 brides in a span of approximately 10 minutes. It was unbelievable! And, on a frigid day the weekend before, there were two or three brides circling St. Michael’s church. Now, lest you think these brides traipse through the woods on their own, let me quickly correct you. They come with a complete entourage: husband, often an extensive bridal party, and at least 2 photographers, and one videographer. It is really all rather impressive. Not only do weddings keep the photography industry afloat here, but it also supports a rather impressive set of bridal shops. While the vast majority of clothing stores are second-hand shops (that is a whole different store), there are a mind-boggling number of stores filled with wedding dresses. It is pretty fantastic considering the average wages here!


Just to prove that I am no liar, here are a few of the wedding-mania pics that I have managed to snap:

What a nice picture!

I love the camera entourage :)

Okay, wedding tv would not approve of the white dress with the very off-white suit!!!

a rather odd choice for a fall wedding dress, I think - looks chilly!

And, yes, the flouncy princess bride exists in Romania, too!

The parasol, not just for the American south....

I have oodles more weddings pics (I am like a wedding photographer voyeuer!), but these were the best ones.  I will allow you to escape all of the others.

Now, in addition to the constant stream of weekend weddings here, I am constantly bombarded with weddings on the television. I have approximately 250 channels, all from England, but they are the free channels. This means the majority of them are qvc-like channels, selling everything from fitness equipment to craft supplies (fascinating). The watchable channels include: wedding tv, travel tv, rural tv (think rodeos and tractor shows), horse and country (exactly what it sounds like), and education tv (sometimes interesting programs on lessons and schools in England). Of these, I primarily stick to wedding tv and travel tv. From the wedding channel, I learned that people spend incredibly huge sums on their weddings. I had thought that $20,000 was a pretty big amount. Apparently that is a drop in the bucket, and $40,000 seems much more average. Wow. I can’t even fathom that amount of money for just one day, but I am quickly seeing where it can all go. I am starting to get into this whole wedding planning thing – not so much for me but just thinking about how it could be done. I don’t think I would ever want to go into wedding planning (because, let’s face it, most brides are a little crazy and it just doesn’t look like fun!), but I think I certainly could plan one after this! Yes, the skill I learned in Romania – how to plan a wedding. Bet you never thought that would be one of the results of this :)