On the day of the wedding, the bride’s family may try to stall the groom on the way to the church by placing obstacles in his way. After the wedding vows have been exchanged the bride’s friends remove the wedding veil and replace it with a scarf and apron, which symbolizes her becoming a wife. Following the ceremony guests walk three times around a well, which represents the ‘holy trinity’ and guests throw apples into the well to ensure the couple’s fertility.
A wedding tradition from the island of Crete involves the making of wedding bread. The bread is made with sweet dough and decorated with shapes of celestial objects like moons and stars and with candied and dried fruits. The aroma of the bread symbolizes the sweetness of marriage and the love between a bride and groom.
A Belarus wedding tradition involves the concept of ‘order in priority’. What traditionally happened was the oldest daughter would marry first, followed by the next oldest and so on. If a younger sister married before an older sister it would be considered a major embarrassment to the family.
Many of Bulgaria’s wedding traditions go back centuries. A very interesting tradition involves the prospective groom sending his best friend to his intended bride’s house to ask for her father’s blessing. If the father agreed he would then ask his daughter three times if she wished to marry him. If she answered yes, she would be pre-engaged and the prospective groom was invited to the house. The actual engagement takes place on a holiday or on a Sunday.
At some Finnish weddings a plate breaking tradition is performed. During the bridal waltz the bride’s mother-in-law places a china plate on top of her head. When the plate falls, the broken china represents the number of children the couple can expect to have.
Lithuanian wedding traditions go back hundreds of years and many of today’s customs can be traced back to long ago. A Lithuanian wedding is traditionally broken up into three parts. Firstly, there’s the matchmaker who brings the couple together and organizers the dowry. Then there’s the wedding ceremony, which is made up of several very specific customs. And finally there’s the ‘atgrztai’, which means the ‘coming back’, the bride and groom return to bride’s parents home, where the bride is welcomed as a guest rather than as a member of the family.
An interesting tradition in Latvian weddings involves the bride wearing her white dress and veil until midnight. Then women at the reception then remove her wedding veil and pass it to one of the younger sisters, who is presumably to marry next. Only once the wedding gown and veil are removed does the bride become wife. She then wears a married woman’s cap.
A unique wedding tradition in Estonia which follows the throwing of the wedding bouquet involves the single men. All the single men in the room form a circle around the groom who is blind folded. The groom is then spun around repeatedly, and whoever he’s facing is the next bachelor to marry.
Traditionally Icelandic weddings took part in the bride’s house or the bride’s local church and sometimes they lasted up to a week. Weddings would normally start one day before the actual ceremony with lots of drinking and song. Many toasts would be made to the happy couple and also to the Virgin Mary. Another tradition which is performed at the end of a ceremony involves the bridesmaids taking the bride to her bridal bed and undressing her, leaving her just with her bridal headdress. The groom would join her in bed and the priest would bless them one more time.
During the 16th century the minimum age for marriage in the Baltic region was 14 for boys and 13 for girls. Today the rules are more Western with the minimum age being between 18 and 21 depending on the country. Baltic tradition, the bride’s family does not pay any dowry, no inheritance and no help of any kind is provided. An important Baltic tradition involves the exchange of the engagement rings which is considered a binding legal agreement to marriage.
