Wedding Blog

In Mr. Beagle’s family, they have a tradition of gathering as a family and eating Menudo, which is a spicy soup usually served for breakfast, on the morning after the wedding. Although I’ve tried this soup, I’m not a big fan of it (it’s one of those things that you either love or hate), but Mr. Beagle loves it.

I have a very vast heritage, to say the least. A guy I dated briefly once cutely referred to me as the United Nations, and it’s stuck with me ever since. I’m pretty racially ambiguous, so random people often ask me what my heritage/nationality/ethnicity is. Could I take offense to this? Sure, I suppose, but most people ask politely, and frankly, I’ve been asked this…

Over the summer I got an unexpected wedding invite from an old college friend; being the lover of weddings that I am, I coerced Mr. Ramen to attend YET ANOTHER wedding of someone he didn’t know.

My friend’s then-fiancee, now wife, is Indian; probably 95% of the weddings I’ve been to have been Chinese/Asian weddings, and I’ve never had the privilege of going to an Indian…

I went to my first Serbian wedding last May. Mr. Parfait’s cousin and her now-husband incorporated some beautiful traditions, which led me to wonder what Korean and Serbian traditions we will have in our wedding!

The day started with a Skup Svatova at the bride’s house—a pre-wedding celebration where guests greet each other, enjoy live music, eat, and drink. Afterwards, we headed to a Serbian church…

In lieu of a unity candle, Mr. Beagle and I have decided to incorporate an aspect of his culture into our ceremony. In Hispanic culture, there are three traditions during the ceremony that represent the couple’s new unity.

The Lasso:

Mr. & Mrs. Hydrangea

It is essentially a large rosary, usually beaded or made of satin, with two loops so that it can be placed around the bride…

So, as you may have noticed by now, I’m Indian and Mr. DD is not.

He’s German-and-Welsh-and-Scottish. Not Indian at all.

This somehow causes everyone we know to immediately imagine we’re going to have some sort of über-Indian wedding. I’m the bride, after all. Shouldn’t my childhood dream wedding win out?

As I mentioned earlier, my family is Ismaili Muslim. That means no mandap, no fire, and no…

Contrary to what some might believe, not all Indian weddings are the same.

When people ask about the wedding, I get questions about wearing red and walking around a fire. And this is in the Bay Area, where the Indian population just keeps growing.

For one thing, our wedding day won’t be very Indian. For another, I’m an Ismaili Muslim—Ismaili brides wear white on their wedding days,…

I’m not a stickler for etiquette by any means, but there’s a rule I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It’s the one where the mother of groom should wear something similar to the mother of the bride.

But what do you do when this isn’t an option?

My mom will be wearing a sari. A fancy sari.

When Mr. Joey and I were talking about the ceremony way back when, I asked him if he was interested in incorporating a few Filipino traditions into the regular Catholic ceremony. He was game for it and was excited to spice things up a little. We checked with our priest and he said as long as they were cultural, a few added elements to the ceremony…

We had so much fun at our raucous door games that no one — not even Hot Mama Cocoa, the keeper of time and traditions — paid attention to the clock. So by the time we collected ourselves and got back to bit’nez, it was past 2:30, the auspicious hour when the tea ceremony was supposed to begin.

Sorry, Chinese astrologer lady who set our schedule;…

Sometimes with wedding planning I become uneasy due to the cross Atlantic divide. There are certain cultural traditions that are different, and some are even flip-flopped. One of the expat bloggers I read frequently has been dealing with the processional. In the UK, the bride goes first, whereas in the US, the bride goes last. This poor blogger has been dealing with reactions from the…

(source)

I’m actually not referring to the usual frying and other kinds of pans, but rather, the steel drum, otherwise known as the steel pan. It’s an instrument that was created in the Caribbean in the 1930s on the island country of Trinidad & Tobago.

The steel drum is a descendant of the hand drum and is essentially a large oil drum container that has been dented…

In addition to wonderful ceremony traditions, some who want to bring African traditions into their weddings opt to wear ethnic-inspired attire. While I tend not to be too traditional in my view of what one should do for weddings, I do love the look of a traditional wedding dress. At the same time, I think it would be cool to rock an nontraditional dress/outfit like…

Why not incorporate culture and food right into the ceremony? Here’s a description of the tasting of the four elements:

In a ritual adapted from a Yoruba tradition, the bride and groom taste four flavors that represent different emotions within a relationship. The four flavors typically used are sour (lemon), bitter (vinegar), hot (cayenne), and sweet (honey). By tasting each of the flavors, the couple symbolically…

(source)

In my research, I came across the African libation ceremony, which honors ancestors. I love the idea of honoring the past, while looking forward to the future. Here is a brief description of the premise of the libation ceremony:

Many African-American couples incorporate a libation ceremony into their weddings as a way to honor their African ancestors. Holy water, or alcohol, is poured onto the ground…