If so, How was it? What’s the biggest difference/shock to you (if any)?

36 comments

  3. I’ve attended plenty of weddings where the couple weren’t the same ethnicity as me. They’ve mostly all been Catholic weddings though, so pretty similar.

  4. I’ve attended quite a few Indian weddings (mostly my employees who invite me but also a good friend and neighbor of ours). The biggest surprised when I went to my first one, was it being a multi day affair. Usually a normal American wedding is a one day affair, 4-8 hours depending on the couple and the family.

  5. My marriage was an interracial wedding and I’ve been to one other interracial wedding. Wedding ceremonies are pretty much the same. It only gets ceremony for the most part when you have international influence in the ceramony.

  6. I’ve gone to a few Punjabi weddings and a Hindu wedding. They’re a lot larger than most of the other weddings I’ve been to. Music and food are obviously different too.

    The Punjabi weddings have more booze than anyone else hands down.

  7. The only wedding I’ve been to was an Armenian wedding. It was very lively and theatrical. The minister was cracking a lot of jokes, but most of the ceremony was in Armenian so I did not understand them lmao. I am really glad I got to experience it!! I love learning about other cultures.

  9. I’ve gone to a number of weddings of people from different races/nationalities/religions, all of which were mixed marriages of (basically) a white Anglo person to a non-white Anglo person. They were all a little bit from column A a little bit from column B type events.

    I am white and I’m married to a Mexican. I went to a family wedding of his and I was surprised/charmed by the “money dance.” Later at our own wedding his family members basically started an impromptu money dance and my family (white east coast catholics who like a party) had no idea what was happening, but they really got into it.

  10. Yes.

    No shocks.

    Biggest differences were different religious ceremonies. The receptions are usually pretty American standard.

    Hindu weddings tend to be a bit different, larger, different clothing, different food, slightly different ceremonies, but nothing shocking.

  11. I went to a Vietnamese wedding in Texas once, and it wasn’t really too different. It was a Catholic wedding, so it was pretty similar to the services that my family had.

  12. Yes, quite a few. No real shock, just pleasant or interesting surprises due to cultural differences. My marriage itself is interracial, and at our wedding we incorporated some aspects, and especially food, from both of our cultures. Speaking of which, the food at another culture’s wedding is what I often most look forward too.

  13. Race, yes. Nationality, they were all Americans, but not all the parents were.

    No differences that stand out. One wedding they had some custom from Vietnam incorporated into the wedding for the set of Vietnamese parents, so that was sweet. But it was still well within the range of sweet things you might typically include in an American wedding, so not shocking or surprising, just interesting. I can’t give details because it was enough years ago that I only remember how happy the parents were that their American daughter included the custom.

  15. I’ve been to a couple Jewish weddings, nothing shocking, just a few different traditions. I think I had seen most of them in TV and movies by the time I attended them.

    I also went once to the wedding of a couple a friends of my ex-girlfriend who were both born in liberia. They had two weddings, one was over there and more of a traditional Liberian wedding, then they had one over here that was more of a standard American wedding. There are a couple little tweaks to the ceremony I guess.

    I’ve also been to a couple of lesbian weddings, not two gay men that I can remember for whatever reason haha. Those ones were also pretty typical American weddings.

  16. Yes. There isn’t much of a difference though. I’m Black and have been to White majority weddings. The customs and traditions are pretty much the same. There was no shock.

  17. I attended the wedding of a couple where both sets of parents were Indian immigrants. It was, by FAR, the best wedding I’ve ever attended. The hospitality, the food, the attention to detail, it was simply incredible.

    The biggest “shock” was just how detailed everything was, how everyone was included.

    During the endless toasts that preceded the main meal, the parents of the groom thanked every attendee by name including telling a short anecdote about their relationship with that person. I’d never met the groom or his family until the previous night and here his father is, talking about meeting ME at his son’s rehearsal the previous night.

    Greatest wedding ever, 3 days of events and the most inclusive people I could ever imagine.

  18. My daughter in law is Vietnamese, so we did the whole shebang before having a traditional Catholic wedding.

  19. The most interesting wedding I ever went to was between a Black couple, the man is from Senegal and the woman France. The service was given in French, German, and English — German because we were all living in Germany and English because many of the guests were friends of the groom who was in the US Army. It was a really cool blend of cultures and traditions.

    I’ve been to various other weddings that blended cultures and ethnicities. Nothing shocking.

  20. One of my dad’s sisters married an Indian man. One of their sons married a woman who is fully Indian (ethnic heritage – they’re both born and raised in Britain). My uncle’s family came from Goa, and like many there they are Catholic, and my cousin’s wife’s family are Hindu, so they had a dual wedding ceremony with a sort of non-denominational Christian officiant and then a traditional Hindu wedding. It was hilarious, not because “foreigners and their ways are stupid” but because it all looked so out of place outside in the chilly, gray English countryside, the bride and groom looked confused at the whole thing, neither understands a word of Hindi so the prayers were just gibberish to them, they couldn’t stop giggling, and their fathers were supposed to split coconuts with a machete as part of the ceremony and neither of them were at all handy with a machete, it took them both several awkward attempts and we were all absolutely cringing thinking one of them is going to lop off a finger because they get those damn coconuts open (no fingers were lost thankfully).

    The ceremony was impressive and would have been beautiful in its own cultural context and with a bride and groom who understood what was going on, but as it was, it was sort of farcical.

  21. I’m Jewish so most weddings are outside of my race/culture. Of course there are exceptions to what I’m saying–I’m just talking in general:

    The biggest difference is that there’s a usually *a lot* more drinking in white weddings (most white ethnicities) than in Jewish weddings (or else no drinking at all for some types of Christians). That’s the most noticeable to me because it affects peoples’ behavior as the night goes on.

    Another difference is the dancing. Jewish weddings have more ‘folk-style’ dancing–the hora is the famous one, but there are others. The Black weddings I’ve been to also have more line-dancing and not as much heavy drinking, so maybe in a surprising way (?) the Black weddings I’ve been to have felt more similar to what I’m used to than the white ones.

  22. Different races. Mixed races. Different religions.

    This is pretty commonplace here.

  23. I’ve been to an interracial wedding in the USA. No shocks. A regular wedding with a friend officiating and the couple doing their vows.

    Being a different race or even if a different nationality doesn’t necessarily mean that weddings are going to be very different.

  24. I went to a traditional Indian wedding. It was super long which I was not expecting. I also went to two traditional Christian weddings and they were basically just like on TV shows minus the part where they ask if anyone objects before they kiss lol

  25. I was raised Jewish but my mom was raised Catholic (she converted before marrying my dad). So, any time I attend a wedding from that side of the family it’s a bit different to me because it’s a different religion. The biggest difference seems to be that in a Jewish wedding, the wedding ceremony itself is pretty quick and the reception afterward is a big party with a lot of traditions that are baked into it while a Catholic wedding is much more drawn out in the ceremony itself and the reception almost feels like an afterthought.

    Besides one of my cousins opting for a completely non-religious wedding, I don’t think I’ve been to any outside of Judaism and Catholicism. And that one wedding had my very Catholic grandma muttering about how it wasn’t churchy enough which as I understand is a Catholic tradition. I’m not opposed to attending one, it just hasn’t come up.

  26. I remember going to my first Jewish wedding at 21 or 22. I was pretty amused by the fact that my friends had to fast all day, then chug two glasses of wine, then circle around each other. They were a little wobbly but they made it to “mazel tov”. I love weddings of all kinds, I love culture, I LOVE dancing, I love love. Although that one Baptist church basement wedding with no booze, no dancing, and no food but a sundae bar truly made me think God was testing me.

  27. Yes, but there were no differences, except for one I attended that included Jewish wedding rituals because it was an interfaith wedding. Even then, there was nothing shocking about it because I was already aware of said customs; I’d just never witnessed them in person until then.

  28. I am a white southerner. I’ve attended a gay, black, Italian/Somalian wedding…..and the food was atrocious . The rest is irrelevant…but bad food… fucking shocking

  29. I’m black American, my partner is white French. We’re gay and got married in France. Did the ceremony at city hall (which looked like Versailles) and then the reception at a museum. The biggest difference would probably be that it was a bilingual wedding, so everything was done in French and English to suit both our families.

  30. If you’re asking about whether I’ve been to non-Western/American-style weddings, yes. I’ve been to an Afghan wedding and will be attending a Pakistani wedding next weekend. I’m very curious/interested.

  31. Military, heck yes. No shock at all.

    Also American, and married my Turkish wife in Denmark.

  33. Sort of. My brother married a woman from Kenya. Their wedding combined traditions from both countries. It was very interesting.

    They also held a second wedding in Kenya later in the year. I didn’t get to go to that one but got to see video and pictures.

  34. I went to an Ahmadiyya Muslim wedding once.

    The only culture shock was that the sexes were segregated.

  35. I’ve been to a Jewish wedding, they’re plenty fun. And yes I did get to witness the chair thing.

  36. Went to a traditional Jewish wedding last year. It was a blast! The rabbi was hilarious and, though solemn, it was very festive.

    Ever been to a Mexican wedding where the bride and groom come in on horseback? It’s beautiful.

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