The sweethearts' outfits at the 2nd All-Russian Wedding Festival will reflect the history of different regions of Russia

The 2nd All-Russian Wedding Festival "Russia. Connecting Hearts", which will be held at the National Centre RUSSIA on July 8-10, and which will give a start to family life for more than 200 loving couples from all over the country, is approaching. For the wedding ceremony, many of the newlyweds-to-be chose their national costumes or modern versions of those in order to emphasize their commitment to traditional values and native culture. The bright, distinctive outfits of the future newlyweds will decorate the festival, bring an atmosphere close to folk rituals, and tell stories about ancestral memory in the language of flowers, ornaments, and decorative patterns.

The All-Russian wedding festival was founded last year, and has already established wonderful traditions, one of which is to enter into the family life based on true values, which are reflected in long-standing traditions, rituals and, of course, in folk costumes. After all, the history of the ancestral memory and of the human destinies, and the succession of generations, are encoded in the cut, details, and ornaments of each sarafan, shirt, kokoshnik, or belt. Traditional folk costumes for young couples will help the participants and guests of the festival to get acquainted with the cultural and geographical heritage of the country, and with the wedding culture of different regions. 

The newlyweds-to-be Andrey Tadyrov and Arina Alchina from the Altai Republic said that Altaians see a great importance in their national costume with folk ornaments and drawings based on the ancient aesthetic perception of nature, the elements, plants and animals. The compositions of the patterns perform not only a decorative function, they carry an ancient sacred meaning.

"We specifically came to a master who sews Altai national costumes, we ourselves chose the color and other details, where each ornament or pattern makes sense. "Seoki" embroidered on the back of my dress and the groom's shirt, are denoting that we belong to a certain family," Arina Alcina said.

Traditional folk costumes will be shown by representatives of various regions: Yusef Salmin and Ekaterina Urentsova from the Republic of Mari-El, Alexey Sipaev and Svetlana Fomicheva from the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Artem Radostev and Olga Abasheva from the Perm Region, Albert Mursalimov and Polina Almayeva from the Ulyanovsk Region, Alexey Komlev and Yulia Molchanova from the Chuvash Republic, Timur Shibanov and Anastasia Turchina from the Smolensk region, Rinat Pozdnyakov and Kristina Petrova from the Ryazan region, Vitaly Andreev and Sakhaaya Zakharova from Yakutia, Yuri Sharabarin and Elizaveta Karpuk from Stavropol, Kamil Efendiev and Amina Huseynova from Dagestan, Ilya Basov and Lada Golosova from Pskov region and many others.

There will also be many couples in love who will dress up in stylish designer outfits, in which traditional elements of the national costume are combined with modern trends. 

For Alyona Sorokina and Sergey Putintsev from the Lipetsk region, making an 18th-century wedding costume using the Yelets lace was a real journey into the world of history and art. The young people wanted to wear something unusual and original to the wedding. And Yelets lace fits perfectly into this concept, as it is unique -- each lace is handmade, and reflects the traditional Russian needlework and the peculiarities of its region.

"The wedding costume made of the Yelets lace in the style of the 18th century is not just a fashion thing, but a symbol of the cultural heritage and individuality of the central tourist destination in the Lipetsk region — the city of Yelets. Making a wedding costume with the Yelets lace required attention and respect for culture, and this is a great way to make our wedding day unique and memorable, combining modernity with history," explained Alyona Sorokina.

Tatiana Dronova from the Kaluga Region said that she would wear an ethnic wedding hair ornament typical of the peoples of the Far North to the wedding ceremony with her fiance Dmitry, and a macrame dress as a modern interpretation of the national costume.

"I was born in Magadan, and the peoples of the Far North still have many beliefs, including those related to hair. Most of them go down to the fact that life itself rests in the hair, so hair ornaments for a wedding are a very important accessory, especially ochelye - a headband, or nachelnik - a headband made of beads with ornaments, and with pendants hanging around the head. Along with the traditional costume, the headband became the object of various experiments in the process of shaping national traditions. That's why I chose a macrame dress as a modern interpretation of the national costume. The macrame is an ancient weaving technique that was part of the obligatory complex of the northern peoples' costumes for women, and performed a magical and protective function, as well as the role of a social marker," said Tatiana Dronova.

Alexander Dyachenko and Valeria Kravchenko from the Kaliningrad region chose expressive images from the era of Peter the Great, to emphasize their deep connection with the history of their native land, and their love of re-creating the past. Valeria has been engaged in historical reconstruction for more than 10 years, and when she proposed the idea of an 18th-century wedding, the groom immediately supported her. Their choice is a conscious decision to preserve the memory of the past, paying tribute to the traditions and values of Russia.

"The reformer Tsar Peter the Great in 1697, during the Great Embassy, stayed in Konigsberg, now Kaliningrad, and later founded the Baltic Fleet here. We wanted our wedding to be not just a beautiful celebration, but also a tribute to those who laid the foundations of our statehood, traditions and culture. The preparations for the celebration turned out to be almost a historical investigation. The costumes were created in Moscow based on: ancient engravings, museum exhibits, and portraits from the Petrine era. When we put on the costumes for the first time, we felt like characters from the past. As if Peter the Great himself would approve of our choice!" said Valeria Kravchenko.

Anelia Shiyanovskaya and Konstantin Zaitsev from the Ivanovo region will wear outfits made by a local designer. The decorative elements of the bride's dress will intersect with the groom's accessories, and reflect the textile heritage of the region — the unique drawings of the 19th century, recreated at a textile enterprise in Shuya. And the bride's bouquet will combine textiles, a design approach,and bright flowers.

At the wedding festival, there will be a lot of similar examples of showing respect for the history and culture of Russia through wedding dresses. But this is not the only way to get familiar with the values of different regions of the country. Couples in love will also be able to: take part in educational lectures, master classes, and public discussions about family traditions; to learn a lot of new things; and to share the energy of love. 

For the first time, the All-Russian Wedding Festival was held in 2024 as part of the International RUSSIA EXPO. On the first day of the event, more than 300 people registered their marriages. This event was included in the Russian Book of Records. And during the entire time of the International RUSSIA EXPO, 564 people got married — this historic event will be a part of memory of 282 families for the rest of their lives. Some of the families created at the First All-Russian Wedding Festival already have children.