Kasia and
Si’s Wedding

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The Church

The wedding will be held at The Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary (Bazylika Narodzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny). The Basilica is a church and monastery complex in the city of Chełm. The church and the courtyard of the Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary stand in the centre of Chełm on Chełm Hill (also called Cathedral Hill or Castle Hill).

The ceremony will be a traditional Catholic ceremony, although slightly shortened. It will last about 45 minutes and the ceremony will be performed in Polish by the Basilica’s priest. In consideration of our English guests the ceremony will be the standard Polish wedding ceremony and there will be no order of service.

The church is easy to find, standing on top of a hill in the middle of Chełm city. Surrounded by a beautiful park. You will be able to take a taxi from your hotel, or from anywhere in Chełm for around £2.

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The Venue

Mansarda is a traditional Polish wedding house (Dom Weselny) in the city of Chełm, around 2 miles from the Church at Bolesława Prusa 33. You will make your way there directly after the ceremony. A taxi will cost around £2 but we will be looking at the possibility of laying on transport so check back here for more details.

We have the venue for the whole night, usually the wedding ends when the last people leave - there will be free food and drink laid on all night so prepare yourself. There will be at least 6 hot courses of traditional Polish food and cold nibbles all night. There will also be A LOT of Vodka but please don't feel the need to keep up with the Poles, there will be bottles of wine on the tables as well as a selection of soft drinks. If you do have any special dietary requirements please let us know ASAP and we will see what we can do.

We have a live band playing all night and champagne and cocktails to greet the guests.

On the following day, the 7th, the after party will take place in this same venue. Starting at 3 o’clock and ending around midnight it will be a little more relaxed and there will be beer and wine (as well as the vodka of course) and food laid on. No band today but we’ll be plugging a laptop into the music system so requests please.

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More Details

Chełm is a city in eastern Poland. It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some 25 kilometres from the border with Ukraine.

There’s a lot to do in the town with some beautiful buildings and churches to see and a good selection of shops. You can also visit the old chalk tunnels that run under the city for around 15km. They date back to the middle ages and were used during the Second World War as a hiding place for the persecuted Jewish population. You can also, if you wish, visit the site of Sobibór concentration camp just outside the city which has an interesting holocaust museum.

To get to Chełm you will first need to fly to the capital of Poland, Warsaw with one of the 3 airlines that fly directly there from the UK. These are British Airways, LOT and Wizz Air as a budget option. When you arrive in Warsaw you can either hire a car and drive the 250 or so Kilometers to Chełm. Or you can take the train. If you decide to take the train you can get a taxi to Warsaw Central Station (Warszawa Centralna) for around £10 and then catch either a direct train, or you might have to get one to Lublin and catch the Chełm train from there. The journey will take around 4 hours and will cost about £15 each. We would recommend getting a first class ticket if you can, it won’t cost much more and you might get a nice cabin to yourself. Obviously if you need any help with your travel arrangements just give one of us a shout.

There are several hotels in Chełm, we’d recommend one of the following:

• Hotel Kamena
• Hotel Kozak
• Hotel Duet
• Hotel Portland

Rooms will cost between £5 and £35 and you will be able to get a taxi to your hotel from either of Chełm’s stations for around £2. We currently have an agreement with Hotel Kamena, as our recommended hotel, who will give a discount on rooms if you mention you are part of our wedding party. If there are any problems with this just give us a shout.

We have set up a gift list with John Lewis, it can be found here, the reference number is 492626. The best gift you can give us, however, is coming to our wedding.