Relationships

Going to the chapel and I’m gonna get…an amazing cultural experience

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So it wasn’t what the Dixie Cups had in mind when the sang their perennial hit wedding song “Goin’ to the Chapel,” but with American weddings today, there’s a good chance many guests will be experiencing either religious or cultural traditions they’ve never seen before.

What a beautiful and wonderful thing! Weddings ( or something like them) are a universal ceremony around the world. You may not speak a language or know a religious tradition, but the special loving atmosphere at a wedding of any variety is unmistakeable.

A Parsee Wedding
Image via Wikipedia

In a world where there is so much fear of an amorphous “them,” could there be a better way to be introduced to new ideas, traditions and faiths than at such a joyous moment?

Go to the chapel. Go to the synagogue. Go to the mosque, the tent with the fire pit, the altar with a rainbow aisle runner. Go grow, learn and celebrate two people in love, who, above all else, are gonna get married.

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Unity candle? Candles in the centerpieces? Nope. Hint: cake, wishes, and little cone shaped hats

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So many celebrations the year before a wedding! Engagement shindig, showers, bachelor and ette, rehearsal dinner, boy that’s quite a calendar! what’s missing from that list? Hint: think cake, wishes and little pointy hats. Birthdays. Yours, your fiancé’s, your mother’s…don’t forget life’s regularly scheduled special events. Non wedding related celebrations keep your feet on the ground – and your spirits up when stress gets to you. Put on that pointy hat, and be the birthday girl, not the bride.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding part II: My Kid Sister’s Tiny Budget Greek Wedding

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Get Me To The Church On Time - Athens-Style
A couple on their way to a wedding in Athens. Courtesy of Flickr

As we hear all over the news, things are a little precarious in Greece at the moment.  So what does that have to do with us in the United States?  And why should it matter to brides planning a wedding?

As a drive down any formerly bustling Main Street will tell you, things are precarious for a great many people and businesses here too.  But for engaged folks, the desire to have a beautiful wedding lives on.  And while our celebrities mindlessly plan expensive celebrations that set the ‘ dream wedding ‘ bar abnormally high, couples create  detailed wedding budget spreadsheets to see if they can afford to have a wedding at all.

Here’s our message to any brides worried about the high costs of a wedding. More often than not, (and for sure in our case) vendors want to help you have your celebration.  We believe in weddings, and beauty and love, or we wouldn’t be involved in this crazy/wonderful business.  And without you – wedding vendors would, in fact, be out of business.  So bring us your budget; big, small or anywhere in between and we’ll let you know what your best bet is – even if we end up referring you on to a colleague.

I read this review recently of a stationery store that sneered at a young woman, assuming she wasn’t their type of client.  As I wrote a few weeks ago, we can’t assume anything – vendors about brides or vice versa – if we’re going to celebrate together. So, to quote Kool and the Gang, Celebrate, Come on!

-Dinah

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