Wedding Blog

Hahaha!! That is too funny!

i second sally

That’s awesome!

Your dad sounds like my dad - LOVE it!!

Your story is kinda cute, but I can’t quite tell if your dad is joking around or not. If he isn’t, I wouldn’t have encouraged the sexist idea that your hand is his to give.

When my fiance and I were in the prelims of deciding to get engaged, my father said the same thing, too funny.

Awesome! Your family sounds very fun.

Well, technically - a dowry is money (or in this case, livestock) that is given to the groom’s family by the bride’s family. This is typically done in civilizations where the population is too high, thus the value of a woman is lower. If these society’s, having five daughters you have to pay to “get rid” of costly - those are the ones normally plagued with female infantcide.

On the other hand, there have been society’s - usually where the population is low - where the groom’s family must provider a dower to bride’s family. Because the value of a woman is so high, the bride’s family seeks compensation for their loss.

So…all notions of fertility aside, to be offered a dower of three cows represents the high value of the bride.

All of this dorkiness comes from my total love my college cultural anthropolgy class.

My father did the same thing, only he asked for two cows and a goat. I’ve been told (since I wasn’t there) that the conversation went down like this. Dad: “What’s in it for me.” FI: “Well… what would you like?” Dad: “Two cows and a goat.” FI: “Seriously??” Dad: (laughing to hard to respond)
However, the story was relayed to me as “two cows and a donkey”!!! Poor guy. My FI was so nervous when he asked my parents for my hand, that he miss the humor of it all!

Gee, let’s see, I think I’ve mentioned NC, NJ, NYC, DC, and a couple of foreign countries so far, maybe Tulsa … why would Iowa be confusing??

Actually, I’m from *Wisconsin* and lived there through the end of college. (Go Badgers!) But then I discovered that it’s just not that cold anywhere else, and for me that settles the issue of whether to go back on the “no” side. Otherwise I love the Midwest and would probably settle in Minneapolis/St. Paul in a heartbeat.

My parents divorced and remarried when I was young, and my dad and his family live in Iowa.

Miss Tulip!!! I am so excited that you love the Twin Cities. We totally need a Twin Cities bride on Weddingbee!
(I’m a MPLS suburbanite)

I hate to nit-pick, but the thing Lori forgot to mention is that when the groom/groom’s family gives something to the bride’s family in exchange for the right to marry her, it’s actually called a brideprice, not a dowry. A dowry is something that the bride’s family gives either to her or to the groom’s family; like Lori said, mostly as extra incentive to take her off their hands. A brideprice actually shows a lot more respect for a woman’s value, since it’s meant to compensate the bride’s family for her loss.

All nitpicking aside, that’s a really cute story! And I’ve been meaning to say, You Go Girl! The world needs more white girl+asian guy couples.

Ooh, Keely, what a great idea!!! Mr. T. gave his parents geese and rabbits last Christmas through Heifer International (www.heifer.org), but we never once thought of something like that for “the dowry.” Love it!