A Wedding Week of Cake, Painting, and Thermal Baths // Budapest, Hungary
This is 2/3 wedding posts. 1/3 wedding post.
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Planning a destination wedding without visiting the destination is quite the adventure, and we knew we'd need at least a week before our wedding to get everything ready to go before our big day.
From almost the outset of planning, we decided to spend a week in Budapest before the wedding so that we could take care of all the things we couldn't do prior to being in-country. We also wanted to spend time with guests who were able to make a trip out of our wedding and came to Budapest early.
We had 3 main goals for the week:
Complete all our outstanding wedding planning (eg. hair and makeup trials, cake tasting, etc)
Spend time with people that were able to come to Hungary early
Make sure our guests got to Heviz safely, and got to know each other along the way
Sunday - Arriving in Budapest
We had booked an Airbnb for our friends in a central part of town, and upon landing, met up with SE, a friend from college who was staying with us, and made our way there. It was kind of surreal to see someone from Dartmouth all of a sudden in Hungary—it was as though someone that was supposed to only exist in one context was suddenly existing in another. Slightly disorienting, but actually so perfect. And he was just the first. I felt so lucky to have friends that I get to travel with and see elsewhere in the world. It was such a pleasure to grab some pizza, discuss life, love and marriage, and settle in for the week ahead.
Monday - Wedding Errands: Makeup, Cake, Hair
Having never visited Hungary during the wedding planning season, we had a lot of outstanding wedding planning to do. People say I had a lot of faith, but I guess I just really trusted our wedding planner, and believed that professionals would be professional.
On Monday, my mom and I met Andrea, our wedding planner (read her amazingness in action here), in person for the first time, and she took us on all the errands she had scheduled for the day.
We started with makeup, Lavian Makeup, with Orso. Her salon was beautiful, and she was so friendly and gentle. I generally don't wear much makeup, so I mostly let her make decisions, and gave her a few opinions toward the end for the final version.
After our beautification in creams, powder, and pencil, Andrea took us to meet Michia at Marangona, a really cute cake shop I highly recommend. They make cakes using ganache instead of buttercream, and the difference was palatable. Luckily, we were each served a plate because Michia almost wolfed his entire plate down in seconds—I had to defend mine from him. We decided on pistachio chocolate and hazelnut nougat, and I honestly could have eaten another whole plate of cake. Cake tasting is the best.
The shop owner herself discussed with us the size and shape of the cake using styrofoam blocks, then discussed how the cake should be decorated. Michia had wanted a naked cake with flowers, but the shop owner and Andrea refused, begging us to not make her serve a naked cake at a castle wedding. We settled on elegant pink marbling with gold highlights and flower accents. It ended up amazing.
Cake designs and flavors settled, Andrea took us to HairDave, a small salon she knows well. Dave, skinny and covered in tattoos, quickly and adeptly threw my hair hair into a side-style, then curled my mom's shoulder-length hair in preparation for the wedding day. Watching my mom get her hair done that day was really emotional for me. I recognize how privileged I am, that I got to get ready and spend the day with my mom, and it was a really special moment to see her so beautiful in that chair.
Hair done and wedding preparations tour complete, we ended the day with Andrea floating on the shores of the Danube, grabbing a Hungarian lunch. I immediately ordered Hortobágyi Palacsinta, savory stuffed crepes that I had been craving since my first visit to Hungary 4 years prior. Between the company, the view, and the food, it was the perfect way to end an amazing day.
Tuesday - Bachelorette & Bachelor Parties
Our Airbnb was within walking distance of New York Palace Hotel, which has a beautiful and historic dining room, and also a fantastic brunch. Monday night, walking past the cafe on our way back, Michia mentioned that he wanted to do brunch there. My matron of honor, part sheepish, part sly, said he couldn't do that because the girls were doing brunch there the next day. I honestly could not have asked for a better wedding party—that was exactly what I wanted to do.
My bridesmaids planned my bachelorette party entirely, so I was completely in their hands. Tuesday morning, I dressed in white to contrast my bridesmaids in all black, and we set off to brunch at New York Palace Cafe.
A mini photoshoot later, we made our way to the nail salon, where our final bridesmaid, HP, met us, having just flown in from Philadelphia.
Nails gelled and manicured, the girls led me via Subway to meet a girl with a box of materials for an afternoon in City Park doing urban art.
My friends tend to be very artistically blessed, and it was such fun exploring, sketching, and water-coloring with them that afternoon. These girls have been my main gals throughout different phases of my life, and the way they all became friends throughout that week still brings a smile to my face.
As the afternoon went on, a storm cloud rolled in, and a small drizzle turned into a torrential downpour that forced us to find cover under the awning of a closed restaurant. The simultaneous onset of dusk also brought out all the mosquitos, leaving us to wrap up our paintings by the light of a small lamp on the restaurant’s exterior face, swatting mosquitos who were out for blood.
We managed to make it out, though, and Ubered our way home to a feast of pizza round 2.
2 hours away, in the countryside near our wedding, Michia spent the day trying to keep his head from concussing on the inside of a metal dome. Michia's bachelor party dream from the moment we decided on Hungary was to drive tanks around in previously Soviet countryside. So that's what they did. He and his groomsmen drove South 2 hours to Lake Balaton, and drove tanks.
Wednesday - Exploring Budapest
With a fairly intimate wedding, and guests flying in from all over the world, we really wanted to create an experience for people, and to help people get to know each other. So we had planned that Wednesday and Thursday would be time spent with our guests before our Friday wedding.
We wanted to give people the option of joining us, so we planned Wednesday with activities that young or old people could participate in, and that, if it was your only day in Budapest, would give you a good sense of what the city was famous for. So we planned the following itinerary:
Brunch at Central Market Hall
Afternoon spa day at the Gellért Baths
Escape Room (invented in Budapest)
Dinner at M Restaurant
Drinks at Ruin Bars
It was honestly such a joy to spend time with friends from all over the world, from our various stages of life, in Budapest, doing touristy things. It felt so weird and so right at the same time.
Over dinner, everyone shared (embarrassing) stories of Michia or myself, and we took up the entire top floor of the restaurant, where there was no AC, and it was a million degrees.
Thursday - Spa Day in Heviz
The next day, we had a chartered bus bring everyone down from Budapest to Heviz, and when we got to the hotel, we met Andrea, who passed out our welcome packets, that we'd had custom designed and made by The Fanatic Calligrapher. We knew they'd be beautiful, but they came out even better than we expected.
Soon, we were checked in, changed, and headed to find food before spending the afternoon at Lake Hévíz, a thermal lake with medicinal properties.
Hévíz is famous for this lake, a place many come year after year to find healing and restoration. We met an elderly woman there from Switzerland that had come for many years in a row, and she told us how she used to have many health issues (including hip pain) but has healed since coming here.
The Lake itself has an outdoor and indoor component, so you can spend as much time in the sun as you like, with floaties to keep you above the water if you need it. The facility also has a sauna, jacuzzi, and cold plunge, so you can heat and cool as often as you need, between rounds of thermal bathing.
After about 3 hours, we were back at the hotel, having our rehearsal dinner. We had so many people to thank, but we wanted to give a special thanks to the people who had contributed the most to our wedding. And we had to practice, so after dinner, we moved the tables out of the way, set up the chairs to mimic the wedding room the next day, and walked through the different parts of the ceremony.
Before bed, though, we had the best part of our entire wedding: our worship night. Lead by EZ and AJ, it was surreal, and the perfect way to spend the day before our wedding. I couldn’t stop weeping with gratitude, seeing all these people that had loved and supported and walked with me or M throughout our lives, gathered from all over the world, just worshipping Jesus. It was literally like the throne room of heaven. No moment of worship has meant as much to me as that evening.
Late that night, we were still paying vendors, rehearsing our dance, and writing our vows. I think we finished our vows at around 3 or 4am, the night before the wedding. That, I would not advise. But vows are hard!
Exhausted as I was, the next day could not come soon enough. I was ready.