Weddings in Semlak

by Rose Mary Hughes
 

Weddings in Semlak were three-day-long affairs; the displaced Semlakers in the United States continued this practice.  My mother told me of the custom of moving furniture out of one house where the food, consisting of all of the wonderful German-Hungarian dishes and the wonderful kuchens, would be served; the next-door house (most often relatives were your neighbors) would be cleared out for the dancing.  The bride wore a white outfit with the multiple skirts, white stockings, and a headpiece made of flowers—or she wore her “Sunday” outfit.  From photos, it appears that the flowers were artificial and most likely made out of silk—especially since weddings were more often than not held in late fall or early months in the year—the times when they weren’t working the fields.  The men wore dark suits and had a boutonniere composed of flowers and a long ribbon.  The bride carried an over-sized handkerchief (my mother’s was the size of a card table cloth) that either she or a female family member had embroidered with the bride’s initials and the date and a wide crocheted border.  In our family, our two granddaughters have the framed wedding hankies of their great grandmother and great, great grandmother.      Invitations weren’t sent out; rather the groomsmen with ribbon boutonniere on their lapels would go from house to house inviting the guests.  In the two weddings we have depicted here, the only real difference is the setting and the length of the ribbon on the boutonniere.