In Pictures: In Romania, ancestral villages swell each wedding season

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MICHAL NOVOTNÝ
A traditional wedding ceremony takes place in a Romanian Orthodox church in the village of Túr, in the Oaş region of Romania, in August 2021. An average wedding costs around €50,000 ($52,000).
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In the tranquil hills of the Oaş region of northern Romania, where many locals have left to work in western Europe, “most of the year you don’t even have anyone to talk to,” says photographer Remus Tiplea. 

But every summer, like clockwork, that changes, and Mr. Tiplea picks up his camera to work as a wedding photographer during the August crunch. For these villages on the border of Ukraine, neither the war next door nor COVID-19 has disrupted the festivities, which are planned years ahead.

Why We Wrote This

Keeping strong ties to family and friends back home ensures community and continuity. Gathering for celebrations such as weddings enhances a shared sense of identity.

Weddings in Oaş are attended by hundreds, sometimes even a thousand people. There’s a remarkable mixture of tradition and wealth. Guests dress in Romanian folk costumes and the latest Paris fashions. Limousines shuttle between villages, flower shops make endless bouquets, and musicians play until dawn. 

“I learned how to prepare brides from my mother and grandmother, and nobody else knows how to do it,” says Maria Cont, as she braids locks of a bride’s hair into something resembling elephant ears. Later, Ms. Cont will sew decorated ribbons into the updo.

Soon, the buzz will die down again, and as the fall chill sets in, the residents here will once again be left with fewer people to talk to – but plenty of warm memories.

In a remote region in northern Romania, the summer heat ushers in the warmth of homecoming. Eleven months of the year residents of the Oaş region work in western Europe, but in mid-August they return to their native villages, on the border with Ukraine and about an hour’s drive from Hungary, to celebrate the wedding season.

Neither COVID-19 nor Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted the festivities, which are planned years ahead. 

Weddings in Oaş are attended by hundreds, sometimes even a thousand people. There’s a remarkable mixture of tradition and wealth. Guests dress in Romanian folk costumes or the latest Paris fashions, eat delicacies, and dance in dry ice fog. 

Why We Wrote This

Keeping strong ties to family and friends back home ensures community and continuity. Gathering for celebrations such as weddings enhances a shared sense of identity.

Every detail is recorded meticulously by photographers. “Elsewhere in Romania people are happy to have the wedding edited down to a short film, but in Oaş we make roughly five-hour movies,” says Claudia Simon, a videographer. 

MICHAL NOVOTNÝ
A bride and a groom, followed by guests and musicians, leave a church after the ceremony. More than 80% of Romanians belong to the Orthodox Church.

No expense is spared. Limousines shuttle between villages, cosmeticians and hairdressers work to the brink of exhaustion, flower shops make endless bouquets, and musicians play until dawn. 

In some cases, wedding customs are passed down through the generations. 

“I learned how to prepare brides from my mother and grandmother, and nobody else knows how to do it,” says Maria Cont, as she braids locks of hair into something resembling elephant ears. Later, Ms. Cont will sew decorated ribbons into the updo. 

After the summer wedding season – filled with the constant buzz of preparations, ceremonies, music, and dancing – life in the hills of northern Romania returns to its tranquil patterns. 

“Seventy percent of the locals work abroad,” says Remus Tiplea, a photographer. “Most of the year you don’t even have anyone to talk to here.”

MICHAL NOVOTNÝ
Bride Mădălina Bosînceanu dances with guests in the courtyard of her parents’ house. The limousine that will take her to church waits in the background. It is difficult for limos to navigate the narrow streets.
MICHAL NOVOTNÝ
Andreea Avram, dressed in traditional bridal attire, dances in front of her family’s house in the village of Racşa. The wedding season in Oaş starts on Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption, and ends three weeks later.
MICHAL NOVOTNÝ
A bride’s wedding attire can weigh more than 40 pounds.
MICHAL NOVOTNÝ
Mihai Big prepares to don his costume.
MICHAL NOVOTNÝ
Jesica Monica Bura (center) poses with her bridesmaids for photographers during wedding events in the home of her parents. Every moment is carefully documented.
MICHAL NOVOTNÝ
Marián and Mădălina Bosînceanu take their first dance as a couple while guests look on. Every village in the Oaş region has a wedding hall that can accommodate hundreds of guests.
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