Wedding customs by country
African customs
Ethiopia
Marriage in Ethiopia starts with the groom's side sending elders who then request a union between the parties. The elders discuss a dowry and verify that the intended bride and groom are not relatives by checking their lineage a minimum of seven generations. After a dowry is agreed upon and it has been determined that there is no relationship between the intended bride and groom, the wedding is announced and the families begin preparations for a church/mosque ceremony and a On the wedding day the groom and groomsmen get ready at the groom's house early in the morning and proceed to the bride's parents house to begin the wedding ceremonies. At the bride's parents' house, the bride gets ready and is seated awaiting the groom's arrival. As the groom and his wedding party arrive, the bride's family and friends ceremonially block the entrance to the house. The groomsmen have to either serenade or bribe their way into the house so that the groom can take the bride with him. Additionally, the best man holds perfume and sprays it everywhere inside the bride's family house. After this ceremony, the groom retrieves his bride and they along with a procession go to a church/mosque to take their wedding vows.After the religious ceremony, the wedding procession moves to a park/garden where lunch is served to guests. Afterwards, the wedding party typically takes pictures while guests make their way to the reception. At the reception, depending on the family's ethnic group there are several traditional dances performed. Ethiopian weddings typically serve Ethiopian food and live music and the party typically goes on into the early morning. To close the wedding ceremony, elders are seated at the exit of the venue and the bride and groom along with the wedding party bow and kiss the knees of the elders as they exit the venue. This is typically the conclusion the first day of a typical Ethiopian wedding.
The mels ceremony is dependent on the ethnic heritage of the family, but it is typically smaller than the first ceremony and a time for close friends and family to spend some time with each other and continue to celebrate the newly married couple.
Nigeria
Generally, there are three types of weddings in Nigeria: traditional weddings, church weddings and court weddings. The civil marriage takes place at a registry, and then traditional wedding ceremony follows, which is followed by the church wedding ceremony. Many couples choose to do all three, depending on their financial situation. Nigerian weddings are normally characterised by an abundance of colours.In traditional weddings, customs vary from one part of Nigeria to the other. In north, middlebelt, southwest, south east and south-south, it is called the traditional wedding ceremony. Officials and elders sip wine while they invite the couple in for introductions and negotiations, and presentation of the bride price which consists mainly of gifts of shoes, textiles, jewelry and bags. The Yoruba traditional wedding for examples involve cultural displays.
In the other parts of the country it is very much the same. Elders from both families retreat into an inner room to negotiate on the bride price. When concluded, the gifts are then presented to the bride's family. After this, the bride, along with her entourage of girls is presented to the husband, family and guests in the most colourful way.
Pygmy wedding traditions
engagements were not long and usually formalized by an exchange of visits between the families concerned. The groom to be would bring a gift of game or maybe a few arrows to his new in-laws, take his bride home to live in his band and with his new parents. His only obligation is to find among his relatives a woman willing to marry a brother or male cousin of his wife. If he feels he can feed more than one wife, he may have additional wives.Zimbabwe
Customarily, marriage proceedings often begin with the man proposing to the woman. Upon her acceptance the man then calls for a meeting with his clan elders who largely consist of extended elderly family members. A delegation carrying small gifts is then sent to the woman's home to meet with her clan elders. Deliberations on bride price actually begin on a later date and these are strictly conducted by the older men only. Upon completion of these negotiations, a wedding date is set, with the elders having provided an acceptable percentage of the full dowry. The rest of the dowry is expected later. No request is made for it, but the young man is expected to remember to finish his payment and failure to do so spells dishonor for that family.The wedding day begins with a convoy from the groom's family that heads to the bride's home to collect her. However, the convoy is not immediately let into the bride's homestead. Rather the bride's gate is locked and song and dance begins as a cover for negotiations. Various goods may be asked of the groom and he willingly obliges to the demands after which he is let into the compound.
Middle Eastern customs
Arabic customs
weddings in the Arab World bear similarities to Western weddings, whereas Muslim weddings in the Arab countries are influenced by Muslim traditions. Muslim weddings start with a Sheikh and Katb Al-kitaab for the bride and groom. A wedding is not Islamically valid unless both bride and groom are willing, and the groom is often encouraged to visit her before the wedding. However, these visits must be chaperoned to ensure purity of action between the two.It is the custom that the groom and his family pay for all the wedding expenses. The bride's family gather together before the wedding in the bride's parents house. The groom's family come and take the bride from the house in a decorated car along with the one bride's mate which usually is the bride's sister, cousin, or best friend. The rest of the family and close friends follow in their cars, honking the car's horns. The reception is usually for all the family and friends, usually with a meal and cake. Candy covered almonds is a traditional giveaway from the couple. There is a lot of dancing and Ululation. The Muslims tradition is to have men in one side and women in another so the ladies can remove their head covering. However, in non-Muslim traditions the whole wedding is for both sexes.
Iran
Persian wedding tradition, despite its local and regional variations, like many other rituals in Persia goes back to the ancient Zoroastrian tradition. Though the concepts and theory of the marriage have changed drastically by Islamic traditions, the actual ceremonies have remained more or less the same as they were originally in the ancient Zoroastrian culture.Israel
European customs
Albania
In Albanian traditional weddings, the dress of the bride is characterized by its elegance and transparency, in that of the Catholic one can see full colors. The Catholic bride's dress is characterized by its picturesque effects and harmony.There are two types of wedding dresses. One is worked on a "shajak" and with floral motives worked with "gajtan" black cotton, sometimes mixed with green. The other one is worked in the same material but with red color. Different from the first here the motifs are enriched with full colors. These dresses have a belt worked with gold and grain necklaces in red, rose, orange creating all together a warm surface. Here the motifs are very small.
This gallery of costumes, richness of colors, and sentiments is a major, long-running experience for Albanians, not only for the ability to preserve tradition, but also for conserving the high technique of elaboration or the high artistic level.
The dress of a Catholic bride from Shkodër is tripped from the transparent white, shiny, soft, which spreads all over the body, and is intended to suggest tranquility and a warm purity. This concept of tradition is achieved through the white of the base material and the gold thread over. This dress is composed by the "barnaveke": some kind of very long pants which seem a skirt. In the upper part is worn a shirt and over it a "jelek".
Ritual songs name various elements which contain "paja" of the girl, which are the goods parents give to the daughter to wear, to furnish the house, gifts for her husband and the intimate cousins. Elements are typically made by weaving clothes using looms. The preparation of the "paja" for the parents of the bride is a pleasure which means also accomplishing the obligations toward the daughter. This is also an expression of the love of parents, but is connected with the economical conditions of the family.
"Dhunti" in Shkodra means the gifts that the groom prepares for the bride during the engagement, mainly clothes, jewelry, gold ornaments and tricks, which are sent to her a few days before the wedding. In addition to those received by the family of his father, the bride takes many gifts from the groom and his family. "Dhuntia", which had a considerable monetary value, was prepared with great care by the family of the boy, because in some way embodied respect and love for his young bride, to whom these gifts were made, love for their son that he married at the same time was also a representation of the family in its economic and aesthetic. In "dhunti" there were enough clothes and items for use at all times, in joy and in sorrow, which expressed particular attention to the role of women.
Celtic handfasting
is a wedding ritual in which the bride's and groom's hands are tied together. It is said to be based on an ancient Celtic tradition and to have inspired the phrase "tying the knot". "Handfasting" is favoured by practitioners of Celtic-based religions and spiritual traditions, such as Wicca and Druidism.England
The Western custom of a bride wearing a white wedding dress came to symbolize purity, not virginity, in the Victorian era. Within the "white wedding" tradition, a white dress and veil is not considered appropriate in the second or subsequent wedding of a widow or divorcee.A wedding is often followed or accompanied by a wedding reception, which in some areas may be known as the 'Wedding Breakfast', at which an elaborate wedding cake is served. Western traditions include toasting the couple, the newlyweds having the first dance, and cutting the cake. A bride may throw her bouquet to the assembled group of all unmarried women in attendance, with folklore suggesting the person who catches it will be the next to wed. A fairly recent equivalent has the groom throwing the bride's garter to the assembled unmarried men; the man who catches it is supposedly the next to wed.
The Wedding Breakfast is one occasion where every member of the family who has had at least some role in the wedding is present. It is also important as the first time the newly married bride and groom share their first meal together as a lawfully wedded couple. The modern Wedding Breakfast includes the service of food to guests that can range from traditional roasts, buffets, or regional treats such as in the case of a London Wedding in the East End.
Another Victorian tradition is for brides to wear or carry "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" during the service. It is considered good luck to do so. Often the bride attempts to have one item that meets all of these qualifications, such as a borrowed blue handkerchief which is "new to her" but loaned by her grandmother. Another addition to this custom is to wear a coin in one's shoe to bring prosperity.
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