Featured Engagement: Rostom & Tatiana

For Rostom and Tatiana, keeping their Armenian heritage and traditions alive was a very important part of their relationship. While every girl dreams of the day her true love proposes, Tatiana wanted to keep true to her Armenian roots and have a traditional Armenian engagement.

On February 9th, 2018, Rostom and his family came to ask Tatiana's family for her hand in marriage. While Tatiana hid away from all the guests, her parents gave their blessing and all the women from Rostom's side of the family went to find Tatiana and bring her to her future groom. We reached out to Tatiana and Rostom to learn all about their love story and all the beautiful Armenian traditions the couple incorporated them into their special day.

Tell us a little bit about how you & Rostom met and all about the proposal.

Rostom and I met when I was 15 years old and he was 17 years old in high school. He was my high school crush and I was completely mesmerized by him. Our love story didn’t begin with firework and sparks, but it started with a friendship. We remained friends for 6 years. 2 years ago we decided to start dating on Valentine’s Day. Our date turned out to be the beginning of our love story filled with a lot of memories and laughter. We didn’t have a proposal. We went down the Armenian traditional route where his parents came to my house for dinner and asked for my hand. Somewhat of a khosk-kap (khosgab). Due to my father figure (my uncle) not being present, we made our engagement party a khosk-kap/engagement for Rostom’s parents to ask my uncle alongside my mother and grandmother for his blessing. 

So interesting! So how was the engagement planning process?

The planning experience started in July when we decided that we wanted to do Armenian traditional engagement. We knew we wanted a small and intimate engagement, therefore we started our hunt by looking for a hall. Our guest list consisted of 80 people and we found a venue that fit our guest count and how we would want our engagement party to look with their contemporary look. I believe after that everything started to fall into place. Planning was never stressful but when the time came, on the day of the engagement, it did become a bit stressful trying to make sure everything was perfect before guests arrived.

Which Armenian traditions did you incorporate into your wedding?

The Armenian tradition we chose was for Rostom’s parents to ask for my hand from my family which is considered a khosk-kap (khosgab). While the khosk-kap is going on I am in hiding. After my family gives their blessings, females from Rostom’s side come and get me out of hiding. In a way it’s like saying we are accepting you into our families. After being brought out to Rostom, the engagement ceremony begins with the priest blessing our rings. When the rings are blessed, Rostom and I exchange rings. After the exchanging of rings, the priest blesses the candy trays and cognac trays. Then the chocolates and cognac are passed out to all the guests. We chose to incorporate these traditions because we felt it was part of our heritage and tradition. We also love the meaning behind every part of the engagement traditions. 

 

We started Harsanik 11 years ago because we love the Armenian culture and we believe Armenian weddings and engagements are the best representation of our culture: love, celebration, family and true happiness! We can't wait to share @tatiiayy and @rostom_8 love story on our blog soon. The couple had a very traditional Armenian khosk-kap & engagement in February. In this first video, you see Rostom's parents ask Tatiana's uncle (father figure), standing alongside her mother and grandmother, for his blessing. After her family gave their blessing, Tatiana comes out... Can't wait to share more videos, photos, and details on our blog soon! ❤️#ArmenianCulture

A post shared by Harsanik (@harsanikcom) on Apr 13, 2018 at 4:00pm PDT

Here's a video showing the Armenian traditions from Rostom & Tatiana's engagement, including music, speeches, and Tatiana's grand entrance. 

What was your favorite moment from the whole day?

I think our favorite moment was our first dance and enjoying everyone’s company. 

We want to thank Rostom and Tatiana for sharing their story with us as well as congratulate them on their recent engagement. The couple has planned a long engagement and will get married in 2020. We'll be sure to follow up with Tatiana & Rostom to share their wedding story on our blog!

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