Polish Wedding Reception Food and Dancing

The entire reason for our trip to Poland this year was to attend a wedding. Since Wonderful Husband immigrated when he was young, he had also never attended a Polish wedding. This was an experience.

The wedding itself is a traditional Roman Catholic ceremony. I wasn't really able to follow along since it was in Polish so we just stood/knelt/sat when everyone else did. I will say the organist did an amazing job. When the singer kept unintentionally modulating higher during Ava Maria, the organist followed along. When the singer worked her way out of her own range, the organist played an interlude and brought her back down where she was able to pick it up again. It was so seamless that only people who actually know the entire song and how it is supposed to sound noticed.

Then it was time for the reception. First, we only stayed for the first two days of the reception. I'm not kidding. Starting after the wedding (afternoonish) and going until 5-7am the first day then it picked back up about 2pm the second day. We left just before dark the second day, but apparently it went well after midnight also. We didn't go to any of the third day as we had a plane to catch.

So at the reception hall everyone waits with a drink to toast the newlyweds. Then you go in and sit down for a full meal - course after course after course. After that there is dancing in the next room. This cycle repeats for the entire time. They served a full meal every other hour and every meal was different. It was crazy.

Raw beef - we skipped this one

The vodka fridge - the crazy thing is we saw this refilled 3 times the first evening. Who knows how many times we didn't see. At the tables there were 2 bottles of vodka for every 4 people and if you got below 1/4 full they would take the old and give you a full bottle. No mixed drinks here, all shots.

In case you thought this was a small fridge, here it is with Wonderful Husband for comparison. (This was taken the 2nd morning when we came down for breakfast and discovered no one else was awake or hungry...)

In case you didn't get enough to eat during the meals, there was this area of smoked meats you could help yourself to at any time. There was also an area of homemade alcohols - vodka and beer - for those that wanted something in addition to the table vodka.

The wedding cake with flames. I'll be honest. The kids only made it till just after midnight so I took them to our room (same building) and Wonderful Husband stayed up enjoying the party.

Dancing at American weddings is usually couples. I don't think there was a single dance for couples here. They are all group dances. If a group only had 5-6 people in it, they would merge with another group.

Sweet Daughter dancing with her cousin while his date is willing to share

A short video clip of the dancing so you can see what I mean by the groups.