Cultural Weddings.

I've been to a Cypriot wedding. It's a bit like a Greek one because the religion is the same. The service is long but in the village, the bride was accompanied on her walk to the church by a violinist followed by many of the guests and then after the ceremony the bride and groom had to stand for hours greeting people who came whenever they liked to the reception. The guests got to sit down and eat their pick of the food while the bride and groom had to try to eat something from the buffet in between greeting their guests but all the while standing up. I guess it's worth it though because most people give envelopes of cash when they arrive at the reception and then when the dancing begins, the guests pin money onto the brides gown...

I had these very kind polish neighbors next door to me, who barely spoke any English at all. The eldest daughter married, who did speak English very fluently and I was invited to attend the celebration. It was quite different to say the least. Fun but very busy as it lasts for a week. The couple marries and after the big day, the continual parties carry over throughout the entire week after the nuptials. So talk about lots of food, wow a table filled daily which was the length of a dinning room and living room long. And watch out for the polish home-made vodka as it is topped off every few seconds. I attended only one day as back then I was not much of a drinker and luckily for me I lived directly next door as I remember crawling up the stairs and into my house. There after for a day in a half I could not leave my house as I was so hung over it took a day in a half to recuperate. LOL

Unfortunately I have had to attend several Pakistani weddings. Sit for hours, doing nothing, not talking - men in one room, women in another. Dinner is served - race to the tables, elbow people out of the way, grab the meat pieces only throwing the rice on the floor, eat partially cooked chicken in 20 seconds flat, go home!

I haven't been to any other type of wedding, just the ones we have back here, which I think is very similar to an American wedding. The bride and groom arrives at the church separately. The groom and best-man is near the altar, waiting. Before the bride enters the church, the entourage enters first. Flower girls followed by the bible bearer, coin bearer and ring bearer. Secondary sponsors enter (veil, cord, candle), then primary sponsors (what we call ninong and ninang which are the godfathers and godmothers respectively). Bride enters with parents or a representative of the family. Groom gets the bride midway through the middle aisle. The act symbolizes that the parents are now giving their daughter to the groom. After the wedding mass, there's a great deal of picture taking (yes it's now part of weddings here), then people throw rice and flowers to the newly wed couple at the entrance of the church. During reception, the bride and groom sits at this place of honor and people tinkle their glasses if they want them to kiss. Some traditional weddings have doves inside a bell, the couple releases the doves together. There's also this cake slicing ceremony. Some traditional weddings also have this slow dance part wherein the couple will dance and then people will pin money on them. Then there's the throwing of the bouquet and garter. The most traditional part of the wedding is usually the engagement. Before they publicly announce the engagement, the family of the guy visits the family of the girl and formally asks for her hand in marriage. We call this pamamanhikan.

Hi friend one wedding I saw here in Saudi Arabia which all the boys are drinking, dancing, eating while all the girls are on the room looking only to boys. Meaning both are separately in the function... it is like wierd but that is their culture and tradition. But a lot of foods.. see you around

I am from India. And this country is having lot of cutures and lot of rituals based on different states. I am from northern part. In our culture, marriage used to happen at evening time and food must be non-veg. For my career, I am now staying in the southern part of India. And here I have attended lot of south indian marriages. Here they are having really different things like their mariiage used to happen at morning time. And food will be purely veg. So..its a kind of really good experience.