Polish Engagement and Wedding Traditions

What are the traditions associated with engagements and weddings in Poland?

The engagements are usually in a parent's house, they have a big meal and the parents meet.
They have a bachelor/bachelerette night, meaning the end of freedom.
There are two weddings, one is a civil ceremony and the other a church wedding.
You can marry a non-catholic in a catholic church but that person has to sign an agreement that the children will be raised as catholics.
Weddings are usually on a Saturday lasting till morning, longer if you live outside the city.
May is considered a bad luck month.
The guy comes to girl with his parents who give them their blessings and then they all go to the court house then to the church, if they have it the same day.
In the past the bride was lead to the altar by her father, and the groom by his mother which is still a tradition in the US but forgotten in Poland. Now the young couple walk up to the altar together and behind them walk the witnesses, her parents, his parents then rest of the family. The bridesmaides and groomsmen are normally not practiced.
They walk out after the ceremony and greet guests and family, some give them flowers and later are showered with coins.
When guests arrive to the wedding they usually stay with family instead of hotels. In large cities the reception is in a restaurant or a hall but in the country it is at a home and weddings last 2 or even 3 days and more people come. Next day are the poprawiny where they eat the left-overs and that lasts only a few hours.
The bride and groom are greeted with bread, salt and wine an old tradition which promises happiness and future wishes for the new family.
The wedding ring is worn on the right hand.

It can be only in a church now.

No wonder i'm not having any luck getting close to the Polish guys. I wear my nan's wedding ring on my right hand. They most probably think i'm married. Worn it since the year she died never taken it off. (Sorry nan but think it will have to come off)

Wow, when did that change?

I don't think this is correct.

slub.waw.pl/konkordat.php

you cant 'force' people to marry in a church.

muslims, jews, protestants, atheists (marriage is not a catholic concept alone)

What this says is you can have a church wedding only, but if you want you can still have both ceremonies. It's just a new option since 1998 for not having two ceremonies .
In the US you only have one ceremony, either in church or in front of the judge.

eeer wasnt it vodka insteed of wine ?

you can have only one wedding in church which will be containing both register office and catholic ceremony.
If you dont want to have church ceremony - you can go to register office alone

more likely now is that all guests and familly will be sitted in a church and only young couple will walk up to the altar together.

reception usually lasts two days. At 00:00 (midnight) of the wedding day there is a ceremony called oczepiny. Thats when bride takes off her veil and groom his tie/fly. Then they will throw it to catch by single women/men. Lots of signing and plays around that :)))
And obviously LOTS of drinking and LOTS of eating and LOTS of dancing during whole reception :)

I once saw a wedding video from Poland - the reception went FOREVER and they played all these games, which, honestly, I found really annoying rather than fun - and by the look on many faces, they did too! I think by the time it was over - sometime near dawn, the 'happy couple' were exhausted - so much for the wedding night!

thats whole fun of it :)

You have to understand that and it is part of our tradition

that only means that wodzirej and band were crap, not that tradition is bad.

but happy ! :)

Hi B, yes I think the band was crap! I think a good band makes a big difference, naturally. I've been to a few polish weddings in Oz and they played a few games - which were entertaining and funny - the best fun was boogie-ing... I always have fun at these weddings and polish people here tend to booze it up bigtime and that always makes for more laughs...

this made me laugh.. lisa they will most definitely think you are married.. suggest you take it off pronto. Remember to check his right hand too..this one caught me out.

This is very confusing, the girl I liked had a ring on her right hand. Whoops. I was always told to check the left hand for an indication.

oh dear..sorry Ken. well at least you will know where to look next time you encounter a Polish woman.. I didnt know either until I found out the hard way. It not just Poles, some other E Europeans and Greeks do this too... and Im sure many others that I dont know of.

hehe it works both ways.
When i came to UK and fancied a bloke it didnt even occured to me to look for a wedding ring on left hand.
Oh well, then i found out and now i know ^^

well its good we all know now. theres a lot of married British men who dont wear rings at all.. especially those long time married. It doesnt seem to be considered as important for a man to wear a ring as a woman.

The Polish guy i kissed all New years Eve wasn't wearing a ring but found out he's married.
And yes taken the ring off.

i think its best to assume that all Polish guys over a certain age (not sure what that age is.. maybe 28?) are married. In my experience he didnt try to hide it as he was wearing a ring, when I did eventually notice and question it he tried to tell me the truth, but his English was terrible so I didnt fully understand for a while.

Well bang go my chances then i'm well over that age. lol

A bachelor`s party - interesting tradition. Bt youshould feel free after marriage - you`ve then gt all you needed, haven`t zou? All u wanted...

Do abduction for a girl happens?

There's nothing wrong with marrying a younger man. :)

Looks like there is no alternative. OH WELL! :D