Dalida & Zafir

10 September 2005

In September 2005, I travelled to Rijeka, Croatia to visit my friend from the Central European University in Budapest. I hadn't seen Dalida in over 5 years! We kept in contact about our lives through email and happily I was able to be at her wedding.

On September 10th, Dalida & Zafir Rittossa became husband and wife. They had a beautiful wedding with so many receptions and a house full of people each night leading up to the wedding. It was a wonderful experience for me and I was so glad to have shared those moments with them. Of course, it was a new and different experience for me in some ways!

Dalida wanted a small and relaxed wedding in which they could celebrate with their friends and enjoy the day to its fullest. While it was so elegant it was easy to feel like you knew everyone and were welcomed by everyone.

The wedding started around 5:00pm with a reception on the balcony of the Bonavia Hotel in the center of Rijeka. It was such an elegant setting... an outdoor terrace with cream color umbrellas shading the dark wood, lacquered surroundings panels of wood. In the far distance is the Adriatic Sea, the blue of the sea and sky set against the cream umbrellas.

First Zafir came to greet the guest, handsomely dressed in a three-piece suit with dark roses. His nervous anticipation, waiting for Dalida to appear revealed a sweet, tender romantic man waiting to be joined with the woman he'd been waiting forover 10 years.

Then, finally, the moment when Dalida appeared! She was stunning and radiated with such joy. She took everyone's breath away with how beautiful she looked. Joy spread over everyone when her eyes met with Zafir's.

Together they greeted their guests. This is traditional for Croatian weddings, unlike American weddings were the groom doesn't see the bride until she walks down the isle. Dalida choose to not have some traditions like the groom buying the bride or hiding the shoe. She said when Zafir saw her for the first time in her wedding dress it was such a special moment.

The wedding party made the way up the stairs to the City Hall where the ceremony was held. Again, the words beauty and elegance can only be used to discribe the setting of the City Hall. That and slippery floors with lots of rice!

The ceremony began about 7:00pm and was short, simple and sweet. Names were signed in books, rings were exchanged as well as a kiss.


Secretly! Zafir didn't know that Dalida had hatched a plan to have her friend Dejana softly play the guitar during the ceremony. Zafir had once expressed how nice it would be to have somone play guitar during their wedding. Dalida got Dejana - with all her stage fright- to not only play but to sneak herself and the guitar to the City Hall and completely surprise Zafir. It was a very sentimental and romantic touch.

Then they were married! For me, it was a special moment and it made me so happy to see Dalida and Zafir together. They greeted all their guests in a line, I was speechless.



While we waited for them to take about half a million photographs in the City Hall because it's such a georgous place - and who can blame them! I had the job to distribute rice - for throwing rice. I don't really know what the significance is of throwing rice, maybe it's just fun! Throwing stuff is fun! And man! Did we throw a lot of rice! The fun just didn't stop! Sonja took the 1/2 kilo of rice I had left over during the reception and got the key to the honeymoon sweet and showered their nuptual bed with rice! I'm sure that was fun to discover at 5:00am!

We danced! We ate! We ate so much! I couldn't believe that the food just kept coming. The Bonavia Hotel was exceptional - both staff and environment. It was elegant and well-thought-out. Dalida made beautiful decorations and center piece arrangements. Each table had a gold fish (that we all tortured) in a fresh, large bowl with a rose floating on top. The fish actually lived (no harm was done to the fish).

Congratulations Dalida and Zafir!
I wish you a life time of happiness together and that your love and happiness will grow and be contageous to everyone around you!