different weddings in different countries

Beulah

I think this country is moving further away from having too many traditions.

I've been to a wedding before where guests were asked to bring a buffet dish for the informal village hall reception, instead of any gifts. It actually turned out really nicely.

Kynthia

I've been to two weddings in Sweden but my cousins were born in England so I don't know how many Swedish traditions there are that they didn't incorporate. Even their partners weren't completely Swedish so there might have been some American and Polish traditions in there.

They had to fight to be allowed to have their father walk them down the ailse as it's considered misogynistic there. I think the bride and groom can see each other before the ceremony, they may even have some photos done. There were no round tables at the meal and anyone could give a speech. At one of them all the female guests had to kiss the groom! We did pay for our own drinks in the evening and still had a dj and evening buffet.

Beulah

Seeing the groom before for photos is quite an American thing, known as a First Look.

PolishBigSpender

Thanks, JBD, we all had fun

The wedding was only traditional in a sense of having plenty of food and drink. We gave most of the other traditions a miss, as my husband is not Polish and my family is not very traditional

I didn't have bridesmaids - we usually don't in Poland - and we were walking to the altar together, preceded by the priest, but I'm not sure if this is a Catholic or a Polish tradition.
We had some British things at the wedding too - my dad gave a speech and my husband was wearing a kilt (some strangers were staring at us when we left the church), we also had favours - my cousin made tiny angels in green dresses out of salt dough.