OUT WITH THE OLD: wedding traditions vs. weddings today

In a time when couples want their weddings to be unique and original, wedding traditions are being replaced for more personalized aspects. But if traditions are falling by the wayside, what are brides and grooms doing to personalize their weddings and modernize some of the outdated traditions?

We turned to brides in The Wedding Ring community to find out what traditions are disappearing and what’s taking their place. Here’s what we found…

The wedding party has certainly changed and, with some people, decreased in size. Sherryl, among many others, is only having a maid of honour and best man, whereas viczan is having two maids of honour instead of just one. Many people no longer have flower girls or ring bearers involved, but moogie7 and her fiancé are having their two dogs instead of children.

LindaL’s children stood up for her and were the ones giving her away; and her six year old grandson walked her down the aisle since she and her FH skipped out on having attendants. marriedlady isn’t having her dad give her away, as she says, “I’m not property that will be passed from one man to another! Instead, my family will line the aisle and I will walk from one to another collecting my bouquet as I go; this will symbolize that I’m making this decision on my own, but my family is there supporting me.” Similarly, EngagedTeacher’s husband walked down the aisle with his parents and she walked down with hers to symbolize a unity of the families.

forever.yours, along with several others, didn’t have her ceremony in a church. In fact, a common theme we noticed is that many brides are choosing to have their ceremony outside or want an all-in-one location so they don’t have to worry about transportation. Others, like marriedlady and Alayne are either borrowing a friend’s car or having a friend drive them instead of renting a limo. “Instead of a limo, or even horse and buggy, we are having a tractor with a trailer out the back that has benches as our transportation for photography,” says hemakesmesmile.

monica+ryan is playing music with words as she walks down the aisle, something that never used to be allowed in church ceremonies. LindaL also skipped the wedding march and personalized the processional music with an instrumental version of the first dance song, which she and her husband wrote for the wedding. shawnhood is walking down the aisle to “Chantilly Lace” and, instead of a unity candle, is having a sand ceremony – another popular new tradition. ldanielczak had Celtic music played by a harpist during the ceremony processional and used hand fasting rather than the traditional declaration of intent.
 
The receiving line is another tradition that modern brides are replacing with their own ideas. paulzbride briefly greeted guests at the church and a_pez4 planned to mingle with guests before the reception since her photos were being taken before the ceremony.

When it comes to the reception, couples are exchanging traditional guest books with signing mats and getting rid of the three-tiered cakes and engraved cutting utensils. stephanie21 had a smaller cupcake tower instead of a traditional cake topped with Mario and Princess Peach. marriedlady’s cake was a Scandinavian cake made out of marzipan. amy&ajay’s non-traditional cake was Mad Hatter-themed and they had a video guest book instead of having people sign something. Alayne had both a traditional cake and korowai wedding bread (Ukraine wedding cake).

ldanielczak used pictures of the wedding guests on cardstock for them to sign instead of a guest book. EngagedTeacher had a scrapbook that she kept throughout the engagement and wedding planning process so she put a page of it out for guests to sign. Shawnhood is using a signing plate instead of a guest book.

Amanda&Mark doesn’t have a white wedding dress, and neither does quirkycori or shawnhood, another popular trend, along with non-traditional footwear. Quirkycori and her groom are both wearing brown sneakers, shawnhood plans to wear white fancy cowboy boots and a_pez4’s shoes are green. Not to mention, veils have almost completely become an accessory of the past. Katrina just plans to put a fresh flower in her hair.

marriedlady says she cut out some traditions because they weren’t her style and because she lives far away from her family and where she’s getting married. “The wedding is going to be a reflection of who we are as a couple as much as possible,” she says. princess12 agrees with that notion and says she “really likes the idea of marrying (pun intended!) old traditions and creating your own.”

Aphrael sums up the shift away from wedding traditions nicely when she says, “in the end, traditional or not, [the wedding is] still going to be memorable because you did what made it special for you.” ■

Story by Staff & Brides in The Ring

*PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPTIVATING IMAGES