Eastern Europe · Croatian
Croatian Wedding Toasts: Cheers, Speeches, and Customs
Flags, a procession with music, and a rosemary sprig on every guest.
Raise a glass
Živjeli
ZHEEV-yeh-lee · Live long
To the couple
Živjeli mladenci!
ZHEEV-yeh-lee mla-DEN-tsee · Long live the newlyweds
Who speaks, and when
- The kum, the best man and often the couple's sponsor, has the main speaking role, and it is more toast than speech.
- Parents bless the couple. Friends and relatives raise glasses in turn through the night.
- A band plays between every toast, and the toast often turns into a song.
How long
Short. 'Živjeli' with a full glass is the form. The procession and the music carry the day.
What you’ll see
- Guests wear a sprig of rosemary tied with ribbon, pinned on by the bride's family as they arrive.
- The wedding party processes to the ceremony, sometimes through the town, with a flag bearer, music, and singing, and cars honking behind.
- The groom 'buys' the bride at her family home in the morning, with games and a false bride offered first.
- An apple is thrown over the house or into a well in some regions for luck.
- Toasts are made with rakija, the fruit brandy, and the bottle goes around the table.
If you’re the guest from somewhere else
- Accept the rosemary and wear it all day.
- 'Živjeli' is both cheers and the toast. One word covers everything.
- Join the procession and the singing. Standing apart is odd.
A toast you could give
Short, warm, specific to the couple, and ending on the phrase. Swap in your own names and your own detail; the shape is what matters.
Ivana sang in the car for three hours on the way here and I did not mind once, which tells you something about her. Luka, you have a lifetime of that. Živjeli mladenci!
Speaking at a Croatian wedding?
Whatever the tradition, the speech that lands has the same bones: one story, a turn, a word to the partner, a toast. The guides have it for every role, and the free check reads your draft and tells you how it lands.