traci's blog

While some age-old wedding traditions have lost their appeal and significance over time (why are we tying our old shoes to the bumper again…?), others are ripe for adaptation or reinterpretation. Accordingly, we’ve put together a list of wedding customs from cultures around the world that you can incorporate into your own wedding proceedings. Whether you decide to revise them or keep them intact, they can bring a unique twist and extra dose of emotional significance to your union.

With our many years of lurking behind lenses, we’ve attended more weddings than you can shake a stick at. But of those umpteen happy nuptials, only a few stick out in our memory as truly unique. While we’re by no means tired of the classic wedding format, we love it when things get shaken up with an unusual twist or two. And the easiest, most relevant way to punch up the proceedings is to incorporate a bit of the local flavor of your hometown or wedding location.

 Some ideas:

Weddings are all about rites and traditions, and some are so deeply ingrained that we don’t even think about them. Where did the “old, new, borrowed, blue” rule come from? Beats us. How about the rice throwing? Um…Japanese immigrants? Wrong.

While there is no rule that you have to gift your guests, many couples like to send loved ones home with a memento of their day. But there are good favors and there are those that just end up collecting dust and are soon dispatched to the nearest thrift store. But with a little foresight you can avoid the shock of encountering two dozen of your thoughtfully-designed James ‘n’ Ellen 4-Ever champagne glasses languishing on a shelf at the local Salvation Army.

Once you’ve spent what feels like half a lifetime planning your wedding, you want your guests to have a good time, right? And while tossing rice, eating prosciutto-wrapped tidbits, and doing the hora are all genuinely entertaining, they are always that much more so when you’ve got a cocktail in-hand.

But the First Law of wedding dynamics is that good drinks = good times, while the Second Law is that good times = more drinks. And before you know it, the self-perpetuating cycle of revelry equals your poor dad taking out a loan to pay for the bar tab.

Now, we’ve all know a bride or two with a diva attitude and a full entourage to fulfill her every wedding day whim (or to bear the brunt of her wrath). While we would never advocate manipulating your nearest and dearest into acting as your lowly handmaidens, there is a lot to be said for delegating certain responsibilities. You will have everything possible planned ahead of time, of course, but there are certain situations that require some on-the-fly choreography.

We know, green schmean—we’re all up to our ears in it these days. Are you really going to rent a solar-paneled tent and serve beet greens for dessert? We think not. On the other hand, pledging your eternal love to one another while simultaneously planting a big old carbon footprint on the face of Mother Earth seems antithetical, somehow. So, while you’re not going to end global warming with your wedding, we have just a few clean, green wedding suggestions for you to consider.

We don’t know about you, but secretly, our favorite wedding photos are the bridal shots: us looking back over our shoulder with the back of our gorgeous dress on display; our mother and sister fussing over our veil; the one of us perfectly backlit in the doorway…we’ve never looked so good. Sigh.