Tradition

How much is/did tradition play in your wedding? Are there any special (family/religious/ethnic) traditions that you made sure to include in your special day?

We're having a very casual wedding on the beach - so there are no real ethnic or family traditions included. We did, however, have a traditional engagement ceremony, so that was the nod to our heritage.

The only Chinese tradition that we did for our wedding was the Chinese banquet. Usually, that's for the wedding reception, but since we opted for an American reception at the resort, we had the Chinese banquet as our rehearsal dinner instead.

We're having our Japanese Buddhist ceremony on the beach and doing the San San Kudo (the Japanese sake ceremony). I'm excited that we'll be able to put something from our culture into it!

We are have a Latino Catholic wedding which includes Arras, Laso and the Virgin Mary.

We're having traditional Chinese banquet food at our reception and doing a tea ceremony. I'll also change into a cheongsam part way through the reception.

The feel that I was aiming for was contemporary with hints of Asian elements. We had a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony and a Chinese Lion Dance, two different dresses and shoes. The Lion Dance was very popular. We incorporated the Chinese Double Happiness symbol into our wedding logo. This was echoed in our invitations, programs, placecards. We were supposed to have a gobo of the double happiness and our names, but the lighting company could not find our custom gobo cut out?!? Instead of sticking with the traditional red, I chose pink. I chose orchids and a branchy motif for my florals, somewhat of an Asian feel.

All of these elements were incorporated into a formal, seated, catered Western dinner.

My FI is Persian and I'm American. Its important to us both to merge traditions through out the wedding. We're not however wanting a stuffy, traditional wedding, just influences. The ceremony will play almost identical to a classic American one with slight alterations such as a spread that the bride and groom sit in front of and a few symbolic traditions of the beautiful Persian culture. We'll also have food from both of our cultural backgrounds. Mostly, we want a big, beautiful, and fun party.

What about you Moemarsita?

I actually don't have any fun traditions outside of the traditional American wedding. I'm jealous because all these traditions sound so fun and personal. I may have to start my own!

I think starting your own is a GREAT idea...sometimes traditions can lose their beauty just because everybody does it that way. But maybe I feel strongly about that because of the people who were horrified at some of the "traditions" we left out and it required some determination on our part to make sure that things went the way the two of us wanted. We didn't do the garter thing, or the bouquet toss, or the picture montage of us growing up. But we added our own touches: our groomsmen and bridesmaids all entered from the back (partly due to Nestldown's grounds with their amazing aisle among the redwoods) and we had them enter two guys, then two girls, until the ringbearer and flower girl came in together. Then we had a guy-girl semi-circle waiting for us at the bottom--I'm so glad we did. It was kinda fun to be doing something a little bit different.