While we were in the middle of organizing our journey (visas, vaccines, route plan, preparing the bikes, gears) we had our church wedding too, followed by a big wedding reception with 150 guests. There was even a post wedding fun too. But let’s not jump in the middle of things, here are the details (there’s a lot).

Location of the church wedding

Vérteskozma, small church. It’s located at the side of a fairytale village, on the top of the hill. I was cycling this way with Zita on our 6th datem this was the first church we went into together.

Proposal

I proposed to Zita after a few hundred dates and one and a half years later at the same church – also during a bike tour. On a friday while Zita had her final exam at University, I met my friend, Bander, and we popped into a jewellery shop in Váci street where I picked out a solid silver ring – the engagement ring. On the bottom of its box was the logo of the shop, so we quickly sneaked into Zita’s school with Tomika (Zita’s good friend) straight to the library to Annamari’s desk (also Zita’s good friend), where we nicked a cycling related sticker to cover the logo. During this Zita was sweating with her exam. :) Of course she was successful, so we happily cycled towards Biatorbágy. Somewhere around Érd we got stuck at a fish soup festival, therefore we had to teleport ourselves to Szár, so we could make it to Vértesboglár before sunset. We succeded so much, that we watched the sunset in the little fishing lake in our village, because the owners were kind enough to let us swim there. I wrote “our village” because my family has just bought house they fell in love with. We spent the night there then on the next morning we departed on the very important bike tour, across the hills to Vérteskozma, to the same church where we were on the 6th date. Zita didn’t know anything about my intentions, she even wanted to turn back at the border of the village, saying she’s tired and wants to go home, but I insisted she won’t regret it if we go in the village. So we sat dow to the bench by the church. I noticed she was not ready to handle the proposal, she was too tormented that time, so she needed a massage first. She received a half an hour back, shoulder, neck massage that lifted her spirit straight up, so I was able to give her the ring and pop the question if she wants to marry me. The answer was a dropped jaw and a few tears, and a yes. :) …and because the proposal was there, that beautiful place, we had our church wedding there too. In the middle of the nature, in a church of a beautiful village.

Location of the reception

We researched the area and at the end it was Vértesboglár, László Winkler’s horse farm, the Vérteslovas. Ours was the first wedding here and I think it was brilliant. We sat the 150 guests down in the plastic ice rink and there were space left for the band and the dancefloor too. Most of the accommodations were at one location too, as the farm hosts summer camps and school holidays too. The following morning we convinced most of the guests to stay, not just to consume all the leftovers but to enjoy the wide range recreational programs too. There was a plastic ice rink, two trampolines and a gyroscope – only those with a slight hangover tried the latter two out. :) Then Laci presented a serious horse parade for us, while some started to use the pools. There was even a slide, the kids loved it… The climbing wall and the beach volleyball court was popular too, but many of us were just hanging out in the shade having a talk. All this next to our accommodations. In one word it was fantastic to stay at the Vérteslovas farm. Probably the best thing of all was being together the next morning. It wasn’t just about a dinner and a long night, but about the next day too, especially when we had all these programs provided. Many people appreciated all this, as they had more than just a dinner and a night out. There were peolpe from Transsylvania, also from France and England, therefore we were really glad we could provide them a lond and colorful entertainment for them. Many thanks for Vérteslovas! (…And we’d like to say sorry to the neighbours for all the noise we made during the night!)

Master of ceremonies

The master of ceremonies was Krisztián Árva who’s an amazing character, not only us, but the guests were very satisfied, he knew all the traditions and conducted them very well, when needed, he raised his voice, and he also had some brilliant individual jokes too. We had 5 candidates, all who we found pretty good, but at the end we chose Krisztián and we both think we hit the jackpot with him.

Food, catering

The food and the catering service was provided by the Publo restaurant of Csákvár. The service was affordable and we received delicious meals, not only we liked the soup and the Crépes á la Hortobágy, others also commented they really enjoyed the dinner. The portions were decent, especially that we ordered meal for 140 people, but there were more of us, however we were still eating the leftover meats and cakes the next morning.

The band

The band at the reception was the Szignál Trió. They played music that even my 82 years old granddad, Lali papa was dancing so much that brought joy on all our faces, never thought my granddad has so much energy. At 3am he was still the king of the dancefloor, that almost made me envy. The band even learnt the song, Esküvő (Wedding) from Üllői Úti Fák, what we are really greatful!

Photography

Ádám Molnár was our official photographer, a very symphatetic young man, who accepted the job for a very friendly fee, including the next day. We haven’t seen his photos yet, but if I remember well, he was everywhere, he had a very professional camera, and it was fun to make the wedding portraits, he found good topics and he followed us without a word to every tree, window with hearts on to capture us in the moment. We can’t wait to see his photos! Which we’re going to publish here too. – Update: We have seen the photos since then, they exceeded our expectations! :)

Video

Our cameraman was László Szepesi, he teamed up well with the master of ceremonies, he was at every important moments and recorded all in HD quality. We’re still waiting for the edited version, but we’re sure it’s going to be great after discussing with him.

Groom’s dress

We rented my suit and I think I will never dress up like this again in my life. My suit at home isn’t appropriate enough for this occasion as the rented one from the Ruhaklinika. After trying up the two girls (Zita and Aunt Kati, my newly become mother-in-law) saw me and the decision was made regarding my outfit.

We have a big thank you for all who came to our wedding, for the guests and for those who helped the event to become a success!

“Mini honeymoon”

You can feel it by now that it wasn’t easy to organize all this. Most of the hard work had been done by our parents, and we’re greatful for life for this, but there were still plenty of things we were required to do. Along the wedding preparations the 360°bringa preparations should have been going, in addition to this Zita had a job till 3rd June. What I’m trying to say is that it was exhausting and we needed a little break too. We decided to disappear for a few day after the wedding when we won’t do anything regarding the trip or the wedding. This happened entirely, as I’m writing this post right now. At this moment we are at Miskolctapolca, in the Tölgyfa  panzió. We received so much so far, it starting to become embarrassing. Apart from the half-board service a ticket to the cave bath – We loved it! – and a swedish massage each. Zita is being tortured, she’s enjoying it much. Yesterday was our bath day, today it’s “only” a pool day at hotel, also we had a nice walk in the park along Hejő stream. We had some delicious food and we tried out the summer bobsledge. We re-charged our batteries completely and we are greatful for the Tölgyfa Panzió! Tomorrow starts the crazy life again, the organization, the pakistani consulate, the collection of the rest of the gear and solving some unfinished business… and on Saturday we’re off! Unlikely I will create a new post, he next one will be from the tour! ;)

The public wedding and the following open party including the caravan to the Margaret Island exceeded our anticipations. The ceremony was lightning fast. The bike caravan was Zita’s idea, and I even had some doubts at the beginning but I have to admit it was fantastic. I was happy to see her enthusiastic preparation, such as making her own boquet or pimping up our bikes, not mentioning our dresses…

We had 40-45 cyclist friends behind us all ringing their bells, we had ours too plus the mandatory just married cans attached to the bikes… It was such an experience to ride across the city, seeing the surprised faces, listening to their cheers and wishes. Another good thing was that we were really riding in a convoy and not in little groups broken up by cars. The conclusion: if you plan to do a convoy like ours was make sure you have a really strong string for the cans because we lost almost all of them by the time we arrived to the Margaret Island.

Sándor Szabó was our pro photographer who came to us to offer his service for free. Sándor, we’d like to thank you your support! The photos, DVDs and the slideshow are great!

Here are some facts of our wedding on 21st May:

• It cost us only 45000HUF
• Zita has bought her dress in a second hand shop, Árpi borrowed his suit pattern jersey from a friend. You can buy it in the Berguson.
• Zita picked her boquet flowers from the garden of her work place and the streets of Zugló.
• The vase for the flowers was a half cut plastic bottle that was cabletied to the bike.
• We wrapped the bikes in black (groom) and white (bride) papers.
• Árpi’s hat was made by Zita. She cut it out of a black cardboard and tied to the helmet with aome wires.
• Zita’s wreath was created by her mum.
• The veil was cut out of and old unwanted curtain.

Now that we summarized this, you can see this was a real green wedding! :) It wasn’t deliberate, but we’re happy about it.

After the party on Margit Island we moved to the Egyetem square, where the Hungarian Cycling Club had a party, or wanted to have a party if the rain hadn’t washed it away. There were still a around 15-20 fanatic cyclists including the president, János László who was happy to have us there. Thanks for this too, it was good to be there.
…and we still had more experiences to come, on the way home we had many well wishers from the pedestrians and the drivers too. People were taking photos of us from the buses on one of the main route. I hope we have created a tradition because it was great experience and we highly recommend it to every bicycle lover who wants a bit different, friendlier wedding. We would thank all of you who came wih or without bike and spent this afternoon with us!

Photos, videos of the public wedding can be found here on our website. Since then we had our church wedding too – it was also fantastic -, but the story will come a bit later – till then here are our friend’s, Szakáll’s photos of the church wedding.

 
Thank you Sándor for your hard work, the photos are brilliant!

Many of you asked why isn’t Zita interviewed, the answer is she was on a hen do at Hévíz, and TV2 wanted instant fresh news, so we had to leave her out yesterday.

Here are some extra photos of oir wedding. Special thanks for Szakáll, Gyula and Stoki:
Szakáll’s photos – Stoki’s photos – Gyula’s photos

There’s no doubt we have become huge celebrities but our joy will be clouded until we receive our Chinese visa. We can’t live without visa problems… Should this be our biggest problem! (This is!)

Dear friends, fellow cyclists and everyone who’s curious!

We would like to invite and expect you on 21st May 2011 at 14:00 to the Zuglói Polgármesteri Hivatal wedding office for our public wedding, and the following bicycle march and party.

Assembly: Meet us in front of the wedding office at 13:45 (1145 Budapest, Pétervárad utca 11-17.), but later you can join the march or the party anywhere, anytime

After the half an hour ceremony we’ll jump on our bikes and form a bell-ringing convoy to the Margaret Island, to the Champs Sziget open air venue, where we’ll eat, drink, talk, dance, and have lots of fun… You have to pay for what you consume.

Route:

Wedding gifts: Bring yourselves on a bicycle with lot of happiness.!

Dress code: Bicycle, playing clothes, ball / frisbee / other open air toys.

Apply: Here by commenting, or write to the360fokbringa@gmail.com e-mail address. We need to give the venue an approximate number of guests.

We kindly ask all cyclists to keep the highway code in mind regarding the bicycles ! Thank you!