Vocabulary:
Wedding crashers - A wedding crasher is someone who goes to a wedding even though they weren't invited. 
Wobble - move unsteadily from side to side
third-wheel - (slang) - when there is a couple, and a third person comes in. They are the 'third wheel'
photo-bomb - (slang) - when you join a photo that you weren't supposed to be in!
Commence - a formal way to say 'begin' or 'start'
Hang out - (slang) - (past: hung out) To spend time doing nothing in particular
Prohibited - not allowed


My Ceremonial Wedding
Two weeks ago, I got married. But not just me, my partner's sister also got married. At the same time and place!

Actually, they planned a wedding and my partner and I completely crashed it! 

We were serious wedding crashers! 

Although we had been invited to this wedding, of course, we kind of got married at the wedding too! In a way, crashing it. 

If you've ever wondered what European weddings look like, stay with me and you'll find out!

1) The bride/groom gets ready

Usually, she does this with her mother, sisters, or other best friends that are female. 

They all get ready together while focusing on the bride! 

In our cases, on the brides! 

2) The bride/groom makes their/his/her way to the town hall/church/(Standesamt)

Some weddings are done at churches, just for the service and paperwork, and then the party moves to a bigger place. 

In our case, it was done at the town hall (or Standesamt in Austria/Germany!)

3) The father of the bride or a close male figure is usually the one to walk her 'down the aisle'

In this case, it was more like holding our hands while we inelegantly wobbled up some cobblestone stairs while wearing heels. Ha!

4) Storytime - a short ceremony!

The lady in charge of the ceremony simply told stories of how each couple met, and added her own poetic touch of love. 

5) Will you take each other as husband and wife?

Elida (my sister-in-law) made a little joke about marrying me instead of her husband.

You can see the response on her soon-to-be husband's face perfectly in this photo: (man to the far left)

But, all ended in laughter as we all said yes!

Then, we all signed, and it was sealed! 

The champagne popped open, we all had a drink and took some photos. I third-wheeled my sister-in-law and photo-bombed their photos!

6) Let the activities commence!

We went on a boat ride along the Danube checking out vineyards along the way and trying a variety of local wines whilst on the boat. But I was mainly babysitting the kids of our friends. Haha!

7) Last but not least, we went to the dinner party spot!
The location was absolutely gorgeous - it had a beautiful little pond and some stunning trees -  I think one of them might’ve even been a Momiji tree!

We hung out there, chatting, drinking, playing with the kids, and finally, we ate. The last step was to cut the cake! 

Usually, there would be a lot of dancing, but thanks to COVID, that was kind of prohibited. (We did dance a little anyway.)

I hope you enjoyed my honest post. If there are any phrases you don’t understand, please leave a comment and I’ll clarify it for you! ^^

Also, if you're one of my students and enjoy my classes, I'd be very, very grateful if you could leave me a review for the Awesome Teacher Award.