What are your wedding traditions?

Wedding Traditions are a way of passing down history from generation to generation.  In the hotel, we are part of a world of traditions that our brides and grooms follow and in which we get to participate.  We are always thrilled to help “tie the knot” or “cross the threshold”, phrases for a wedding which have made it into our language and signify the permanence and grace of agreements and unions.

Have you ever been to a Henna Party for a Hindu or Muslim wedding?  The bride is presented to guests and then proceeds to receive elaborate temporary Henna tattoos which she will wear through the wedding night ceremonies. 

Jewish Weddings have a wedding ceremony prior to the traditional exchanging of vows in which the bride and groom read the marriage contract aloud and sign their names; these contracts, the Ketubah, are written in very decorative and formal Hebrew and are generally so beautifully written that they are framed as artwork to be displayed in their house.  We have even seen Ketubah Ceremonies in which the contracts from both sets of parent’s and all fours sets of grandparent’s Ketubah were on display.  Talk about Tradition!

In the United States, borrowed from Victorian England, is a rhyme with which every bride is familiar:

A bride at her wedding should wear:

Something old,
Something new,
Something borrowed,
Something blue,
And a sixpence in the shoe.

So, what are you traditions?  What is it that you will do during your ceremony that will not only join bride and groom, but join your separate pasts and families and your hopes for a future filled with the five sacred wedding wishes for life – health, happiness, wealth, fertility and longevity – with a strong today?  What will bring all of this into focus for you at that special moment of commitment?