Hayk and Sirarpi 

Tonir Wedding is a cultural startup, founded by a young Armenian couple — Hayk Yeranosyan and Sirarpi Leraneh Khojabaghyan —who came up with the idea for their own marriage.

“We liked our idea, but we were afraid that the public wouldn’t. Even our parents told us we have to find some ‘real business’ to get busy with,” Hayk admits.

The wedding lasted three days — from August 25 to 27. On the first day, all the unmarried women in the bride’s house did the aliurmagheq (the sifting of the flour).

Each had their personal sieve. The girl to find a ring on the bottom of her sieve would be the next to get married. Meanwhile, the men in the groom’s house did the yezmorteq (the ritual killing of a bullock). For hinadreq (painting the bride’s hands with henna), Sirarpi and the women moved to her real house, located close to the village.

“The process of painting the hands of a bride-to-be with henna is actually an Armenian tradition,” Hayk says proudly. Every action in both houses was accompanied with singing, dancing, and laughter. The traditional Armenian costumes (taraz) that the participants wore suited the village setting ideally.

The rituals were performed as if the participants knew and practiced them their entire life. This was due to Hayk and Sirarpi’s extensive research, done prior to their Big Day (or days, rather).

Three major events were divided between the remaining two days: the act of the groom coming to the bride’s house to take her to his house, the wedding in the church, and the feast.

These processes, too, are saturated with many games and rituals.  They did what they wanted for their wedding: got married in Vorotnavank, had the feast in Vaghatin․