The wedding is one of the most important events in a family and since it involves the free will of two persons in love, it's the perfect occasion to blend milenia old traditions with elements of the local Romanian culture.

Basically the "institution of marriage", as it's officially known includes these phases: asking the future bride to marry the man, the call to the wedding, the “fox” game, the bride's party, the dowry game, the bride bringing, the forgiving, the actual wedding, the party afterwards, the bride dressing and the "primary way". This last tradition involves a family meal, one week after the wedding, meant to strengthen familial relationships and to gather more money for the newly weds, in case the parents didn't collect enough during the wedding.

The call to the wedding takes place a couple of days before the event and specially in the eve of the wedding. The callers are usually related to the bride and groom and are specially the parents of the two about to be wed. During a habit called "petit", the relatives will choose the future godfathers, the cooks and the people who will help with the wedding.

Pe?it

Pe?it is also known as "in?elegere", "pe?itura", "croiala", "starostie", "impe?it" and either involves the groom (alone), or him and his parents. In case the young man doesn't know if the bride likes him or not, he must send the "pe?itori" before he arrives. Those are usually outspoken men or women who are daring enough to ask the bride in marriage for the groom.

There's a romantic twist for this situation, as when the parents of the future bride don't agree with the marriage, the two can run away and after a while, a relative of the man will visit the bride's family for reconciliation. They usually brought a bottle of their finest drink, which they drank and celebrated, in case things went fine.

In Romania, three weeks before the wedding the priest makes the wedding calls in the church, which are basically the public announcement of the wedding, meant to discover if anyone has a reason to spoil the marriage. 

Dowry

In the old days, in Romania both the future groom and the bride had their dowry set before the wedding. This habit reflected the social status of the family from which the young man and woman came  from. Girls without a dowry would usually remain unmaried or find it difficult to get married.

In Transylvania parents would set the dowry, and the agreement can be verbal or written, involving witnesses and a contract, usually made official by the priest on the engadgement day.

The girl's dowry usually included animals (cows, sheep, pigs, birds etc), several lands, cereals, money and the dowry chest that held clothing. The boy had to have a house, lands, a carriage, other animals and money. The dowry chest or the coffer, "lada miresii" in Transylvania, "lada de Brasov" in Oltenia, "sipet" or "cufar" in Moldova was the object that proved the status of the bride.

It was usually made out of wood, beautifully painted with floral motifs or adorned with sculptures.

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