Navigation
  • Home
  • Recent
  • Most Active
  • Popular
  • Blog
  • Credits
  • RSS
  •   Interaction
  • Register
  • Statistics
  •   Help
  • Suggestions
  • Contact Us
  • How to Edit
  • Help



  • [Edit]












    A wedding is a civil or religious ceremony which celebrates the beginning of a marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. In some countries, cultures and religions, the actual act of marriage begins during the wedding ceremony. In others, the legal act of marriage occurs at the time of signing a marriage license or other legal document, and the wedding is then an opportunity to perform a traditional ceremony and celebrate with friends and family.


        Wedding
            Types
            Customs
            Clothing
                Western weddings
                African weddings
            See also
                Related events and social processes
                Wedding traditions
                Participants
                Related travel
                Other

    top

    Types
    A double wedding is a single ceremony where two fiancee couples rendezvous for two separate weddings. Typically, a fiancee with a sibling might plan a double wedding with that sibling

    A destination wedding is any wedding in which the engaged couple and/or a majority of their guests travel to attend the ceremony. Whether this happens for an intimate beach ceremony in the Caribbean, extravagant nuptials in Las Vegas or for a simple ceremony in someone's back yard, chances are it qualifies as a destination wedding.

    A white wedding is a formal or semi-formal wedding in British, Ireland and American, as well as Commonwealth, traditions.

    A military wedding is a ceremony conducted in a military chapel.

    An online wedding is a wedding that is either conducted on the internet, or is an event that resembles a standard wedding when two people who wish their avatars, or characters, to be married.

    A same-sex wedding is a ceremony in which two people of the same gender are married. This may be an official and legally recognized event, or (in places that to do not allow same-sex marriage) it may simply be an opportunity to make the same pledges and have the same celebration with friends and family as at a traditional wedding.


    A civil wedding is a ceremony presided over by a local civil authority, such as an elected or appointed judge, justice of the peace or the mayor of a locallity.
    Civil wedding ceremonies can use references to God, but no references to a particular religion or denomination. They can be either elaborate or simple. Many civil wedding ceremonies take place in local town or city halls or courthouses in judge's chambers.

    top

    Customs

    Wedding ceremonies may contain any number of different elements, however most contain wedding vows of some kind and a proclamation of marriage, usually by the officiant. Most weddings also involve wearing the traditional clothes of the culture in which the couple is wedding. A wedding is often followed or accompanied by a wedding reception.

    Other elements may include music, poetry, prayer, scripture, or other traditions. In most societies a number of traditions or customs have emerged around the wedding ceremony, many of which have lost their original symbolic meaning in the modern world. Other wedding traditions are relatively recent. Some elements of the Western heterosexual wedding ceremony symbolize the bride's departure from her father's control and entry into a new family with her husband. In modern Western weddings, this symbolism is largely vestigial, since husband and wife are of equal power and status. In some cultures, same-sex weddings are celebrated.

    A wedding's particular customs may be varied, mixed, or invented to suit the personalities, interests, and cultural backgrounds of the couple. Such hybrid ceremonies are more common when performed by Civil Celebrants, as in Australia, the United States and Canada.

    top

    Clothing
    Different wedding traditions call for different wedding outfits:
      Kimono, the traditional garments of Japan
      Ao dai, traditional garments of Vietnam
      Topor, a type of conical headgear traditionally worn by grooms as part of the Bengali Hindu wedding ceremony
      Tuxedo
        Black tie, indicating dinner jacket in the UK
        White tie, indicating evening dress in the UK
      Sherwani, a long coat-like garment worn in South Asia

    top

    Western weddings
    Music often played at western weddings includes a processional song for walking down the aisle and reception dance music. More at wedding music.

    top

    African weddings
    Traditional music throughout Africa is almost always functional; in other words, it is performed to mark a ritual such as a wedding. Because Africa is a continent with a wide range of ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity, the music of Africa varies widely.

    top

    See also


    top

    Related events and social processes

    top

    Wedding traditions


    top

    Participants



    top

    Related travel
      Wedding trip (traveling to meet a bride or groom in an arranged marriage)

    top

    Other




     
    Search more:
     

       
    Source Privacy License Download Contact Us Atlas
    Scientus.org Dictionary (Yet Another Wiki) RC : 1.39
    MIT OpenCourseWare
    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License [copyleft]. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wedding". link