Kazakh Wedding

It is an honor to get invited to a Kazakh wedding and last night we went to our first one. The tradition in Kazakh weddings is for the bride to have her own party and then the groom. Since the bride was our housekeeper, Elvira, we were excited to go. What a great experience to learn another culture. The invitation said to be there at 6 pm, but Kazakhs are known for being late so we showed up at 8:45 and still had to wait another hour for the bride and groom to arrive. We killed the time by playing thumb war and Stacey was teaching Mason how to tie shoes. The place held over 160 people and tables were full of food and drinks.


Once the bride and groom arrive the announcer spoke, but I don’t what he said since I don’t speak Kazakh. Then the speeches began. The family goes first and then it was us. Everyone at our table stands in the middle of the room and they call your name for the speech. We were honored to be one of the first ones to give a speech and I began with the Kazakh greeting hello (salamatzizzba). Everyone appreciated me saying that and I used my nanny, Kamazhai, as the interpreter of my speech. After you say something you fill your glass (mostly people do vodka which they are several bottles on the table), then you toast with everyone on your table and walk up and do the bride and groom. The bride and groom sit on a different table with the best man and maid of honor. During the speeches they have to stand the entire time. They must be exhausted since the party lasts until after 2 am (I am sure the excessive vodka drinking doesn’t hurt). It was a great time. I even got vodka spilled on my jacket and Cameron had vodka poured in his glass which he tried by accident. After drinking it he said, “Mama, this doesn’t taste like water.” For some reason we even got presents. We left around 10:15 because the boys were exhausted and we knew it was going on for a long time.