Russian Wedding Part 3

Finally after the bride and groom have trekked all around the city, taking photos at every monument, they arrive at the reception. All the guests are waiting in anticipation at the entrance of the reception hall/restaurant, etc.. Here the couple must break off a piece off bread to see who will be the head of the family - the biggest piece being the winner. I our case, Nastya had told me of this Russian tradition so I went for it and ripped off a massive chunk. What she hadn't told me, was that following is process, you were then to salt each others pieces bread, (symbolizing the last time you can rub salt into your partners wounds). Your piece of bread now covered in salt from your partner is then feed back to your beloved. The moral being that if you salt each other during marriage it will come back to bite you. A toast proceeds and champagne flutes are thrown over one's shoulder, smashing on the ground. (It's bad luck if they don't break).
Once in side the first thing to start the reception is, what a surprise, another toast. The first toast is of course for the new couple. One of the witnesses announces the first toast, and then the parents have their say. Witnesses also add some greetings, usually in the form of a poem, and eventually announce the toast itself: "Za molodykh!" ("For the newlywed!") Here we come close to the most popular and prominent Russian wedding tradition. For the first toast people usually drink Champagne, and after the first sip somebody says "Gor'ko!" ("Bitter!"); it means the vine is bitter. All guests together start to shout "Gor'ko! Gor'ko!" To make the vine sweet, the newlywed couple must kiss each other. They must stand up and kiss each other for as long as possible, and all the guests start counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." while they are kissing. If the couple was not kissing long enough, the guests can insist that the vine is still bitter, and request another kiss. This happens after almost every following toast, so the couple has lots of kissing during the wedding. My lips were red raw after about the 10th Gor'ko.
Impromptu toast after toast follow with the occasional poem or joke thrown in. At this point the MC often takes over and the party really starts to fire up. Games of all description are played with the sole purpose of embarrassing everyone in the room. Ksusha's wedding had Anton and his best man dress up as gypsy women and dance around on stage. Our wedding went even further and had many of the guests disrobe with my father-in-law left in nothing but is jocks.
For many of you this sounds quite out of control and you are quite right. Many of you would probably be very relieved when the night finally comes to an end. Well there is no such easy escape, because Russian weddings are two day affairs and the party continues on through the next day!