Wedding Ceremonies
Most wedding traditions were assimilated from other, generally European, countries. Marriages in the U.S. are typically arranged by the participants and ceremonies may either be religious or civil. There was a tradition that the prospective bridegroom ask his future father-in-law for his blessing. This tradition is rarely observed today. When it is the first wedding for the bride, a typical U.S. traditional wedding tends to be more elaborate. It is also tradition that the bride’s maid of honor plans a wedding shower prior to the wedding, where the bride-elect receives gifts from family and friends.
More traditional U.S. weddings take place in a religious setting. The bride and groom invite all their family and friends. There may be bridesmaids and groomsmen, who include the maid of honor and best man. Depending on the religion of the bride and groom, a religious leader (a priest, rabbi..etc.) conducts the ceremony. During the ceremony, the bride and groom vow their love and commitment for one another with either written vows they have prepared themselves, or with the traditional vows that the church gives them. Towards the end of the wedding ceremony it is often tradition for the religious leader to ask the congregation if they know of any reason why the man and woman should not be married. If no one objects, the couple then exchanges rings, which symbolizes their never-ending love and commitment towards one another. Finally, for the first time in public, the couple is pronounced husband and wife. It is then that they share their first kiss as a married couple and thus seal their union. For some weddings, as the couple begins to leave the church, family and friends throw rice or wheat their way, which symbolizes fertility. The average cost of a wedding in 2011 was $25,630.
After the actual wedding ceremony itself, there may be a wedding reception. During this reception it is tradition that the best man and the maid of honor proposes a toast. The couple may receive gifts. These gifts help the new couple to start their lives together. Lasting several days or weeks, the couple then usually goes on a honeymoon to celebrate their marriage.
Read more about this topic: Marriage In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words wedding and/or ceremonies:
“He holds him with his glittering eye—
The Wedding Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years’ child:
The Mariner hath his will.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“All ceremonies are in themselves very silly things; but yet, a man of the world should know them. They are the outworks of Manners and Decency, which would be too often broken in upon, if it were not for that defence, which keeps the enemy at a proper distance.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)