Hello Everyone,
Can you please give me some ideas (ones your using) or seen at others of things to do at weddings. For example:
- flower girl to throw wedding petals before the bride enters
- ring bearers bring rings to bride + groom
- throwing a bouquet
- speech by best man
- lighting a candle
- rose petals everywhere
I don't really see things like above at desi wedidngs (ours tend to be very reserved), so i'm looking to spice things up a bit; but just other things you guys do (like you know: the sister asking the groom for money in exchange for milk, etc)
LOL I hope that makes sense
Here's the deal. Most of what you've suggested above is just another rendition of the usual wedding rituals, whatever part of the world the wedding maybe. The purpose is not to follow others' rituals to the T, but you'll find that its really the symbolism of what is being done thats makes the ritual unique to its do-ers.
Let me explain:
Lets see what you have. For # 1, A pakistani wedding has always had people throw tons of flowers either before or when the bride arrives. The flower 'girl', is just another version.
For #2, there's is always someone else presenting the rings. Usually, its the parents of the bride and groom. And these days, they present them in absolutely beautiful velvet/silver/gold/ decorated boxes/platters/etc. So you see, that is also taken care of.
For #3, Throwing a bouquet is really a symbol of who is most likely to get married next. In desi weddings, whoever is the next to sit on the same chair/seat/cushion/etc that the bride just got off during the ceremony, is the one to be married next.
A really fun way of doing this would be to seperate the unmarried boys and girls and at the blow of a whistle, one from each team must run to grab their seat! which ever girl beats the others to secure her spot on the bride's seat wins!! Same for the guys. in fact, you can also joke that the two to win night even end up getting married to each other! lol
For #4, The speech works when there's a smaller gathering. Either by the number of people or by how long the wedding runs. Desi weddings run for hours and hours into the wee hours of the night and so to calm the crowds and gather them for an intimate moment of speech is just very unlikely and almost 'boring'. I hope you know what I mean.
What you could do, is have a beautiful message book. Anyone who wishes to leave the bride and groom a few words of love and happiness, can write in the book that would be yours to keep for forever. You can buy the book or you can make it. Big pages, decorated with gems and mirrors, nice feather-y pen. You could go crazy with that.
For #5, The candle thing is weird to me in regards to a desi wedding. There are so0o0o0 many lights and candles already scattered around the place, its almost strange to have that.
Again, its an intimate moment, one that is best suited for intimate weddings. Maybe you can cut a cake, light the candle together and blow it out together. Something different but sweet.
For #6, Thats a given. There's a sea of flowers/rose petals and everything in between at desi weddings. Hands down, desi weddings tend to wipe out entire fields of flowers each wedding day. Haha..
So you see, its all about symbolism and how each ritual is unique to each culture and to whomever performs it. At the end of the day, you should feel like you wouldn't want anything different than what it was.
Relax, have fun, soak in every single moment. This is your day, your moment, your time to shine. Live it to its fullest.
Peace.
