Tuesday 23 August 2011

St Petersburg Weddings

In which money litters the street
And starring meringue toting brides


Next time you're standing at a wedding reception sipping champagne and bemoaning the absence of the bride and groom and half the attendees as they line up for photographs at various picturesque spots around the garden, spare a thought for the guests of St Petersburg nuptials. 

Following the registry office ceremony, everyone is whisked around the city in buses or all manner of humiliating vehicles:


to popular landmarks where they hover, glugging booze (often straight from the bottle) and shivering, while the bride and groom are directed in various poses.  

Here they are outside the Church of the Saviour of the Spilled Blood (or as we called it: "If Accessorize did Churches): 



and Smolny Cathedral


walking through one of the main squares:


and even outside the Trubetskoy Bastion on Zayachy Island where the prisoners were tortured to death (not that long ago).


Wine glasses tied with coloured ribbon are smashed for good luck 


and instead of confetti the happy couple are showered in tiny little coloured copies of dollars and euros.  You can tell where they’ve been by the fact that the streets are littered with cash. 


Slightly ironic that the only thing not on a grand scale in the whole city is foreign currency.

It seems only fair that they get through a considerable amount of champagne.




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