According to the Bulgarian tradition, Princess Kalina and Kitin Munos were welcomed with bread and salt in front of the Holy Transfiguration Eastern Orthodox Church in Borovets. The young couple went there right after the wedding ceremony, held according to the Catholic tradition. The hall, where the ceremony took place, was decorated with candles and flowers. A fire burned on the glade in front of the two marquees as Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg and his wife Margarita Gomez-Acebo welcomed the guests. Initially, the happy event was planned for September in Sofia but this coincided with the wedding of Spanish Prime Minister Aznar's daughter. The invitation cards featured a picture of Borovets taken by Kalina and the Bulgarian national flag. No crown symbols or titles of nobility are printed, just the two letters KK.

At the Holy Transfiguration Eastern Orthodox Church in Borovets Princess Kalina and Kitin Munos were blessed by Eastern Orthodox clergymen. This was the only part of the wedding to which citizens were freely admitted. Kalina gave her bouquet, flower by flower, to the people in front of the church who sang Bulgarian folk songs. Samokov Mayor presented the couple with an icon of St Simeon of Samokov and a key from the town on behalf of the Samokov citizens.

HRH the Infanta Cristina of the Spanish Royal Family was one of the 250 guests attending the wedding of Princess Kalina. She, Moroccan Princess Lalla Hasna and the other foreign women-guests wore hats to the latest fashion, decorated with pin feathers, beads, ribbons, artificial flowers and other floral elements. Royal celebrities, grand-scale politicians and prominent people are among the guests of the aristocratic wedding. Some 200 guests in total are from abroad and put up in hotels in the Borovets winter resort. 150 of them arrived with a charter flight in Bulgaria Friday. Kalina's brothers and their wives, Kitin's mother, his two brothers and his sister, and Simeon Saxe-Coburg's sister Princess Marie-Louise also attended the ceremony. Duchess Carmen, daughter of generalissimo Francisco Franco, said she is impressed by Bulgaria and loves Bulgarian folklore and Rhodope songs. The menu for the wedding feast includes shopska salad, moussaka with Samokov potatoes and Kalina and Kitin's favourite blueberry pancakes. Kalina plans her honeymoon to be in Bulgaria, including the most picturesque regions of the country.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!