Daryl & Ivona's Wedding (9/21/2002) - Finding Ivona, A New Tradition Begins Warning these can take a while to load They're named strange because that is the way my digital camera auto-names them. If you want prints of these, you can send them to www.kodak.com electronically, or by web reference and they will print the file and send it to you for a small fee. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger form of the image. The Czech's (well at least in Ivona's area) have this reception tradition, some time during reception the bride sneaks off with some friends to a bar/club/resturant. When the groom notices she's missing then he has to search the city for her. After he finds her, he has to buy rounds and also pick up the tab that she's run up and then everyone heads back to the reception. We're still not sure that this is more than a family tradition since when Patrick and a few others asked across the tables about the disappearing bride the Czech folks claimed to know nothing about such a tradition. Of course Daryl had been worrying this probelm for months, and had narrowed down the destinations to about 3 or 4 places, he was very proud of this. By the time the reception had been going a while it was a different story. He was starting to sweat the fact that Ivona hadn't left yet .. thats kinda hard when he aways stayed in sight of her (we suspect trying to minimize the tab ;) So we had to distract him into a corner, with multiple group shots of Slivovice .. all was going fine until someone spilled the beans ... Ivona only had about a 30 minute head start but Patty and Edmund had gone along as the American representatives ... Dee, Patrick, Rob and I wanted to follow Daryl on his quest, but Dee was indisposed, so when Daryl and the photo crew got on the elevator Patrick managed to jam the door giving us plenty of time to get Dee and get to the cars. Finally we were all off ... The first place we looked was Vivaldi, where the rehersal dinner was held. It was empty and Ivona wasn't there either.. Big surprise, he found her on his second try, at a place whos name escapes me, but was only about 10 minutes away from the reception. Apparently Ivona was a bit disappointed since it normally takes the groom about 1 1/2 - 2 hrs to find the bride and he had done it in 30 minutes. Still we had quite the group there and stuck around for more than a few drinks It was getting later so Daryl was really starting to feel the effects of the repeated toasting .. Dee, Patrick, Rob and I had been brainstorming trying to figure out how to put an American stamp on the tradition, the best solution seemed to be to grab Daryl, make for Moulin Rouge and let Ivona find him. But when he headed to the restroom, Dee said "Let's kidnap Ivona" Surprisingly it took very little coaxing, the five of us flew out of there leaving the rest of the group laughing but with no transport (the film/photo crew had already headed back). Since we just wanted a little fun, we headed back to Vivaldi's just a few blocks away. Because we had been there before (and they knew Ivona) the waitstaff was quite surprised to see us there, with Ivona, but no Daryl. When she explained the 2nd kidnapping, they loved it, and thought it was the best thing. After we'd been there a while, Ivona needed to go to the restroom, so the rest of us are sitting around, and Dee moves over to fill her spot at the table saying "If he comes in we'll look like we're here alone" Prescient she is, but maybe, just maybe she heard a drunken Daryl walk into the wall below the window that was right next to the stairs, Mike had to help him up, and he appeared about 30 seconds after Dee moved. The first slurred words were in Czech, to which we all said "Huh?" but we finally understood when he started yelling "Where's my wife?" of course, she wasn't with us, but that didn't stop him from searching, and finding her in the restroom. I think he was the most upset with the fact that one of the Katka's had been looking at Ivona's ring when we kidnapped her the 2nd time but she got it back on just fine. The next 20 minutes or so were peppered with lots of laughing, drinking and F-You's from Daryl, he never did guess that it was Dee's idea (he rather liked swearing at the guys I suspect) and when he found out there was a rather loud "you b*tch" while we all laughed. Also he had only brought enough money to pay off the first tab, so Ivona would've been in hock except for Mike. What a best man, pays the tab, guides a drunken Daryl and still was willing to clean out any and all dress stains, somehow I think he enjoyed himself (what *is* he really doing back there?). The stories he told of Daryl coming out to a missing bride were priceless if only we'd had pictures there too. (these pictures are courtesy of Edmond) It was happy reunions all around as I ran out of film and we headed on back to the reception. The 2nd kidnapping was well received, and we expect that in a few years it'll become part of the tradition, if not part of the lore. Remember we did it first, and just for Daryl (that smart*ss ;)