I have always been fascinated with cultures, and multiculturalism, so I guess it is no surprise that I ended up having a multicultural wedding. Never did I think that studying abroad would change my life the way it did! But it did, and my husband and I recently celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. I met my husband while I was studying abroad and we were friend before falling in love. (Though he won’t admit it– I know he secretly loved me all along.)
When we decided to get married, we both agreed: It was really important for us to have a wedding that reflected our cultures.
We had a traditional wedding ceremony in a 15th century church in Avignon, France and people from all over the world came to celebrate with us. It was truly a lovely day.
Here are some small ways that we infused our cultures into our wedding day:
Readings:
The readings were in French and English, and while we intended that our vows would be in our native languages… Well I forgot to give the priest the vows in English, so I ended up saying them in French… But it was nice, French was the language that binded us. Had it not been for my love of all things French I probably would have not gone to France and we would have never met.
Cake:
We had two cakes, a traditional French cake made with “chous de crème” in the shape of the Pont d’Avignon, and we had a traditional Ecuadorian cake, “torta de novia” made by my aunt. We even had a sugar Statue of Liberty and also two flags in the middle of the bridge, representing our two countries (USA and France)
Food:
We had a traditional Provencal menu, and champagne and wine throughout the night, of course a cheese buffet, which I unfortunately didn’t have because I was too busy dancing, haha!
Table Names:
Instead of doing numbers for our tables, which is common in the United States, we used names, which is common in France. We decided to name our tables with cities of importance to us: New York, Aix (where we met) Woodstock, Brussels, Guayaquil, St. Thibault, Lloret, Amsterdam, Porto, Paris, Torino.
Rings:
My most favorite touch of all is the one I wear every day.
Our rings are engraved with the date of our wedding, and also the phrase “Tuyo siempre” (Yours forever.) His ring says “tuya siempre.” It was my husband who suggested we get them engraved in Spanish, which I thought was very sweet.
Finally, I’d like to share this small snippet of one of the happiest days of our lives!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1GBKg8JNg0&feature=youtu.be
Did you have a multicultural wedding? What elements did you incorporate to make the day special and celebrate both cultures? I’d love to hear all about it!
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