On the Road

In mid-July 2026, almost a year after travelling from Bosnia and Herzegovina to France for a friend’s wedding, I made the journey in the opposite direction to go to Mostar and attend the wedding of a couple of friends I had met in the same city in 2025.

I also had to visit some friends in Vienna, the Austrian capital where I had studied during my Erasmus exchange. It was therefore the perfect opportunity to extend my trip to Herzegovina, travelling by train and road through this former part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I began my journey by train to Budapest, then took another train to Zagreb, before taking an overnight bus to Mostar.

As the journey progressed, I watched the landscapes and cities of Central Europe and the Balkans change, with their architecture still bearing witness to their shared history.

Back to Mostar

On July 16, shortly before 7 a.m., my bus arrived in Mostar. This gave me time to gradually find my bearings again and reconnect with friends I had not seen for almost a year. I also took the opportunity to complete my wedding outfit by buying a bag and a pair of gold heels, giving it a more sophisticated touch and allowing me to better match the dress style expected at receptions in this country.

As I wandered around, I noticed that the city had changed quite a lot in less than a year: new shops and restaurants had appeared, and some squares had been renovated. And the Bruce Lee statue had made its grand return!

My Third Wedding in One Year

This was already the third wedding I had attended within a year. The previous one had been a Franco-Lebanese wedding, and the one before that a Franco-Ukrainian wedding. This time, I was going to discover a wedding within the Croat community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with German roots on the groom’s side.

Traditions

From 5 p.m. until 9 a.m. the following morning, I had the chance to immerse myself in this celebration and discover traditions, some of which were completely unfamiliar to me. Before the wedding, my friend, the bride-to-be, had sent the foreign guests a document entitled “Survival Guide.” Written with plenty of humour, it explained the main customs we might encounter throughout the day.

Several of these traditions are shared by the different Croat, Bosniak and Serb communities.

Among them was a description of the role of the barjaktar, the man responsible for carrying the flag during the wedding. A flag is hung at the family home a few days before the ceremony. On the wedding day, it then accompanies the procession throughout the day. For this wedding of Bosnian Croats, a flag representing the community was carried, as well as a German flag carried by a second barjaktar, referring to the groom’s origins.

Another tradition is the čuturica, a small wooden bottle filled with rakija that is passed around among the guests, with each person invited to take a sip before passing it on to the next person.

It is worth knowing that two gatherings take place before the ceremony at the church: the first at 4 p.m. for the groom, and the second at 5 p.m. for the bride, in two different parts of the city. I only attended the bride’s gathering.

After the first gathering at the groom’s home comes the moment when he, accompanied by his best man and the oldest man in his family, pretends to “buy” the bride. It is a traditional and humorous performance. Traditional musicians, the tamburaši, then accompany the groom’s procession to the bride’s gathering and play traditional songs all the way to the church.

Before the religious ceremony, the guests had already done quite a lot of dancing, eating and drinking, which was particularly surprising.

The Religious Ceremony

At 7 p.m., the ceremony at the church began. The singing was particularly melodious. The bride and groom arrived accompanied by their bridesmaids and groomsmen rather than their parents (apparently, this depends on the parish). At the end, the guests were expected to congratulate not only the newlyweds and their family, but also their witnesses, bridesmaids and groomsmen.

The Reception

At around 8:30 p.m., after the ceremony at the church, the guests headed into the mountains surrounding the city, to Sretnice, to reach the reception venue. Nearly 400 people had been invited to the wedding, so the size of the venue had to match such a large event. A local band began to provide the evening’s entertainment.

We very quickly started dancing, even before eating: the newlyweds opened the dance floor a few minutes after arriving in the room. Then we sat back down to begin a succession of different dishes. A broth called svadbena juha (“wedding soup”) started the meal, followed by raw vegetables and various meats.

One of the traditional Balkan dances that kept the evening going is the kolo. There are different variations, but one rule must be followed: once you join the circle, you have to wait until the song ends before you can leave it.

Also during the evening, the oldest man in the groom’s family, known as the stari svat, is expected to give a speech and then pray. While he prays, the anthems of Croatia and Herzegovina are sung.

The atmosphere at the wedding was incredibly warm and infectious. Throughout the evening, the dance floor never emptied, bringing together all generations. I was happy to realise that I knew some of the local songs played by the band. I was seated at the international guests’ table, as the newlyweds had friends as well as family members who had come from abroad, which made it easy for me to communicate with them in English.

The evening went by dancing, eating and talking, and before I knew it, the time had flown by…

Afterparty

By around 6 a.m., most of the guests had already left and the reception venue had to close. Only the newlyweds’ friends remained, still with enough energy to keep dancing. As for me, I was beginning to feel tired, especially in my numb feet, despite changing shoes during the evening.

It was then that my friends, who were also my drivers, told me that we now had to head to the place where the afterparty was taking place. For a moment, I almost thought they were joking.

But no! There I was at 6 a.m., sitting by the swimming pool of a country house, half asleep, listening to conversations switching between English and the local language. The conversation eventually took a more political turn, particularly around the issue of borders in the Balkans.

Exhausted, I eventually ended the night by falling asleep in a car. At 9 a.m., my friends woke me up as they were getting ready to drive back to Mostar. What an adventure this wedding was!