Congratulations on your engagement! This is a really exciting time in your life. It’s also probably going to be a bit stressful.
During this next year, I want to walk through this process with you. I’ll give you a 12 Month Guide to planning your wedding and explain things along the way. You can start from the beginning here (click). Come back to this blog each week for the next installment.
Week 21 – Wedding Traditions
Hope everything is going well! This week we’re going to do a little history lesson – your history lesson. It’s time to look at your heritage and see what wedding traditions you may want to include in your big day.
There are some specific things to look for:
1. Setting the tone before the wedding
2. Clothing options
3. Ceremony and reception traditions
How do you find some of these things out? Ask family members and search the internet (just take some of the options with a grain of salt).
Since it would take forever to go through all the cultural wedding traditions, I’ll give you an example from some of my own heritage. Below are some of the items I found when looking at my Scottish/Irish/German side we get the following.
Setting the tone: The invitations will be trimmed in blue plaid. The blue is symbolic for purity in Ireland. The plaid is typical of a Scottish wedding. To bring in the German tradition, friends and family will put together a wedding newspaper. The paper is filled with pictures, articles and stories of the engaged couple and is sold at the wedding to assist with honeymoon expenses.
Clothing options: In Ireland the bride wore her hair in stylish braids as a symbol of power and luck. Her bouquet included English Lavendar as a symbol of love, loyalty, devotion, luck and a happy, long-lasting marriage.
In Scotland, the groom wore his family kilt, jacket and sporran. After the vows, the groom pinned a stip of his clan’s tartan on the bride’s dress or draped a sash of his clan’s tartan over her shoulders signifying that she was a member of his clan.
Ceremony and reception traditions: In Scotland, bagpipes traditionally play the Highland Wedding March as the Recessional Music. Each of the cultures enjoyed dancing. In Germany, some people broke dishes while the newlyweds swept them up symbolizing nothing remained broken in their home.
A buffet table included Smoked Salmon (Irish), Soda Bread (Irish), Cheeses and Sausages (German) and Schnitzel (German). Desserts included Peppermint Creams (Scottish) and Black Forest Cherry Torte (German). In Scotland, the bride cut the wedding cake using a dirk, a long-bladed knife, while guided by her husband’s hand.
Floral arrangements included English Lavender (Irish), White Heather (Scottish) and Grain (German).And finally, Scottish grooms have carried their brides over thresholds for more than 700 years.
These are just a few cultural traditions. Your family may have some traditions of their own. In mine, there was a ring and small Bible that were sometimes carried down the aisle. I attached the ring to my bouquet, my mother carried the Bible with her bouquet. Ask what your family’s former brides have done. I’m sure you’ll come across some interesting ideas.
Hope these are helpful as you plan your wedding. What are some of the traditions you’ve found?
Next week we’ll look at engagement photos!
Katelyn is a certified wedding planner. She is available for consultations.
She will even meet with you on Skype to help you work through part of your wedding planning.
Click here for more information.