'Wow, it is very beautiful' - Everyone, to our faces
We arrived back in Debrecen around 10:30pm, a little shaken and pretty tired.
Leonard Bernstein, the great American composer once said:
"To achieve great things two things are needed; a plan, and not enough time"
Now apart from his repetition of the word 'things' I love this quote, and it is by no means a stretch of the imagination to set it as the theme of our wedding week.
Vanda was busy over the few months leading up to the wedding with DIY decorations and cost-reducing ideas for the Hungarian celebration because, in case you don't know, weddings are expensive. The average cost of weddings in the UK has risen to £27,000 this year with London's average sitting at a whopping £38,000. Our wedding and the celebrations to follow were and are, of course, much cheaper than this as we couldn't even dream of affording such a thing.
Vanda is a vastly creative individual and once an idea pops into her head it is impossible for her to think of anything else until she has achieved it. This is great news for me, as it means that all I have to do is bask in her brilliance. I am the Sam to her Frodo. So with this in mind, I'll do a quick run down of what she managed to create for the Hungarian celebration:
Flowers in Baked Bean Tins, napkins wrapped in string, clothes pegs and seeds. Looks better than it sounds, no?
The Flower Vases were spray-painted Baked Beans tins. We had to devour quite a lot of this food of the Gods in the UK as they don't sell Baked Beans in Hungary (Just another reason to leave the EU eh?). In the picture above you can also see an almost complete Floating Candle which I will explain how to make in another post. Vanda had an idea for having the Menu placed neatly on everyone's plate as we were having a Buffet table. This meant that everyone could sit down for a drink and chat first then head to the food with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what type of salad-y gloop they are going to choose. She looked up on Youtube how to fold napkins, and after many different style choices we settled on this lovely little fold pocket design. One can also use this design to hold cutlery as well, if one is so inclined. The final little gift to our guests is a seed of an 'easy grow' flower. As we were having a spring wedding we decided to give everyone a flower to plant (with instructions, starting soil and a bio-degradable pot included for added sex appeal). All of this was designed by Vanda either by hand or with the help of Photoshop and we are extremely happy with the results.
Cake Trays, 'Piggy' Bank and classy Wedding branding
The Cake Trays made a welcome appearance and were just about big enough for the unholy volume of cakes that adorned them during the celebration. All of the different wedding accessories followed the same format, and we had two big posters made for the walls to fit in with the theme. In the centre picture you can see a sort of 'Piggy' Bank. In Hungarian weddings it is customary to give money to the newly-wed couple on their wedding to set them off to a good start in their life together. Usually this involves a little ceremony where everyone 'pays' to dance with the bride. We (somewhat sadly) didn't have this at our wedding as my Hungarian isn't yet strong enough to go through the motions of a traditional ceremony, but that didn't stop us from collecting our 'look at us, being all happy' tax from the poor guests, and that requires a money box. We also had Bunting made to fit in with the theme and the tables were littered with Golden paper cranes made by Vanda, a little signature of hers.
Bloody Lovely
The final DIY addition to our little celebration was a 'Polaroid' frame that Vanda's dad kindly built for us. This, with the addition of some novelty hats and accessories, led to much drunken hilarity, as showcased below:
There was drinking, there was dancing, there was more drinking and in the end there was a good time had by everyone. The next two days were spent basically sleeping, and now that this little part of our adventure has reached its conclusion, we are moving towards the beginning of our year in relative isolation by the river (with lots of Motorcycle adventures to fill the spaces between!). With two celebrations down, we have two more official and (hopefully) a big pub trip for all the London friends to go before we can truly say "OK WE'RE MARRIED NOW, IS EVERYONE HAPPY!?" But until all of this, I will leave you with a picture that sums up how that week of my life feels every time I look back to it:
Dancing on Charles Bridge, as traumatic for Vanda as you can imagine
The weeks have passed, the dust has settled, and Rupert and Vanda are married. It has been quite an exhausting couple of weeks but we have made it here, into our pyjamas for the 4th day in a row (which is, I believe, the whole point of getting married in the first place) and I can now finally write about the whole experience.
My dear readers/reader/no-one, I have been neglectful I am aware, but please understand that we didn't have pictures until now and felt that I couldn't share our blessed enshaklement and journey across Central Europe without them. I know that this could be interpreted as not caring or ignoring you all/you/literally no-one, but the truth is that my writing is arduous and long-winded without pretty photos to back it up and my sole purpose for writing about these adventures is to entertain the masses/that one guy/anybody, for the love of god. And so here I am now, your humble servant, explaining to you what went down on the 11th April 2017.
A beautiful sunrise over a poorly maintained highway
To start before the beginning, we needed a way to actually get to Prague, which turned out to be more difficult than we imagined.
The first idea was to ride the bike back up the continent. A romantic notion yes, but we also had all of our wedding stuff to bring, so that wasn't going to work. Next came flying, which we couldn't do for under £1000 apparently so there went that. The train would have taken two days so finally we decided that the only feasible way of getting there is by driving. This would be accomplished in a 1 Litre Toyota Yaris which added an element of 'CAN THIS GO ANY SLOWER FOR PETES SAKE' to our journey. As we had 500 miles to traverse we had to set out at midnight on the 9th. The roads were poor and long, the traffic inconsistent and at times terrifying, and the signposting left a lot to be desired, but we kept in high spirits by laughing and smiling and needing the toilet for almost the whole way up.
In keeping with the very un-Springy weather that this Spring has been gracing us with we were pleasantly surprised by the scorching hot weather. We met up with the wedding guests and went for a drink by the river at the Čertovka Restaurant which boasts pretty stunning views of Charles Bridge and is situated just behind the smallest street in the city (requiring a traffic light system for people to walk up and down, perfect for edgy instagram shots). Afterwards we decided to hunt for a dinner somewhere in the city. At this point Vanda and I were suddenly hit by the lack of sleep we'd had over the last 20 hours and decided that we needed to pass out swiftly and so we went to the flat and did just that.
Team prep
The sun rose, we awoke, fresh and ready-ish for one of the most important days of our lives. Vanda took the brave decision a few months ago to do her make-up and hair herself so she got to work as soon as she was up. The boys in the wedding party were tasked with collecting various important things, such as breakfast and flowers. My friends and male guests Jamie and Chris went for the breakfast, I went for the flowers. It had not crossed my mind but apparently there was a brief panic as they realised that they had left me alone and I had the chance to run to the nearest train station and high-tail it out of there. Thankfully for everyone else I didn't do this and we went back to get ourselves ready for the ceremony.
Bloody elegant flower selection if I do say so
We were all ready way too early. So instead of twiddleing our thumbs waiting, we decided to go to the tower where the ceremony would be held and have a glass of Whiskey in the Whiskey Bar there.
The tower is quite an amazing restoration. We were very kindly given a book about it by the manager of the building as a wedding present but sadly I have not had time to read it yet but if you would like to read more about it, you can here. Our photographers and most welcome guests Theo and Sophie figured this would be a good time to start the photography as Vanda and I looked ravashing while secretly feeling increasingly nervous. So the whiskeys were a wonderful and welcome little addition to the proceedings.
Hooray for Dutch courage and amazing photographers!
But soon it was time for the main event. With excitement in our hearts and a rye-based spirit damaging our kidneys we made our way to the top of the tower. This part of the day was a bit of a happy blur. As this was such a small event and our families would not be with us, we decided to be 'current' and live-stream the wedding on Facebook (an idea that I had witnessed previously on the wedding of an old friend who now lives in Hawaii, hi Jess!), this was a resounding success, and even though the quality wasn't great, it has now been watched nearly three thousand times and allowed everyone to witness our special moment, in a confusingly quiet array of Czech and English suddenly interrupted by violently loud bells to signal that we were married, playing the sweet chimes of a popular Enya song, because who wouldn't want an aggressively loud Celtic rhythm playing at their wedding.
The Ceremony and drinks
After the ceremony we went for Lunch (still in the tower) at Restaurant Zvonice. Which was a truly hilarious treat. Even with the short notice I gave them about our arrival, they had a candle-lit table on a floor just for us, as well as some interesting Czech wedding customs to share with us. Such as the newly-weds having to spoon soup into each others mouths from one bowl with one napkin, which I'm still not convinced is a real thing.
Dignity utterly vanquished
I cannot recommend this restaurant enough as the food was delicious, the service was phenomenal and the restaurant itself was stunning. And so we left full of food and still jittery from the ceremony to go and shoot some photos across the city.
If you ever want to know what it feels like to be a celebrity, wear a wedding dress and walk across Charles Bridge in the mid-afternoon. Me and Vanda were met with all sorts of responses, from cheering, clapping and oral blessings to groups of men wearing the same T-shirt drunkenly yelling at us that we've made a terrible mistake (this happened so often that I was wondering if it was a part of some pub crawl itinerary) and I am now convinced that we will be featuring on holiday albums around the world for overly keen Aunts to show their wholly uninterested nieces and nephews. But we persisted on, stopping at a lovely little café for a couple of beers before heading back to get ready for the evening.
Yes of course we gave him another little rub, we are young and in love we need all the luck we can get!
The evening was another pleasant surprise. As we ended up at Blues Skelp, a cosy local music venue with big beers and ridiculous vibes, a little early we decided to eat at the restaurant just above the venue. Now sadly I can't seem to find it on a map but it is the most understated and charming eatery we could have hoped for. They had had a rush during lunch and had all of nothing left to feed us, but the soup, which we all had in abundance. They were kind, friendly and gave us a hand-sketched picture as a wedding gift. If you can find this little gem please tell us what it is called, as we would love to give them the praise they deserve. After that we went downstairs and watched a band that was so drunk they kept forgetting which solo they were supposed to be playing at any one point, resulting in Jazz that was so experimental that even the musicians had to guess where they would end up. It was an experience unto itself. After this performance staggered to an end we went home with a couple more drinks and danced the last few hours away to various nostalgic tunes until we could stand on our own two feet no more.
It was perfect. Not in the sense that nothing went wrong, or that it couldn't have been improved with anything, but in the way that everything just stuck together into a perfect little gift just for us.
Happy as Larry...and Larrina.
We spent the next day relaxing and exploring and yet again eating at Vanda's favourite restaurant in Prague (again I cannot find a link to it but it is opposite Mosaic House on Myslíkova Street, it is a tiny Czech pub with the most amazing duck in the city and a seriously modest price) before we slept for the last time in our dream-like experience in this ancient city. The next morning we set off back to Debrecen to get ourselves ready for the next wedding celebration (the day after). The drive was much less pleasant on the way down as it was apparently Easter weekend and everyone had gone crazy. It took 12 bloody hours but when we got back we were still happy, laughing and ready to kick the second receptions' arse.
I would like to thank our guests Jamie, Chris and Freya for coming to the Czech Republic and celebrating this intimate wedding with us, you guys made it what it was and we couldn't have asked for better company. I would also like to thank the photographers Theo and Sophie, who were just as much guests as shutterbugs and documented the day so honestly. They are quite fantastic at what they do and they photograph some pretty rad stuff so check them out! I would also like to thank Ladka of Wedding in Prague and Leo for introducing us and helping make this whole trip possible (I still owe you drinks Leo, I know!). Finally I would like to thank everyone who watched the live stream or just sent us messages of congratulations. I still cannot fully believe that we have managed this and we are so thankful for everyone's support and love. So to leave you, here is a short video of the day (again, by Theo and Sophie) You lucky things.
Oh and thank you Vanda for marrying me and now being my wife, may we spend the rest of our lives living out a great adventure.
Right, now that this is done I can return to Netflix and tea before the next phase of our journey begins. Thank you for reading, idiots/idiot/me, checking for spelling mistakes.
The Sauce has been frantically busy with designing and organising our second wedding out of a proposed four.
Let me explain. Our plan to have a small actual wedding and then celebrate in our respective countries morphed beautifully and monstrously into actually organising multiple weddings so that everyone can experience the joy of our special day(s). So for better or for worse we are getting married a few times. And to make matters even better, the Second wedding, the Hungarian one, is two days after our actual wedding.
You may be interested to know that Hungarians take weddings particularly seriously, even more so then us Brits. And Vanda, bless her crazy little mind, decided to hand-make the decorations, in order to keep our costs down and also add a personal touch to the second most wonderful day of our lives. And I, Puffer, decided to watch and photograph (amateurishly) her ideas and share them with the world. Lucky you, world.
So first up: Cake Stands!
Cake Stands...oohhhh ahhhhh!
These delightful cake stands are super easy to make and add a really nice vintage, retro and other blogging keyword feel to your reception.
THINGS YOU WILL NEED:
Fruit boxes/ Display Crates
White Acrylic Paint
White Glossy Spray Paint
Jute Ribbon
Glue Gun
Extra: Twine for added decoration to the legs.
You can find these boxes just about anywhere that there is a market or fruit/vegetables are sold, here is an example of some on our road (we would suggest getting them from shops rather than the street, for hygiene's sake!).
Look for Boxes like this, only with a bit less London road all over them.
After cleaning off the debris and splinters (would suggest some soft sandpaper for a really nice surface finish), Vanda painted the box with a simple white acrylic paint. After the first coat she waited ten minutes before going over it again.
The first coat, and magical appearing Yorkie.
Once it dried, the wood was still a little dull in colour. So Vanda took the box outside and coated it in a layer of shiny white spray paint to give it a glossy look.
Consider spray painting outside, so as to not paint any inquisitive Yorkies.
At this point the box was looking pretty wedding-y but needed some finishing touches. We managed to find and pick up something I would later find out is called Jute Ribbon which adds a lovely countryside feel to anything you wrap in it.
Pay no heed to the terrible lighting of these shots, the Jute Ribbon is what matters!
For the finishing touch, Vanda made a bow out of the jute ribbon to mask the area that glued the ribbon together and 'wrap it up nicely' so to speak. Once the bow was ready, she used a glue gun to stick the ribbon together, and attach the bow to it.
Make a bow, stick a bow, have a beautiful cake tray. Sorted.
Et Voilà! You have a very simple and stylish cake stand for all the sugary treats you will feed to your ravenous guests. If you'd like a little bit of extra decoration, you can wrap some twine around the legs of your box.
Twiney Winey Leggys
But there you go. Simple eh? And not just for weddings either, I imagine they would fit nicely at a summer barbecue or a summer barbecue themed Bar Mitzvah. More easy decorations coming right up, but for now, Hope you're all having a grand weekend!
