Nara's Wedding

I only met Nara twice at COAF before she was kind enough to invite me to her wedding. Nara grew up in a small village but spent sometime in the US, worked with the Peace Corps., and now works at COAF.  Her wedding reflected how well rounded she is because it integrated Armenian traditions and was held first in her parents village then two hours away in her husband village, but her guest list included people from around the world. Some guest traveled from Germany, the US, Canada, Kenya, and Uganda to attend the wedding.

Although I only attended part of the wedding I will try to tell the whole story and hope that it is accurate. Nara began her day on Saturday dressing at her parents’ home in the village of Tatev, which is traditional for Armenian weddings. Then her husband’s family came to get her, which she was very happy about. This is not traditional for Armenian brides because typically the wedding day is a sad occasion for the bride and her family. The wedding means the bride will be taken from her home and will go and live with the husband and his family often in another village. One Peace Corps volunteer said that at one wedding she attended the bride’s family was so sad to see their daughter go they were crying like it was a funeral. However, Nara had already moved out of her parents’ village to work in Yerevan. Another tradition that Nara broke is that brides are not supposed to smile on their wedding day. Nara was all smiles and said that in her case she was very happy to be getting married.

Then the couple traveled to a restaurant where we had a great party. There was a live band playing Armenian music and everyone was dancing. Then I got to see the khoravats (Armenian Barbeque) dance where the waiters brought out the food in an elaborate dance and presented it to the bridal party. The bride and groom then had to take their glasses and go around the room to toast with every guest. Later they presented the cake which was lit with fireworks.  Then the night ended with a war dance, which was the highlight of the evening for me.

That night I stayed in one of the villages with some other American guests and in the morning we traveled to the church where the ceremony was held. The church was really beautiful; it was on a cliff of all red rocks. Although I didn’t understand much of the ceremony it appeared like wedding ceremonies I’ve seen in the US, except at one point the bride and groom both got to wear crowns. 

The Church 

The View from the Church

Chad, a PCV, with a young boy from his village.

The War Dance

The Khorovats Dance

Nara toasting one of the guests