Wedding Traditions and Ceremony Ideas

My mom did not raise us with a lot of tradition. We were pretty laid back about religious matters, as well as secular holidays. We would have a turkey on Thanksgiving. We would have ham on Christmas and exchange gifts. We would party and stay up late on New Year's Eve. That was it. It's strange, but until I was getting married, she seemed to have no religion. That's when things changed.

You see, we had very different ideas for a wedding ceremony. For me, religion was never an important part of my life, but love and community were. My wedding ceremony idea centered around the more secular aspects of the marriage. We would exchanged our wedding vows in the most beautiful way possible. We would not be witnessed by a clergy, but simply by our friends. We thought that these unique wedding ceremony ideas would meet with her approval as well. How wrong we were.

At first, it started off in a friendly way. She suggested a few changes in our wedding ceremony ideas. Instead of having it in the middle of the forest, for example, how about having it in the church? When I said no, she seemed to be alright with it at first. Soon, however, she brought it up again. She could not stand us having a wedding ceremony without a religious figure there to officiate. She told me that it was because of her father. She said that he was not comfortable with contemporary wedding ceremony ideas. She begged and pleaded with me not to go through with it, and she said that it would offend him. It almost made me burst into tears. I thought that she would want me to have my wedding ceremony in the way that was most meaningful to me. When she insisted on her antiquated wedding ceremony ideas, it was almost too much to handle.

Even our wedding ceremony music ideas were met with complaints from her. You see, we met each other in a choir. We thought that it would be nice to play the first song that we sang together instead of the traditional bridal march. We assumed that no one would mind. It was, after all, a beautiful piece of classical music. In the end, however, this caused as much trouble as any of our other wedding ceremony ideas. I do not know if she was simply reluctant to let me go, but for whatever reason, she was being dreadfully stubborn.

Wedding Traditions

Things are changing in the world of weddings, and they are changing for a very good reason. Some of the traditions that have been around for a while don’t seem to make sense for everyone any longer. Though some people stick to the traditions no matter what, I have found that most of the weddings I have gone to lately have not stuck to the old wedding traditions and are doing things their own way. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to the old ways, but there is something to be said for adapting.

Wedding traditions came along because they were things that were done for a reason. Other things were done because of the social climate, and other things just happened to be something that stuck around for some reason. Wedding traditions that don’t make a lot of sense any longer are still being used, but people are slowly turning into things that make more sense in today’s world. Life was a lot different when a lot of these traditions took hold, and a lot of the modern world has changed so much that the reasons for these things don’t even exist any longer.

One of these wedding traditions is how people are seated in the church. In some cases, people will seat the family of the bride on one side of the church and will seat the groom’s family on the other side. Because people move around so much today, the numbers of guests on the sides can be awfully lopsided. This means half of the church is full and half is almost empty. That can make things awkward. When this happens, some are changing the wedding traditions and seating guests as they arrive, not according to family. Another wedding tradition is to make wedding toasts at the reception to the bride and groom.

Other wedding traditions that are changing might be the colors that are used for the ceremony and the bride’s dress. The groom may choose a woman to stand as his attendant of honor, or you may find that three people make speeches instead of just one. Wedding gifts are also a long tradition to help the couple get started with their new lives together. Wedding traditions are great, but they are only great as long as they make sense. If you are planning a wedding, you don’t have to feel like you have to follow the rules set forth by someone else a long time ago. If you want to change something, go ahead and do it. You’ll be happier on your special day, and that is all that counts in the end.

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