Wedding Ideas

By: Cindy English

If you are considering a beach wedding, the ideas are as endless as your imagination!

One thing about choosing a beach wedding theme is that it allows you total creative freedom. Depending on the time of day, the beach can set the mood. At sunrise or sunset, it is a place of serenity, beauty and romance. Mid-day, it is the hub of excitement, activity, and fun. By nature, a beautiful scene has already been set for you. There is no need for many decorations! Are you planning an intimate wedding with just a few guests? Let the beach help you set the stage for your romantic wedding ideas with a dawn or dusk seaside ceremony. The sunrise or sunset will provide a spectacular background for your wedding photos.

On the other hand, if you want to “tell the world” and have a large gathering of people, consider a mid-summer day “beach-side bash” or fantasy beach wedding that includes your guests. That’s the fun part of a beach wedding - your guests can participate. Everyone has fun!

Here are a few ideas to get you started…

* Be Cinderella with your Prince Charming. Have him place the “glass slipper” that fits on your foot as a symbol of your perfect union. You could hire a professional sand sculptor to build a beautiful sand castle as a background for your fairytale theme. Leave in a horse drawn carriage.

* Have a Pirate Wedding. Rent costumes and decorate with treasure chests fake gold coins and jewelry. Have a real treasure hunt. When you leave, sail off into the sunset.

* How about an “I Dream of Jeannie” beach wedding theme? Decorate with pretty, colorful bottles in the sand like the one she was found in. At the end of the day, disappear in a cloud of smoke!

* A Western beach wedding theme would be fun! Many beaches allow horseback riding. The reception could be a good old fashioned fireside “camp out” under the stars. Leave on horseback.

* Have a Rainbow Wedding. Create a rainbow to wed under out of brightly colored helium filled balloons tied together. Hold them down with the “pots of gold” at each end. Have everyone bring a colored umbrella to decorate the aisle with. Great back plan up in case it rains!

* Butterfly weddings are popular. Shades of yellow and orange with butterflies woven amongst the flowers in your tiara and bouquet would be beautiful. Use butterflies as boutonnieres for the guys.

* A Surfing theme would be neat. Of course surf boards and “The Beach Boys” come to mind here!

By the way…

Don’t rule out you beach wedding ideas because you don’t live near an ocean. The definition of a “beach” is - “the shore of a body of water, especially if sandy or pebbly”. That includes lakes and rivers. For that matter, you may have a “beach” right by your swimming pool. There are no rules. Be creative!

It is your beach wedding…it can be anything you want it to be - wherever you want it to be! Most of all…have fun!

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Cindy English is the publisher of:
http://www.Beach-Wedding-Themes.com
Beach wedding themes full of fun, fantasy and romance!

http://www.All-Florida-Beach-Weddings.com
Plan your wedding celebration in Paradise!

Copyright 2005 by Cindy English

By: Emmanuel Mendonca

The wedding service in the Greek Orthodox faith is an ancient and beautiful ceremony, which has been celebrated in its current form for centuries. The wedding ceremony is full of symbolism and is a great experience if you have never attended one before, because it is likely to be quite different from other weddings you have attended in Western Europe. The service is also rather unique because the bride and groom do not make vows to each other their presence together in the church is taken to mean that they are serious about getting married. There are no wedding rehearsals and the ceremony usually has a very relaxed atmosphere - guests take photos whenever they want to and often chat quietly among themselves throughout the ceremony.

The Beginning of the Wedding

In most cases the wedding guests will wait with the groom outside the church until the bride arrives (a few sneaky wedding pros will go into the church early to secure a good seat). In the Summer, when most weddings take place, it is not unusual for ceremonies to be arranged back to back, so the guests attending a marriage will often stand around with those who have just attended the previous wedding are ready to leave. Wedding dress commentators among the crowd will get to consider and discuss at least two brides and maybe even a third as they leave the church bargain! Meanwhile, the groom waits for the bride at the entrance to the church, often holding her floral bouquet. He hands it to her as they meet and they then go inside together followed by the guests. There is no separation of the guests into guests of the bride and guests of the groom everyone sits together and in the case of small churches, many people prefer to stand in a spot where they can get a good view of the proceedings.

Service of Betrothal

The wedding ceremony itself is in two parts: the Service of Betrothal and the Ceremony of the Sacrament of Marriage. The exchanging of rings is the focus of the Service of Betrothal. The priest blesses the rings by holding them in his right hand and making the sign of the cross over the heads of the bride and groom. The rings are then placed on the third fingers of their right hands. The “Koumbaro”, the couples religious sponsor, then swaps the rings over between the bride and grooms fingers, three times. A number of rituals in the ceremony are repeated three times and this symbolises the Holy Trinity: God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Ceremony of the Sacrament of Marriage

This Ceremony consists of several key parts. First, several prayers are said and then as they come to an end, the priest joins the right hands of the bride and groom. Their hands remain joined until the end of the wedding ceremony, which symbolises the couples union.

The Crowning

The bride and groom are crowned with thin crowns, or “stefana”, which are joined by a white ribbon and have been blessed by the priest. The crowns symbolise the glory and honour that is being bestowed on them by God, and the the ribbon symbolises their unity. The “Koumbaro” then exchanges the crowns between the heads of the couple, three times.

The Common Cup

The crowning is followed by a reading of the Gospel, which tells of the marriage of Cana at Galilee. It was at this wedding that Jesus performed his first miracle, changing water into wine, which was then given to the married couple. Wine is given to the couple and they each drink from it three times.

The Ceremonial Walk

The priest the leads the couple, who are still wearing their “stefana”, three times around the altar on their first steps as a married couple. The “Koumbaro” follows close behind the couple holding the stefana place. At this point the couple (and anyone standing nearby) is usually showered with rice, which was earlier handed out to the wedding guests. The priest will often make use of the bible he is holding to give himself some protection!

The Removal of the Crowns

When the Ceremonial Walk has ended, the priest blesses the couple, the crowns are removed and he then separates their previously joined hands with the bible, reminding them that only God can break the union which they have just entered into.

Wedding traditions

Unfortunately, a lot of the information available on Greek Orthodox wedding traditions is a little outdated and contains generalisations that give the impression that certain traditions are followed by everyone who gets married. Some of these traditions are set out below.

- The baking of bread and cakes containing coins.

- Rolling a baby on the marital bed to encourage fertility.

- The throwing of money onto the marital bed.

- The pinning of money onto the bride (and sometimes also the groom) at the wedding reception.

Although these rituals are seen as traditional, fewer and fewer young people marrying today are following them, because they are seen as old-fashioned. Many people do not wish to put their guests through the ordeal of other people being able to see how much money they pin on the bride, for example. Although money is still a very common, as well as practical, wedding present it is often given to the couple before the wedding day or to a third person at the wedding reception, for safe-keeping. Greeks living in the more remote parts of Greece and abroad, who will naturally feel more strongly about doing things the traditional way, are more likely to follow these traditions than those living in Athens, for example. Like weddings in many places, Greek weddings are changing. At the time of writing, there is a growing fashion to go and get married on an island and I recently heard someone say that he was looking into getting married in a ski resort. He was wisely advised by a friend: You had better first ask the priest if he wants to perform a marriage up a mountain!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Emmanuel Mendonca is the webmaster and publisher of Athens Room at http://www.athensroom.com - a free service for finding and advertising property for rent in Athens, with a wealth of information about visiting, living and working in Greece.

By: Peter van der Lans

David is a friend of mine. I met him some months ago when I passed his house. David invited me to stay with the story he was a cyclist himself. And thus, I had time on myself, I joined him. David showed me his photos of his journeys over Malaysia and Thailand.

One day David called me with the announcement his son would be get married and I was invited. Since David is Indian, this was an excellent way to experience a Malaysian Indian wedding ceremony.

The whole wedding ceremony would take days. When I came to David’s house, it was just before the bride would be collected. David lives in Parit Buntar, about 45 km from Penang. The bride had to be collected in Taiping, about 50 km the other way. A long row of cars went to Taiping. However, the groom was not allowed to join. The bride had to be collected by the father, David.

After arrival in Taiping at the house of the family of the bride the women brought all kinds of sweets and fruits inside. These sweets are carefully prepared and were put on the floor of the living room. A ceremony started with a priest who spoke to both fathers and the bride and some offerings where made.

Then all of the quests were offered some food. There wasn’t too much time because the bride had to be taken away before 6pm and we arrived at about 4pm. 6pm was considered to be the best time and bring good luck to the future marriage. The bride would be taken to relatives in Parit Buntar since the marriage itself would happen the next day.

I slept that night in a hotel instead of in David’s house. Later David told me it had to be like that because the ladies were busy with hair and make-up the whole night. In the morning David picked me up from the hotel and we went to the hall where the wedding would take place.

It could not have been taken place in the original hall since the roof has been blown off some weeks earlier. The replacement hall however was also big and enough. David told me that after the ceremony there would be a lunch. There were about 1200 people expected.

The ceremony started with the groom. Together with a friend they went through a series of rituals. Vegetables, fruits, oil and many other things were used. This part of the ceremony took some time. Then the Suresh left the stage, it was literally a stage, to make room for the bride who was now taken to the priest.

The bride went through the same ceremony. At last groom and bride came together at the stage where the final part of the ceremony took place.
And while all this happened, the lunch had started off. It was of course all great Indian food. People were waiting in long rows to collect their food. Once finished your lunch, you were expected to make space for the newcomers.

Inside the hall the ceremony was still going strong. There were two musicians hired. One was blowing a horn, the other played tabla. And it was very loud. How Suresh and his new wife could hear the priest was a little miracle.
After the ceremony it was time to congratulate the happy couple. Photos had to made and more photos were made. And it became that there wasn’t even enough food for the guests. The had quite some more people showed up then expected.

It was time for a series of pictures with friends and relatives. For both families this was the first child to be married. And in that case it had to be a big celebration. And you can believe me, it was a big celebration. As I said, there were more then 1200 at the wedding itself. But at night the party at David’s house continued.

Many of David and Suresh’s friends who had not been able to attend the wedding showed up now. Most of these friends were Chinese. They couldn’t be there because the wedding took place at the same moment as an important Chinese temple festival.

However, at night they were free and about 200 more people showed up to congratulate Suresh and his new wed wife. But if you think that was the end of the festivities, you’re wrong. The brides family too had a party for the friends and relatives who couldn’t attend the wedding itself. So the next day we moved to Taiping where Suresh and his bride gave us a warm welcome.

Again, like at the wedding and at David’s house the food was excellent. It was this night to we could eat meat. The first days of the wedding procedures it is forbidden to eat meat for the bride and groom but after the wedding meat is back on the menu. At the bride’s house we had excellent chicken and mutton together with a spicy salad, dahl and vegetables.

David now was dressed in western clothes while his wife was wearing another beautiful sari. I had stopped by that time counting how many saries she had changed but I still recognized how beautiful she looked. Here’s a picture of Suresh and his wife with David’s whole family.

I can only say this was to me a life experience I would not have wanted to miss. For all of you who have never experienced such an event, have a look at a selection of photos I made during the days of the wedding.

Peter van der Lans
www.pulau-pangkor.com