You may already be planning on taking some…creative license in borrowing ideas from friends, family members and Pinterest for your wedding, but those aren’t the only time-honored wedding traditions you can make your own. There is a host of regional traditions from around the country that have been making weddings more fun for years. If you want to step outside your bubble a bit, try incorporating one of these traditions from another region into your own wedding.
New Orleans Second Line Parade
New Orleans is famous for its jazz music from brass bands, and traditional Louisiana bands have a first line with main members and a second line with anyone inspired to join in and wave a handkerchief. These second lines are said to be symbolic of starting a new life, making them a great wedding tradition, and so many New Orleans wedding parties move from the ceremony to the reception in second line parades. No matter where you live, you can easily recreate this tradition by simply hiring a band and passing out napkins, parasols or handkerchiefs.
New Jersey and New York’s Viennese Hour
An Italian tradition, Venetian/Viennese Hours take place after dinner and involve a truly enormous assortment of desserts for guests to help themselves to. These can be as simple as cookies and brownies or be interactive, like a make-your-own-sundae bar. You can personalize your own Viennese Hour by adding your wedding colors to sundae toppings or pie/pastry fillings and frostings. You can even give it some local flair by including or focusing on regional delicacies.
Pittsburgh’s Cookie Tables
Pittsburgh is well-known for its biscotti, pizzelles and other treats from Italy, Greek and Eastern Europe, thanks to immigrants from those areas settling in Southwestern Pennsylvania in large numbers many years ago. Today, it’s so important for locals to have a table full of homemade cookies during their weddings, that it’s more forgivable to not have a cake than a cookie table! If you can’t manage to get that many cookies homemade, you can probably get away with having a family member bake one or two of their/your favorite cookie types and getting the rest from a bakery – unless you’re from Pittsburgh.
The South’s Groom’s Cake
In the South, grooms often get their own cake thanks to a tradition that traces its roots back to Victorian-era England. Back then, grooms ate their own dessert, which was typically a fruit cake with chocolate and alcohol that was far lighter than the bride’s cake. In the modern day South, grooms often still get their own cake, but these days it’s usually decorated with a theme based on their favorite hobby or sports team. Heck, you can even decorate it after his favorite movie, TV show or video game. Whatever he likes, your baker should be able to make it happen.
Wisconsin Bar Hopping
Eating and drinking are two of the biggest traditions at just about any wedding, and with the eating covered, let’s take a look at the drinking. Some Wisconsin wedding parties like to get it started ahead of the reception and add some bar hopping in between the ceremony and reception. Many will even rent limos or a party bus to ferry them back and forth. Don’t have time for all that? Consider having the bar serve a signature drink or two from one of your favorite watering holes during the cocktail hour.
The South’s Burying the Bourbon
Southern folklore has it that if a bottle of bourbon isn’t buried at a couple’s wedding venue one month before the ceremony to the day, then there’s a good chance of some serious rain on the big day. A fully sealed bottle is buried upside down as close as possible to the place where the vows will be taken. When the wedding day comes, it’s time for the wedding party to dig up the bottle and drink it down at the reception.
College Football Towns’ Game Days
In states and towns where college football is king, the debate between focusing on the wedding and focusing on the game is no debate at all. Weddings are traditionally never set on Saturdays during the season in these regions. Not only would doing so be an unheard of offense for fans, but it would also make booking a venue almost prohibitively expensive, as fans flock to the town for the game. If you and/or your fiancé or one or both of your families are big sports fans, it’s not required that you plan around game day, but it might be best if you want to avoid everyone checking their phones or crowding around the TV in the bar during the reception.
Cubic Zirconia Jewelry
One tradition that knows no regional boundary is saving money on high-quality engagement rings. Every girl wants a ring with a large rock that shines and reflects the light beautifully, and with Russian Formula cubic zirconia engagement rings, they’ll get just that – for a fraction of the price!