My Big Fat Czech Wedding

It’s summer and wedding season is in full swing in Prague and the Czech Republic. We asked some of our readers to share their wedding-day memories, from the romantic to the disastrous:

Forgetful bride & groom

I forgot to take my passport to the ceremony and my Czech husband tried to hand in his mother’s ID card instead of his! We also forgot to pick up the best man and photographer. Somebody took the wrong CD from the car, so by the time we were lined up and ready to walk in to the chapel, Jamaican reggae music blared through the speakers, so further delays while we waited for the CD to be collected. We were then told by the foreign police that I wasn’t on the correct visa, but they made an exception and pushed it through (no emigration to Ukraine to teach English required). -Kathryn H. (AUS)

You oughta know

I was attending a wedding in Prague which was for the most part uneventful until the entertainment portion of the evening started. I am still shaking my head over the fact that a (very bad) Alannis Morisette cover band was hired to play a wedding. They proceeded to destroy “Jagged Little Pill” – the ultimate break up album – in its entirety. But the guests were all really into it! -Becca N. (US)

A family a legend is born

My parent’s disastrous Prague wedding in 1977 is now the stuff of family lore. First off, they had the wrong dates engraved into their rings. Then because my mom was expecting me and I came a month early they had to postpone the wedding (they gave their wedding cookies to the nurses in the hospital). When they finally tied the knot the photos turned out poorly so everyone had to put on their wedding clothes and re-take them again a month or so later. -Daniel Z. (CZ)

Tales from a wedding planner

During one wedding, the bride decided just as we were supposed to leave and go by car to the ceremony, that she needed to change her nail polish color…so we waited for her to do it. At another wedding, I was just observing the beginning of the ceremony when I got an SMS from the make-up artist that the bride had left her wedding bouquet in the hotel room. Nobody noticed that something was missing when she walked down the aisle because her father was holding her on one side and she was holding the hand of her little daughter on the other side. We got the bouquet to her during the ceremony. Another quite unusual thing I witnessed was the Czech husband taking his wife´s family name (it was revealed during the ceremony). – Katerina K. (CZ), svatbaspribehem.cz

DIY wedding fail

Finally at the ceremony, it turned out that the keyboardist couldn’t play any of the simple classical pieces we selected from a list that we got in advance. We entered to “Bed of Roses” by Bon Jovi, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel and the Forrest Gump suite. Afterward when I looked out at the crowd my husband’s family were all sobbing like they were at a funeral while my friends were dying laughing. We attempted a wedding stroll around Prague until it started pouring. I will never forget taking shelter in the doorway of the Serbian embassy alone with my newly-minted husband. It was the most romantic part of the day! – Beth H. (US)

Did you get married in the Czech Republic? Share your wedding stories in the comments section or on our Facebook page; for tips on how to prepare for a wedding in Prague and the Czech Republic see our articles here and here.