The fact that love knows no boundaries and that nothing can stand between two loved ones is showed by 1,572 weddings that were performed during the war in the Municipality Centar in Sarajevo.
“On the 2nd of May 1992, when the tram in Skenderija near the Municipality Center was burned down, I was at work and I had seven weddings scheduled for that day. I managed to marry five of them, while two couples did not manage to reach the city hall because of the barricades,” said registrar of the Municipality Center, Vesna Topalovic, adding that they still got married after a month.
Registrar noted that she married the last couple in the basement of the Municipality Centar that day, because the building was shelled, so they had to leave the wedding hall. And they spent all night in the basement because, as she said, it was not safe to walk through the city. She noted that registrars worked throughout the war.
“At first, I could not even believe that someone would even think about marriage when everything around us was falling apart, grenades were exploding and people getting killed on a daily basis. However, people got used to new conditions of life and we all realized that life goes on,” said Topalovic.
She remembered that grooms often came to the wedding wearing the military uniform, and some of them were even wearing suits that they managed to find at that moment.
“The girls, however, insisted up on the tradition to look special on that day. They were coming in beautiful wedding dresses, although there were those who decided to be ‘practical’ and got married in the elegant outfits that they would be able to use later on some occasions,” she said.
Most couples, she remembers, got married in the close circle of their relatives and friends, although she remembers big weddings with many guests as well.
“We performed weddings in hospitals, houses, and restaurants in order to save on fuel, especially when it comes to people with disabilities and the elderly citizens. Foreign citizens who came to work in Sarajevo were also getting married here. They met here, fall in love and they just wanted to get married,” said Topalovic.
She said that the newlyweds used to come from other places, they would pass through the tunnel, just to return in the same way after the ceremony. During the war, she said, everything was happening faster, people were getting closer, and they were deciding to get married much faster.
(Source: faktor.ba)
