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Most Romanians are very religious people, so many couples have traditional church wedding ceremonies, with all the must-have wedding rituals. We’ve gathered for you the top-10 true facts about Romanian religious marriage ceremonies. As always, the godparents play a significant role in the ceremony – they’re the second most important people at any wedding in Romania. But what else should you know about a Romanian church wedding?

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Traditionally, every Ukrainian bride had a dowry chest with her treasures. She gathered these things during all her youth, and before that, her mother gathered them practically from the moment of her daughter’s birth. Why did they need so many years to prepare the dowry? And what items did it include? In the 19th century, such dowry chests or hope chests were not just storage places but very important furniture. Why?

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At a Romanian wedding, the second most important couple aren’t the parents of the bride and groom but the godparents chosen by the marrying couple themselves. These married man and woman have plenty of responsibilities and participate in a number of wedding rituals. But they’re not the only ones with significant duties on the day of the wedding. The bridal party members help the bride and groom a lot and their support is important. But how do these people divide the responsibilities? Who does what at the wedding?

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Learning about different wedding superstitions around the world is fun. The superstitions tell us a lot about the culture of a certain country. For example, Romanians are happy to find a spider in the creases of a wedding dress because it’s for good luck – who else would be pleased with such a find?! And to see another bride on your wedding day is bad luck. There are many other interesting and surprising wedding superstitions in Romania.

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Albania has a lot of unique wedding traditions, many of them are truly adorable. For example, Albanians often involve little boys in different wedding rituals. Or they greet the bride with gunfire, which is very emotional and thrilling, if you ask me. Albania is a country that values and preserves its old traditions, so some of the customs you’ll read about in this article are centuries-old and performed with little change in the 21st century.

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Old Ukrainian tradition dictated for brides to wear a wedding wreath with their wedding attire. Such a headdress was an obligatory accessory worn with pride. During the wedding ceremony, a special wedding ritual was performed and a wreath was replaced by a kerchief that covered the bride’s hair. A wedding wreath was a ceremonial and meaningful headpiece and, despite being used for only one day, it had to be glorious – large, fancy, and eye-catching. The more imaginative you were with your wreath, the better. Here’s one of the many exquisite Ukrainian bridal wreaths – this rare item, remarkably, made from wooden shavings.

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Wedding outfits in the 19th century were rather sophisticated. Even today, a lot of grooms wear imitations of 19th-century dress suits, with their extravagant cravats, hats, walking sticks, and other lovely accessories. But not only universal Western-style groomswear was popular at the time. Instead, men often dressed in traditional clothing for their wedding. Here is an example of Swedish groom’s full set of wedding clothes from the early-mid 19th century. It looks both elegant and traditional.

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In Scotland, people can legally get married if the bride and groom are 16 or older. And the permission of parents isn’t needed, unlike in some other countries where young couples under 18 can’t be wed without official parents’ permission. But that’s by far not the only unique wedding custom in Scotland. So, what other peculiarities, traditions, and rituals does a Scottish wedding have? Let’s find out.

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Albanian bridal attire looks marvelous! It is so elegant and richly decorated with gold embroidery and lace – a truly regal attire. It’s no wonder modern Albanian brides often use traditional wedding ensembles for their wedding or for a less formal wedding reception or for the 2nd-3rd day of the wedding celebration. Every bride wants to show off her beauty and wealth in this costly and ornate outfit. In this post, we’ll share with you a few late-19th-century wedding ensembles of Albanian brides from museum collections.

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During Swedish, Finnish, Sami weddings, special wedding rituals were traditionally performed – the bride and groom drank from a single vessel, usually wooden and rather ornate, to celebrate their union. This ritual is at least several centuries old. To prove that, we can find these wedding cups in various Scandinavian museums. Today, the newlyweds drink champagne from delicate glass flutes, in the past, people used intricately-carved wooden cups. Like the one we’d like to show you below.