We are delighted to welcome Tinkerbelle Bride, a prominent Irish wedding blogging bride, as a guest blogger to mrs2be. Tinkerbelle Bride is an engaged bride to be and is going to share some of her inspiring wedding ideas with us. This week she takes a look at interesting wedding traditions from around the world. We hope you enjoy reading her posts!
Getting married in Ireland was always on the cards for Mr Mc and me. We wanted to get married at home to ensure that as many of our friends and family as possible could make the day. Also, I don’t think you can beat the sense of occasion, tradition or celebration that comes with Irish weddings. That said, I love hearing about wedding traditions from other cultures and I think you can find some lovely ideas that could seamlessly be woven into an Irish wedding.
Yichud: After a Jewish wedding ceremony, the bride and groom step over a silver spoon ( supposed to bring wealth) and enter the Yichud room. This is a room in the synagogue which nobody else is allowed enter while the couple spend some time alone and enjoy the first few moments of married life together. (I know what you’re thinking but trust me it’s not like that). It’s simply a way to ensure that the newlyweds have at least a few uninterrupted minutes together to soak up the enormity of the day and the commitment they have just made to one another.
I don’t think Mr Mc and I will be locking ourselves into the church sacristy or anything like that I really like the idea of having some alone time after the ceremony. We definitely want to have at least five minutes away from guests, photographers etc to just enjoy the fact that we have become Mr and Mrs.
Wedding Beads: In Mali in West Africa, it is traditional for the bride’s family to present her with beads to wear on her wedding day. The beads are normally a bulb shape, multicoloured with lots of different strands. My Dad was in Ethiopia recently and bought some Mali wedding beads. One in particular is a beautiful deep blue in colour. My sister is going to use them to make an anklet for me and I’ll be wearing it as my something blue’. A beaded anklet is far more me than a blue lace garter and I think this is a really thoughtful present from my Dad and my sister. Now if Dad can just remember where he left the beads….
Ditch the Orangina Look: Far from piling on the fake bake Japanese brides cover their skin white pale white make up, a sign of beauty, purity and wealth in Asia. Okay I’m not saying you should turn up to your wedding with make-up suggesting you are a die hard Cure fan, but if you are going to use fake tan, aim for the sunkissed look and not the you’ve-been-tangoed’ end of the spectrum.
Wardrobe Change: Another lesson from our Japanese sisters is to really milk the retail therapy potential of your wedding. Japanese brides often have three different outfits to wear during the course of the day a white kimono for the ceremony, a red kimono for the reception and a western style outfit the evening time. Not sure I’d be on for spending my wedding day changing clothes every two hours but then again what a fantastic excuse to shop till you drop!
Wedding Trousseau and a Hope Chest: A wedding trousseau is basically a fancy French term for what my Nana referred to as a bottom drawer’ – a collection of things to be carefully stored away until you were married. Traditionally young French women and their families collected fine clothes and jewellery, toiletries and bed linens to see her through her wedding celebrations, honeymoon and the first few weeks of her married life. These were stored in a heavy wooden box called a hope chest, often ornately engraved that provided storage for the woman’s most precious belongings once she was married.
Now as many brides move out of home long before they get married, I think trousseaus have become irrelevant but what I like about this tradition is the hope chest acting a safe for a bride’s treasured posessions. I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for an usual wooden box in which I can store mementos from our engagement and wedding like my planning notebook, ring box, invites and menu, cards etc. I would love if my Mum had kept the bits and pieces from her wedding packed away safely somewhere for me to rifle through when I was older.
Make a Quick Exit: We’ve all been at breakfast the morning after a wedding when the newlyweds get a good slagging for sneaking off together the night before. Well now you have the perfect response if the same happens to you. In Venezuela, it is traditional for newlyweds to sneak away from their own wedding reception without saying good-bye. It is considered to bring good luck to their marriage!
