Observing unique traditions are important for preserving an individual, couple, or community’s cultural identity, and in no other celebration do we see the prevalence of cultural influences more than in weddings and wedding receptions. At Imperial Wedding Venue, our brides and grooms incorporate culturally-specific customs into their wedding to personalize the festivities and pay tribute to their family members. The following are some of our favorite bridal traditions from around the globe:
Armenian Wedding Traditions
Armenian weddings are joyous affairs marked by lots of dancing, drinking, lively music, and an overabundance of Middle Eastern food served family-style. Aside from the opulence and extravagance of the wedding reception, our favorite wedding tradition involves the groom’s family bringing beautifully wrapped boxes filled with the brides veil and shoes, chocolates, Armenian cognac, and perfume to the bride’s family the night before the wedding.
Chinese Wedding Traditions
For traditional Chinese weddings, the wedding date is picked carefully according to the astrological signs and birthdays of the bride and groom, and the wedding ceremony always begins at half-past the hour (an auspicious time, said to give the couple luck in their marriage). On the night before the big day, the bride also bathes in citrus-infused water to cleanse her body of evil influences and malicious spirits.
Filipino Wedding Traditions
Unlike Western weddings, Filipino tradition dictates that the family of the groom pays for the wedding ceremony and reception – good news for parents of young Filipino women. The bride’s gown is typically custom-made (though it is bad luck for her to try on the dress before her wedding day), and the groom usually wears a white, see-through button-up shirt with a white t-shirt underneath.
Indian Wedding Traditions
Perhaps the most extravagant of all cultural wedding ceremonies, Indian weddings are multi-day affairs that involve ceremonies like painting of the hands and feet of the bride with Henna tattoos called a mehndi, the groom’s party arriving to the bride’s house in a giant procession, and thousands of rose petals being thrown for good luck. Wealthy Indian men may even arrive at the ceremony on horseback on via elephant!
Spanish / Latin-American Wedding Traditions
Similar to Middle-Eastern and Armenian weddings, Latin culture weddings involve much dancing, drinking, eating, and reverie. To pay homage to tradition, the wedding party typically carry hand lanterns (used to light the way from the groom’s house to the bride’s house) and a chest filled with gifts for the bride’s family.