Another fantastic wedding took place in New York State, and I was very honored to be a guest to enjoy it with family and friends.
The Wedding Ceremony took place at Holy Cross Ukrainian Catholic Church in Astoria, New York.
The wedding reception took place at a beautiful venue at Stonebridge Country Club in Smithtown, NY.
I had the pleasure of attending three weddings this year and will share some of the special traditions and pictures from each of these weddings.
This wedding was very special to us since the daughter of our long-time friend was getting married, and also because the wedding ceremony was taking place in the same church as the filming of the ever so popular movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.
I really enjoy weddings with numerous special traditions, intertwined with the usual wedding traditions, such as the cutting of the wedding cake, the garter and bouquet tossing, the mother-son dance, the father-daughter dance, etc.
This was a very traditional Ukrainian wedding, with the Starosty (Elders…Godparents carrying the icons), the Korovai – a Symbolic Ukrainian Wedding Bread, Greeting Bread with salt and wine, lots of embroidered runners (rushnyky), special Icons for the Newlyweds, the Wedding Cake of course, and lots…lots…lots…of food at the Cocktail Hour and at midnight at the Venetian Hour.
This time I will even share pictures of the dress of the Bride, the Bride’s Maids and the Starostyna (Godmother carrying the Icon).
My family and I had the great pleasure of attending a very special Traditional Ukrainian Wedding. What made this wedding extra special, is that it was very close to our hearts, and many of the traditional wedding items were created by people very close to the heart of the Bride and Groom.