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Parent Category: Europe

These days, Bulgarian couples often choose the traditional wedding ceremony rather than ordinary European-style wedding. They want to come back to their roots and find out more about their native culture. And Bulgarians are lucky because their folk weddings are really bright, cheerful, and magical. Another popular way of getting married in Bulgaria is the church wedding ceremony. But the most chic weddings combine both these ceremonies to make the event as flamboyant and festive as possible.

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Parent Category: Europe

Wedding fashion changes so rapidly that we sometimes can’t recognize the wedding clothing popular a decade ago, so it’s not surprising that garments worn by the bride and groom 100 or 200 years ago might seem weird. This item is one of such curious outerwear pieces. It is called “manta” and used to be worn by grooms in the 19th – early 20th century in Ukraine. Here you are a few detailed photos and some info about manta, odd but ornate and beautiful outer garment.

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Parent Category: Europe

Ukrainian brides used to wear wedding wreaths for their big day. This tradition existed for several hundred years. Today, women in Ukraine rarely wear wreaths for the wedding, so this wedding tradition has almost disappeared. But the local museums still have large collections of authentic bridal wreaths made from wax, yarn, artificial flowers (fresh flowers, of course, haven’t survived), wooden shavings, metal, feathers, foil, and other materials. And these headwear pieces can be striking – we look at them and understand why women wanted to wear them and considered them inspiring.

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Parent Category: Europe

In several Ukrainian regions, there was a certain wedding tradition – the bride’s family presented their most honored and respected wedding guests with a special gift. They gave small embroidered kerchiefs, which the wedding guests gladly took and stored in the most prominent place at home. These kerchiefs were a very important present, like a very special wedding favor given only to the selected people. But let’s have a look at some of the wedding kerchiefs. Aren’t they cute and bright?

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Parent Category: Europe

We are used to more familiar and common bridal headwear – veils, hats or caps, wreaths, tiaras, and so on, but this piece is unique and even exotic, you might say. Though, 100 or so years ago, brides in Ukraine often wore such headdresses to their wedding. If you look closer, you’ll see charming white doves hand-stitched on the fabric. Of course, they symbolize the couple, their pure and eternal love, and the new family (nest) they build together. It’s a wonderful wedding garment that was worn by some bride years ago and, today, is a part of a museum collection.

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Parent Category: Europe

Today, we have so many means of preserving our wedding photos and sentimental knickknacks from our happy day – all those wedding photo albums, bride boxes, framed photo collages, digital picture frames, etc. But how did our grandmothers and great grandmothers keep their favorite wedding items? This is a rare old wedding photo frame that belonged to an ordinary family from the Carpathian mountain region, not some fancy piece of a princess or baroness, made not from gold or silver, but handcrafted with so much love and care. It hung in the most honored corner of the house, perfectly complementing the simple wooden interior. And now, we see it in a museum.

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Parent Category: Europe

Armenian traditions dictate that a bride must be modest, virtuous, and shy, but womanly. And her wedding gown screams “chastity and femininity” at the same time. That’s why traditionally Armenian bridal dress had a tight-fitting upper part and floor-length bottom part. And, of course, the gown totally covered the woman’s body, only the neck and palms were left bare. No decolletage or bare back, no transparent fabrics, no mini skirts, no high slit dresses, and so on. Armenian folk wedding dress is a perfect example of how a bride can look virtuous and sexy all at once.

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Parent Category: Europe

The local brides and grooms in Ukraine wore beautiful folk costumes for their wedding 100 years ago. The wedding dress used to be colorful, multilayered, and richly decorated. Among the most important accessories, were ornate jewels and bridal wreaths. Here is a great collection of Ukrainian authentic wedding outfits and modern bride’s wreaths and necklaces. These costumes look striking and stand out from the crowd. And by the way, a lot of Ukrainian brides today return to traditions and use folk wedding clothing on their happy day.

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Parent Category: Europe

Scotland is one of those countries that value their traditions deeply, including wedding traditions. It is still vogue in Scotland to get married in kilts, dance folk cèilidh dances, choose centuries-old estate as a wedding venue, honor various good luck traditions and superstitions, etc. So, let’s find out a bit about the traditional Scottish wedding held in the 21st century. How do they reach a perfect balance mixing old-world and contemporary stuff?

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Parent Category: Europe

One of Ukrainian old wedding traditions is for the bride to wear a wedding wreath. Actually, a white wedding wreath made from wax beads was introduces into worldwide fashion by Queen Victoria in the mid-19th century in the UK. But in Ukraine, it was a part of the bridal outfit long before that. And the local brides wore not only delicate, pure white wreaths but large, brightly colored ones as well. Today, this tradition is not so popular and brides often choose white veils, hats, or other intricate headgear for their wedding, but wreaths made from fresh or artificial flowers are still used by a lot of women.