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How to Incorporate Your Culture in Your Wedding Ceremony
There are more spouses from different cultures coming together nowadays as the majority of the U.S. population today is a mixture of ethnic groups, several races, and cultures. And as exciting as this can be, it might be cumbersome.
Planning a wedding is enough work; incorporating your or your spouse’s culture into the activities will be more demanding.
Since it is a multicultural marriage, you can’t incorporate everything from both cultures. You must figure out how to balance the activities to ensure the party is not rowdy and no family feels left out.
Here are a few tips to help you plan a multicultural wedding.
Communicate with Both Families
Miscommunication can cause a lot of issues before and on the wedding day. If one party feels left out or ignored, it might be the start of a rocky marriage. So, it is best to communicate with both sides of the family to ensure you are on the same page.
Educate the other family about your family’s cultures and wedding traditions, and let them do the same.
Do not leave it to online research. Show an interest in their customs and traditions. You can also list each culture’s wonderful practices, so you can incorporate them into the wedding.
Here are some useful tips for dealing with your families when planning your wedding:
Start the Wedding Planning Early
To properly plan a fusion wedding takes time. Establishing a plan early on in the wedding planning process is crucial because how you want to honor your culture will influence the wedding ideas you incorporate into the big day.
Early in the planning process, it is essential to establish realistic expectations for which cultural components are crucial and must be included. With this, you will have enough time to plan properly and determine how best to incorporate the essential details.
You should also learn about how to plan the perfect wedding.
Add Some Traditions from Both Cultures
Evaluation is paramount when deciding which traditional elements you want to include in your wedding.
It doesn’t always follow that a tradition is the best fit for your wedding because it connects to your heritage. Couples must take care when combining traditional elements as you want to do it in a tasteful way that honors the culture and history of the tradition.
Here are some traditions you can incorporate.
Food
Why not add to the rising trend of fusing two cultures in cuisine by including it in your wedding? While serving familiar gourmet food at your reception, introduce something fresh and cultural. Show your guests how two cultures can coexist peacefully to produce a delicious dish!
Music and Decor
Incorporating popular colors from your culture into tablescapes and other wedding décor is one easy way to include elements of your culture in your wedding. One illustration is the frequent presence of a tree branch in place of a guest book next to the couple’s table at Dutch weddings.
The place settings for the guests have paper leaves with colorful ribbons attached so that they can write on them. This custom can make stunning décor and convey congratulations to the newlyweds simultaneously.
Additionally, music selections can pay homage to your heritage through a special dance for the newlyweds or the song selection for the couple’s grand entrance.
Attire
Another way to embrace your culture is through your wedding attire. You can honor your spouse’s tradition by wearing clothing that speaks of the culture or changing dress to put on traditional wear.
Many couples incorporate different cultures into an outfit. So, even wearing formal wear, you can use a traditional bead to complete the look.
Cultural Adornments
There are different adornments peculiar to each tradition. If your spouse’s culture has any cultural item of significance, you can consider adding it to the collection.
Establish the traditions that are significant to both you and your fiancé. Regardless of what parents may say, not every tradition will be logistically possible when styles are mixed.
Many traditions believe in spouses exchanging beads or rings; you can get your rings from websites like Amazon, and mensweddingbands.io.
Choose what is important to you for the ceremony and reception, such as a Chinese tea ceremony or a Filipino money dance.
Watch this video to learn about Filipino wedding traditions:
Consider Having Two Ceremonies
You may feel more comfortable representing your culture with two wedding events if you’re finding it difficult to compromise for one multicultural ceremony. Nevertheless, having two weddings could blow your budget, especially if you need two separate reception venues.
Once more, it’s essential to keep open lines of communication with all parties concerned, including your parents, to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Skip Some Traditions
You can not always incorporate all traditions, and you should not feel pressured to do so. Just because you have access to practices doesn’t mean you have to integrate them all into your wedding.
Feel free to omit a component from your cultural wedding if it seems outdated or doesn’t resonate with you and your partner. Choose what appeals to you the most, and discard the rest.
There aren’t many rules because it’s your day. Even if you haven’t seen it done before, follow your gut. You desire a chuppah for your Christian-Jewish civil union. Try it out! You don’t want henna on your Indian-American wedding guests, do you? Then you are welcome to forego the henna.
Check all Important Details
Consult with your religious institutions before choosing a date or paying a deposit at a venue. While most clergies are amenable to interfaith unions, some more conservative clergy are not.
In some circumstances, such as those involving Jews and Christians, the priest and rabbi will carry out the ceremony together. That is not an option in some religions, such as Catholicism and Hinduism, where there must be two separate ceremonies.
Introducing new ideas can be logistically challenging because many venues have set wedding packages.
For instance, due to fire regulations, many ballrooms won’t allow the open flame required for an Indian wedding, and complete religious ceremonies can take longer than the standard 30-minute window.
Engage Your Guests
A multicultural wedding allows the guests to learn more about different cultures. Engage and educate them to feel more involved on the wedding day. These rituals at the wedding may give insight into the expectations of family in society
Is there anything they should know beforehand, such as a specific dress code, suggested attire, or a schedule for a multi-day event? Include a longer version of that information on your wedding website and in your invitation suite.
This is a quick and practical way to let visitors know what to expect and prevent them from making faux pas. It’s a wonderful way to engage your guests, especially those who might be attending a multicultural wedding for the first time.
Enjoy Your Day
The couple frequently feels pressured between what they need to do and what they want to do and making sure all the cultures feel equally represented.
Ultimately, it’s challenging to please everyone, but remember that your loved ones care about you and your partner and want the two of you to be happy. Your day will be ideal if you remain true to yourself.
Finally, another lovely video of wedding traditions from around the world:
Conclusion
This day belongs to you and your love, no matter what. It’s time to showcase who you are as an individual and how your upbringing has influenced that.
You don’t have to go overboard when showcasing your culture; just do what comes naturally to you both and ignore any advice to the contrary. You will undoubtedly throw an event that people will thoroughly enjoy and remember as long as you stay true to yourself!
