Planning a Multi-Cultural Wedding

October 27th, 2009

A wedding is a time to celebrate your family’s traditions and heritage. Highlighting the customs of the bride and groom’s cultures can play a big part in making their wedding personal and memorable. Yet, when the bride and groom come from very different cultures, it can seem more like a mish-mash than a melting pot. These are some ideas on how to plan a multi-cultural wedding that is beautiful, cohesive, and inclusive.

When there is a potential culture clash brewing, it is important for the bride and groom to sit down together early in the planning process to make a list of the special customs they may wish to include in the wedding. Go ahead and brainstorm a comprehensive list, without worrying about how you can possibly have a Tex-Mex taco bar and a Chinese wedding tea ceremony in the same wedding. Once you start to find out what is important to your significant other, you will have a launching point to begin trying to meld the various traditions.

Also keep in mind that planning a multi-cultural wedding is the perfect opportunity to learn more about your future mate’s heritage. For instance, let’s say that a bride with Irish heritage is marrying a man whose parents are from India. The Irish bride will likely not wear the full traditional Indian suite of wedding jewelry, but she might wish to participate in the bonding experience of a pre-wedding henna ceremony with the groom’s mother and sisters. Likewise, the Indian groom will probably not wear kilt, but he and his bride could exchange gold claddagh rings as their wedding bands, since gold jewelry is such an important part of Indian weddings.

The wedding food is one of the easiest places to combine two cultures into one fabulous wedding. This is best accomplished by serving a wide variety of tastes from both cultures at serving stations. The serving stations allow each guest to sample the foods which they expect to find at a celebration, but it also gives each family the chance to explore the cuisine of the other one. If there is one thing that brings people together across all cultures, it is sitting down and breaking bread together, which is why the food can be the key component of your multi-cultural wedding.

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Chinese Wedding Customs

May 30th, 2009

Chinese weddings are rich with traditions, symbolism, and rituals. If you have Chinese heritage or are marrying a person who does, it would be wonderful to incorporate some Chinese wedding customs into your own special day. These are some tips on how to plan a beautiful East meets West wedding.

Red is the lucky color for Chinese brides and grooms, and this is a great place to begin with your East meets West celebration. Chinese brides will traditionally wear gorgeous red silk cheongsams for their weddings. Many Chinese-American brides will choose to wear the cheongsam during the ceremony, and then change to a classic white wedding gown and bridal jewelry for the reception (or vice versa).

You can pay tribute to your Chinese heritage in the flowers that you use for the bouquets and centerpieces as well. Some of the favored flowers for Chinese brides are peonies, orchids, and lotus blossoms. The combination of plum blossoms and butterflies stands for long life, and these symbols would make a lovely addition to your centerpieces. A beautiful silk butterfly perched on a plum blossom would make a wonderful surprise accent in your floral displays.

Speaking of symbolism, it is very important in Chinese rites of passage. The double happiness symbol is one that is perfect to use in a wedding. You can set the tone with a rich red double happiness sign embossed on your invitations. The symbol can also be used to decorate the wedding cake, on the favor boxes, as well as on the programs, menus, and placecards.

There are many other wonderful Chinese wedding traditions to think about using in your wedding. They range from décor like paper lanterns to photos in memory of ancestors to exciting performances involving firecrackers, drums, or lion dancers. Whether you decide to have an authentic Chinese wedding, or just to incorporate a few of the customs, it will be sure to make your wedding day more meaningful and memorable.

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