Latin American countries have a lot of unique traditions, including wedding traditions. People are so very religious here and they prefer a church marriage ceremony. But it doesn’t mean at all that weddings are orthodox and old-fashioned in Latin America. The locals know how to balance modesty and cheerfulness, tradition and romance. The delicate wedding lasso rosaries put around the bride and groom confirm that. Though in recent years, many couples choose a Western-style wedding, there are still newlyweds who go traditional.
In Mexico, a wedding is a very important event held in the form of a religious ceremony, as Mexicans are rather religious people. Mexican brides traditionally have 2 wedding bouquets – one is left at the altar as an offering to the Virgin Marry during the church marriage ceremony and the other is used as an ordinary wedding bouquet.
Another popular Latin American wedding ritual includes 13 coins (originally, it’s Jesus and his 12 apostles, so we can easily see the religious influence again). These 13 coins are given to the bride by her groom as a present and they symbolize financial wellbeing, trust, and faith.
There is also a ritual during which the couple is bounded with a special wedding lasso rosary or garland. It is delicate, made from flowers, and the whole performance looks fantastic and so romantic. The garland symbolizes the unity between the bride and groom before god. Usually, this rosary comes in during the church wedding ceremony. It’s used in several Latin American countries, especially in Guatemala.
Some Latin American countries pay a lot of attention to the bridal attire of the couple. For instance, in Mexico, brides often use a traditional gown for their wedding, with plenty of embroidery, flounces, and other typical Mexican adornments. But in recent years, many future newlyweds want a more ordinary, Western-style wedding and a contemporary white dress as a bridal gown.
One more popular and really useful tradition is the money dance. It’s when the wedding guests pay for a dance with either the bride or the groom. There are many variations: sometimes they pin the bills to the couple’s clothing or they put a dollar (or more) for each dance in a piggy bank or in other forms. Anyway, the couple gets extra money for their honeymoon or to pay for their future house or just to help them cope with the wedding expenses.
In general, there is a large number of wedding traditions typically seen in Latin American countries because people here are fond of tradition and marriage is taken seriously here. And very often, not just one but several wedding rituals are used by the couples. We’ve mentioned only a few of them, so please feel free to tell us in the comments which popular wedding traditions you know and would like to incorporate in your wedding ceremony.
