A Scottish engagement used to begin with reading the banns, an announcement made three weeks in a row by the vicar in the bride’s parish and the groom’s parish, simply saying that these two intend to wed.  This is no longer a legal requirement in Scotland, but it is often done for church weddings.

One lovely Scottish custom is the wearing of white heather. Purple heather grows wild all over the Scottish hills, but white is more unusual. Wearing a sprig of white heather is said to bring harmony and happiness to the marriage. It’s a lovely tradition to add to your own wedding, especially against a Scottish blue wedding gown.

If you’re a guest at a wedding, consider giving the newlyweds a pot of white heather for the same good fortune. In Scotland, this is kept just outside the door, where the couple will see it grow.

Modern Scottish couples exchange rings, but this hasn’t always been the case. Reformers of the Scottish Reformation forbade the exchanging of wedding rings, considering it to be a Papist tradition, but the custom later came back.

Depending on the Scottish bride’s financial situation, the wedding is either a “penny wedding,” which is a potluck supper, or a “free wedding,” financed by the bride’s father. Drinking toasts to the bride and groom, to their health and future happiness, is a big part of the wedding reception. Why not add a Gaelic toast or blessing to your wedding?

After the drinking, dancing and socializing of the reception, the Scottish groom brings his bride home, and lifts her over the threshold. This isn’t unique to Scotland, of course, but it is a sweet tradition in any wedding

Many couples are now choosing a signature cocktail for their wedding reception. Signature cocktails are usually built around the wedding’s look. Try a twist on a margarita for a beach wedding, or a martini for a glamorous country-club wedding. Other brides match their wedding colors in their signature cocktail. These signature cocktails are a lovely way to have your wedding colors and theme in every aspect of your big day!

Talk to your caterer about creating a special drink for your big day, or play bartender with your fiancé as you concoct your special drink. Once you’ve found a tasty and gorgeous cocktail, think about how you’ll serve the drink. What kind of glasses and garnish will you use? This can be another chance to add your wedding theme into the finishing touches.

You can name your signature drink after the place he proposed, or something else special to the two of you. Then, create cards with the recipe for your signature drink, and incorporate them into your favors, or just allow guests to pick up a card on their way out. And, for a really romantic touch, you and your new spouse can have your wedding cocktail again on your first anniversary!

Before the wedding, the families of the bride and groom announce the wedding by giving out “Double Happiness Cakes” and wedding invitations. “Double Happiness Cakes” are small cakes with lucky words written on top, and tasty filling inside. Chinese wedding invitations are red, since red is the color of celebration in China. Why not try red for your own wedding invitations?

The two families decorate the couple’s new home and the wedding reception site, with lots of red and lots of lucky characters. Traditional weddings will have hand-painted calligraphy banners, each with a line or two of love poetry. Chinese brides usually wear a red silk qipao, although white Western dresses are popular for studio wedding photos.

Modern Chinese couples often do the civil ceremony days or even weeks before the wedding celebration, since it’s not always possible to complete the paperwork side of things on an auspicious wedding day.  The Chinese don’t traditionally exchange wedding rings, but like many other Western trends, this is becoming popular among young couples.

At the wedding reception, the bridal couple is served underdone dumplings. The bride and groom say something like “We find it undercooked” or “Today it’s undercooked”, because in Mandarin, undercooked and fertile have the same sound. This way, the couple alludes to their future fertility without being so boastful as to ask for fertility directly.

After the wedding, the bride travels to her new home amid the sounds of firecrackers, gongs and good-luck shouts. Your venue might not be so pleased when you suggest lighting fireworks at the wedding, but why not add some good luck Mandarin characters to your wedding décor? Consider the character for double happiness, or fu for good fortune.

A traditional German wedding lasts for three days of celebration. The wedding festivities start on Thursday, when the couple gathers with family and few close friends for the civil ceremony.

On Friday, the real wedding fun starts with a wedding-eve party called a “Polterabend”. Friends and family join the couple to wish them well… and to smash plates and cups! Breaking china on the wedding eve is good luck, because it ensures that the couple’s household won’t break up after the wedding. Thinking about adding this to your rehearsal dinner? Remember that the traditional German bride and groom are the ones to clean up the shattered mess!

The Saturday celebration is the actual religious wedding ceremony. During the ceremony, a German groom often kneels on the bride’s dress during the wedding blessing to show everyone that he’s the boss of the new family. Then the bride steps on the groom’s shoe to remind him that, no, he isn’t.

 German brides often carry short pieces of white ribbon with their bouquet. After the ceremony, she hands these out to guests, who tie them to their car antennae.  Then the entire wedding group progresses from the church to the reception site, with white ribbons flying and drivers honking. Why not copy German brides, and hand out bridal ribbons in your receiving line?

Sawing a log is a post-wedding custom in some German villages. After the wedding ceremony, the couple saws a thick pine log together, to symbolize that they can get through adversity by working together. There are all sorts of superstitions that say how the log is cut shows how the bride and groom will handle joint decisions during their married lives. And wouldn’t that be an unusual wedding photo?

Another custom is making mischief for the bride and groom’s wedding night. The traditional joke is to take apart the couple’s bed! But modern versions involve hiding the champagne, or the champagne flutes, short-sheeting the bridal bed or hiding the groom’s car keys.

Finally, Germans couples both wear their wedding bands on their right hands. 

Don’t forget about our recent post on Scandinavian wedding customs for more ideas to make to your wedding unique!

There are many beautiful and unusual wedding traditions from around the world. You can incorporate different traditions to reflect your heritage, or just add a charming wedding tradition to a typical American wedding. Here are some special wedding customs from Scandinavia.

A traditional Scandinavian engagement may a few years, something to remember at your engagement party, when friends and family ask you for a wedding date! It’s believed that a longer engagement will allow the couple to get to know each other, and their families, and create a more successful marriage. And for practical brides, it allows more time to save for the wedding.

In Finland, brides have a twist on throwing the bouquet. Finnish brides often wear a golden crown in their wedding ceremonies. At the reception, the bride will be blindfolded and spun around while the unmarried girls circle around her. The blindfolded bride tries to crown one of the unmarried guests, and the guest who’s been crowned will be the next one to marry!

A traditional Norwegian bride might wear a silver crown, decorated with musical silver charms. The sound of these charms should bring good luck to the newlyweds, and prevent evil forces from causing conflict in their marriage. Either a gold or a silver crown could be a lovely choice for an American bride looking for an alternative to the traditional veil.

Did you know that Swedish wives often wear three rings? Swedish brides-to-be first receive an engagement ring, just as we do. During the wedding ceremony, though, the groom will give the bride two rings, a wedding ring and a third ring to represent motherhood. This is a sweet way to represent your plans of starting a family on your wedding day.

Your wedding (and marriage) is a life-changing event, and most brides find that their emotions are very complex on their big day. You can be excited that your long-awaited wedding is finally here, pleased to see out-of-town guests, serene about your future husband and still feel anxious about wedding day logistics. And you may feel everything all at once! Expect that you’ll have a least a few moments where you feel a bit overwhelmed!

It may sound odd to plan on being overwhelmed when you think about your wedding day, but having realistic expectations will help you deal with whatever stress does come up. Don’t worry about little hitches on your big day, these are usually only noticeable to the bride and groom! Expecting a fairy-tale wedding can make any little annoyances seem monstrous.

Realistically assess how you deal with stress. How do you handle a stressful event at work, for example? Go ahead and cry if you get weepy under stress. If you find yourself forgetting items when you’re under pressure, or just stressing over the possibility that you might forget something important, make a list and share it with a trusted bridesmaid.  Don’t forget to leave a little time as you get ready for the ceremony to drink a cup of coffee or whatever kind of break will relax you.

Make concrete plans for any possible issues, and then celebrate your marriage! 

Are you trying to keep wedding costs down? You don’t have to give up everything you’ve dreamed about when you try to stick to a budget. You can save some money on your wedding by doing more of the preparations yourself.

Enlist your talented friends to help you. Do you know someone who’s a baker? A musician? A seamstress? Ask your friends to help you get ready for your big day. They’ll probably be thrilled you asked. Making a special gift like a wedding cake or a wedding gown, or even just doing the alterations as a gift, is much more personal that just writing a check on your wedding day. Be sure to treat everyone who offers their skills for your wedding celebration like a valued friend and not just a wedding vendor, even when wedding stress creeps in.

Even without special skills, your friends and family members can help you make centerpieces or name cards. Getting supplies at a crafts store can be much cheaper than buying centerpieces or favors from a catalog. Call up a few artistic friends, open a bottle of wine, and have a crafts night! You can have a great time working on your wedding preparations and chatting with your friends.

Brides can also save a little bit by picking up the flowers and cake, instead of having everything delivered. So if you’ve got the time (or, if you’ve got a relative to send out of the way!) save the money on delivery.

Of course, you shouldn’t make yourself crazy to save a few bucks! Remember how much your time is worth. If you’re going to stay up all night tying tiny bows or hand-stenciling a hundred vases, it’s not really a savings at all!

Many brides and grooms these days are considering having a green wedding, or at least making some choices to reduce the environmental impact of their big day.  Thankfully, this doesn’t mean wearing a green dress!

Some easy suggestions that don’t take much effort are:

Look for local products when planning your big day. Try to serve locally grown food, local, in-season flowers or even local wine, if you’re lucky enough to live in a wine area. Locally grown produce is an eco-friendly option because it requires less fuel to transport. As a bonus, when you buy local, your wedding dollars are helping your neighbors’ businesses.

You don’t have to wear a secondhand dress, or have dowdy decorations, but there is a lot of waste in wedding receptions. Don’t buy a hundred new candle holders or three dozen new vases to use one time at your reception. Instead, borrow them from another bride after her wedding. Or donate them when you are done so they can be re-used.

Plan ahead and look for ways to get a second use out of your wedding items. This means bridesmaid dresses that really can be worn again! Use potted plants instead of cut flowers to decorate the church or reception hall. Bulbs like narcissus or hyacinths are perfect for a spring wedding. Then you or your guests can plant them and think of your special day every time they bloom.  You can also incorporate the green theme into your favors by giving packets of flower seeds with your names and the date.

When you start to plan your big day, ask yourself this question: “How am I  going to go green at my wedding?”

It looks like brides in 2009 are moving away from soft pastels. Jewel tones, steel grey and even surprising black accents are in for this year’s weddings. Jewel tones, like emerald green, deep navy, and plum, are growing in popularity. These bright colors are showing up in wedding palettes and inspiration boards all over. Incorporating jewel tones might mean adding a hint of navy to a traditional white dress for your “something blue,”  or using rich, bright colors for your invitations. You might try bold tablerunners for a splash of bright color at a formal affair, or go all-out with bright bouquets and jewel-colored bridesmaid dresses.

It seems that black accents, which had a burst of popularity in the summer of 2007, will be back too. Try black and white for a sophisticated reception look, or mix black with another color, like a bold jewel tone or the popular steel gray. Daring brides are even wearing black and white gowns.

Will the trend last? Bright jewel tones just look so festive and cheerful, perfect for a wedding celebration. Black accents, done tastefully, can be beautiful in a reception space, but usually I have to agree with the etiquette mavens who say black is inappropriate for a wedding dress!

Guest books are great ideas.  They give your guests a chance to wish  you well even if they only get a moment to see you during the reception. They also give you a chance to sit back and enjoy their comments and relive some of your wedding day.  

These days, there are lost of choices when it comes to guest books.  One of the freshest looks we’ve seen is a coffee-table style book with engagement and other photos of the bride and groom scattered throughout the book.  You can include vacation photos, baby pictures, and just about any image you have that you want to keep in a memory form.  We here at The Wedding Bureau are enjoying doing these books for couples.  They make an excellent memory keeper and are going to be interesting to look at for years to come.

The other nice thing about these books is they aren’t pricey.  We’ve seen some traditional guest books that run into the hundreds of dollars.  Depending on the size, you can get a fun guest book that starts at $75.

Ask your wedding photographer if he or she offers this style.  If not, give us a call.  We’ll create the book for you no matter who you hired to be your wedding photographer.