I always explain that there are lots of ways to make your wedding fancy, special or even unique without spending a lot of money.  I’m not sure I would like our wedding to be remembered as the wedding where they said Dr. Seuss vows, but this is certainly a creative idea.   Happy Friday everyone!

One of my favorite features here is the wedding customs and traditions from around the world. And your Wedding Diva brings you the first wedding customs and traditions from around the world feature for this year. The country I am about to feature is not new to us. In fact, this country has a long standing history with the US. The country I am talking about is, Vietnam.

In the olden days, the bride and the groom were chosen by a matchmaker that the family hired. The bride and the groom were chosen for each other to keep the upper society intermixed and keep the poor out of the rich people’s family line. These days, couples are allowed to choose who they want to marry, but they will still need to ask approval from both their families. A wedding planner is going to have a hard time in Vietnam since wedding preparations are decided upon by the entire family – on both sides – which sometimes makes wedding planning such a Herculean task.

The traditional Vietnamese wedding has six stages and they are as follows:

Nap Thai – This is a brief but formal meeting between the families of the couple. The groom’s family visits the bride’s family to ask for the marriage to be accepted. As a symbol of the groom’s sincerity, he must present betel leaves and betel nuts – which represent a bond of marriage which cannot be broken – to the bride during this initial meeting.

Van Danh – At this point, the couple hasn’t received the blessing of the bride’s parents yet. This is the time for both families to know each other more intimately.

Nap Cat – This is the time where the groom’s family presents the wedding plans to the bride’s family. This is also the time where the bride’s parents decides if they will accept the plans presented and if they will give their daughter’s hand in marriage.

Thinh Ky – This is the time where the bride’s family makes a formal announcement to the groom’s family if they are going to give their daughter’s hand in marriage — or if they will refuse the proposal.

Nap Te – If all things go well and the bride’s family accepts the proposal, this is the time where the bride’s family announces the necessary things for the bride to have at the wedding. This is also the time for them to appoint a date and time when the groom’s family may bring them gifts.

Than Nghenh – Here, the wedding rituals are performed before the ancestral altars. Traditionally, this ritual is held at the groom’s house. They ask the tutelary god of marriage, the old man in the moon, to bless and protect the couple. Three little cups are filled with rice wine and the elder who leads the ceremony bows before the altar and takes a sip form one of the cups. Then he passes it on to the couple where they would do the same. The groom will then take a piece of ginger and rubs it in salt. The couple will then eat a piece of the ginger to signify their long and lasting love. After this, the couple are now ready to exchange wedding rings. This is the time the couple officially become husband and wife.

Breaking any of these stages was believed to be disastrous for the families in the olden days. In modern times, only 3 out of the six stages are deemed necessary. These include Nap Thai, Van Danh, and Than Nghenh.

So there you go, the wedding customs and traditions in Vietnam. Next week, tune in for more wedding blogs about wedding savings and how to have an inexpensive wedding. We have lots of things in store for you this year. Just keep visiting our site and enjoy planning your wedding. Toodles.

More Wedding Tradition Information:

Ranked first in the Happy Planet index and rated the greenest country in the world, Costa Rica literally translates as “Rich Coast.” It is a small country found between Panama and Nicaragua. It boasts of beautiful beaches and of being a tropical paradise.

The majority of the “ticos,” which is how the people from Costa Rica call themselves, are Roman Catholic, which is the official state religion. They are also very family-oriented and almost everyone in the family from both sides is invited to the wedding. As you can see, wedding savings probably can’t be applied in this cultural setting.

Another Costa Rican tradition – which some other cultures may find weird – has the bride wearing a black silk wedding dress with a veil. Many may think that this is more appropriately worn by a widow rather than a bride. The groom, on the other hand, wears a white shirt which has been hand-embroidered by his future wife. This shows that the bride already shows her devotion to her future husband, though modern women would rather buy ready-to-wear machine embroidered shirts. Most likely the result of traditional embroidery skills haven’t been passed down the generations or simply because the bride has no time to do it herself.

There is also a traditional exchange of 13 gold coins during the wedding ceremony. These coins are placed in a bag, box, or tray. This will be given to the bride by the groom. It symbolizes the groom’s willingness to be the head of the family and support his bride. The coins are carried by the bride and are going to be blessed by a priest. The 13 coins also have religious symbolism connected to them. They symbolize Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles.

Another wedding tradition of the Costa Ricans or Ticos is that the wedding celebration is accompanied by lively Spanish music, since these people love dancing to live music. And the party usually ends up running late into the night.

Food at the wedding reception of a Costa Rican wedding is usually plentiful. The more potions of food they have, the more respect they give to their guests. As you can see, Costa Ricans are not into inexpensive weddings. The usual dishes you will see on a Costa Rican wedding table are the casados, a meal consisting of mixed rice and beans (gallo pinto); fried plantains, salad, tortillas, eggs, and an entree of choice that may include pork, chicken, beef, and others.

Obviously, a typical Costa Rican wedding is quite festive and wedding savings is not an option. Nevertheless, I hope you like our featured wedding blog for the day. Have a great week ahead of you and plan your wedding well!

Let’s take a glimpse at a traditional Malaysian wedding. It’s really quite different from what we are used to. Here, you will see the different wedding outfits, the wedding parade, and the customs and traditions of a Malaysian nuptial. It’s beautiful and really different.

Before the wedding footage, you will also see a nice wedding gift from the friends of the groom and bride. It’s a cute animation of the couple’s love story. Click the video and fall in love all over again.

Helloooooooooh… you fabulous, fabulous people! Your wedding diva is back and I’m here to talk to you about Scandinavian wedding customs, particularly from Denmark. I’ll be discussing what happens in a Danish wedding and we will leave wedding savings and inexpensive weddings for another day.

Now, in traditional Danish weddings, it is customary for them to place or build an arc of pine branches in front of the bride’s family home. This is called the “Gate of Honor”. It is customary for the couple to walk through the arc (gate of honor) on the way to the ceremony. When the couple reach and celebrate their silver wedding anniversary, another Gate of Honor would be built.

Wedding receptions in Denmark are quite different from what we are accustomed to. At some point during the celebration, the groom will leave the room and all the male guests will kiss the bride. When the groom returns it would be the bride’s turn to disappear or leave the room and all the female guests will kiss the groom. I really don’t know the point of the groom and bride leaving the room when one of them is being kissed. Maybe Danes are a jealous people? Who knows. But I think it’s quite a lovely, unique tradition if you ask me.

The customary wedding cake in Denmark is the Danish marzipan ring cake (shaped like cornucopia), also known as Kransekake. This particular cake is made with almonds, pastilage, and marzipan (fondant). The outer part of the cake is beautifully decorated by sugar works, while the inside of the cake is filled with fresh fruits, candies, and almond pastry. It is a must that the guests eat the piece of cake cut by the bride and the groom as a married couple to avoid bad luck.

Danish people have this lovely tradition that the bride’s bouquet would be placed on the grave of a deceased parent. That said, don’t be surprised if you also see wedding parties in the cemetery!

And finally, instead of ribbons, Danish people use a string of Danish flags on their wedding car. It seems that Danes have this obsession with their flag. Maybe it just shows how patriotic the Danish are.
I hope you enjoyed today’s topic and please, enjoy your weekend. Toodles!

Hello beautiful fabulous people. Today I’m going to feature yet another wedding custom from another corner of the world. Last time, if I recall, I featured a Japanese wedding’s customs and traditions. Today, I’m going to link you to a site where you can learn Persian wedding customs and traditions.

I’m also adding a video of a beautiful Persian couple’s lovely wedding. Even though I didn’t understand the song being played, I felt the love behind it. It was beautiful and romantic. Hope you will enjoy learning something about Persian weddings. Have a fabulous weekend. Toodles!

Top of the morning to you dahlen. This is Richard, your flambouyant wedding diva. I’m feeling weird today, my awful cold is prolly making me feel… less than fabulous. And speaking of weird things. I’d like to link you to a site which I came across last night. It’s quite interesting and is an article about some bizarre wedding customs from around the world.

No, this article won’t give you any wedding savings or lead to having an inexpensive wedding. Nope, not at all. But, you’ll be educated at least. So, enjoy reading this article and stay healthy. Hmm… I think I need to go back to bed and take my medicine. Toodles!