Standa + Dita

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than trying to describe the whole wedding day, hopefully I can take you through it in photos rather than lengthy descriptions. 

Our day began with finding a boot on our car because we did not know we had to pay for parking.  Fortunately the police officer took pity on us and was extra friendly when he saw that Jon had a Czech name.

We met Standa at the Castle and we all headed down to the wedding together.  The castle gardens are famous and beautifully manicured...we only caught a little glimpse of the, but what we saw was amazing.

Everyone attending the wedding received these little boutonnieres, that are symbols of good luck.

The ceremony was held in this gorgeous baroque style room.  Here is Standa and his mother walking down the aisle.

Dita and her father make their entrance.

During the ceremony, Dita's nephews were playing around in the aisle, they were so cute! Their father is British, and the eldest son who is four came up to his dad (standing behind Dita on the right) and said loudly, "Daddy, if I'm good, can I go to the aquapark?" When his dad tried to tell him to be quite because his Aunty Dita was getting married, he said, "Daddy, I'm talking to you!"  These darlings boys reminded me so much of my own nephews and how cute they were during our own ceremony.

After the ceremony, they had the receiving line and we got to give Standa and Dita some big American hugs.  Upon exciting we throw rice on them, just like in the US...a familiar tradition!

This on the other hand was not such a familiar tradition...Standa was greeted by his new sister in laws and her eldest sister's husband and was giving several tasks, including hammering nails, raking up money, chugging beer and catching a live rabbit! All of these are associated with the Moravian countryside, where Dita is originally from.

Lastly, Standa was officially yoked by his new wife, Dita.

Sealed with a kiss.

From there, we all caravaned together to the Hotel Rusava, in the small town of Rusava about 20 minutes from Kromeriz. We were included with the lunch, that is usually just for family, so we felt very lucky and honored to be counted among their closest relatives.  Here Standa and Dita are feeding each other traditional wedding soup.

We got one formal picture of us together with Standa and Dita, just like we had at our wedding.

After lunch and photos, we had a little break before the official reception started.  Dita's uncle, Standa Hložek was a famous popstar from the 80s in the Czech Republic, so we had some live performance! He was awesome, to say the least.

Jon got in on the guys choreography as the performed to Uncle Standa's music.

Dita is sharing her Bramboraky (potato pancakes) with me.

dancing the night away

We had such a great time!  Everyone was so sweet and the hospitality was great. We are so happy that we made it there to celebrate with our dear friends.  Congrats Standa and Dita!!