Day of the wedding - 3.sept

Ryan and Elena's wedding day. We were all asked to gather in the hotel lobby by 10:30, bus would pick us up and take us to Arqua' Petrarca.

Everybody who stayed at the hotel slowly gathered, basically everybody who were from out of town so Ryan's family + friends. Two small buses got decorated with beautiful bows and the wedding day started. About 45 minutes later we arrived at the church in Arqua' Petrarca, they were just finishing decorating the church doors, more people arrived and gathered by the church. Photographer was busy taking pictures of the groom, his family, Elena's family and friends. A bit after 12 we were all invited into the church, everybody took their seats and Ryan was up at the front patiently waiting. Music was playing and he kept waiting for Elena :) Church was decorated quite moderately but it all looked very stylish. More people arrived. Then more people arrived - although the wedding was not very big all in all. Finally all were there and now everybody was waiting for the bride :) Couple of more minutes and there she was, walking down the isle with her father, wearing a beautiful white dress (or perhaps it was light light cream color).

Wedding was held by Italian traditions, it was a catholic church wedding. I don't know enough the religion to go into more details about what was going on there :) Ceremony took an hour and ended with newlyweds walking out of the church into flying rice - just like in the movies. Elena walked around the whole afternoon with rice in her hear though. Ceremony was beautiful and very special in many ways.

From the church we were taken to a local restaurant up on the hill where some refreshments were served. More and more photos, nice music, socialising, wonderful snacks and sparkling wine. Table settings were arranged beforehand and everybody was divided between the tables named after poets - our table was formed of international crowd: 2 Estonians, 2 Germans, 1 person from Sweden, 1 from US, 2 girls from UK and one Finn :) There were total about 7 tables plus Elena and Ryan's table.

Once at the tables the eating feast started. I can't remember how many courses there were, but there were a lot, definitely more than 10 rounds were served :) First came appetizer, then introductory snack, then first course, then intermediate course, followed by something and something and then fruits and desert and cake and coffee :) It was something really special. And the food!! Oh the food was so very delicious. After every 4th plate we went for a walk outside to help deal with the amount of food served. It was all very very good and wonderful. There were more photos and some speeches and more food. Towards the evening some people left and the rest picked up the dance :) Eventually even the dancers packed themselves into the buses and headed back to the hotel in Padova. All guests received a small gift: a small artistically decorated notebook and candy.

It was a beautiful and a special day. I wish a happy life to Ryan and Elena and I hope to see them soon in Estonia (they promised :) ). First they will go to their honeymoon trip in Australia though, leaving in couple of days.