Vow renewal:

I know I am not married yet, but I still wonder why people renew their vows after they have promised to love each other forever already once.

This is said to be done time after the original wedding when couples chose to stay together. (This makes sense if you think about how marriages were arranged most of the time.)

In modern day, couples renew vows at certain time marks such as 5, 10, 20,25, or 50 years of marriage or after a hard problem they recently faced that made them stronger, and by which they are willing to promise love to one another all over again.

So romantic. *sigh*

Why shall I have a first dance?

This is just a way to be courteous, as much as that crushes your sentimental reasoning.

In the early times of balls, the dance would be open by any member of royalty, if present or by the guest of honor, which in weddings happen to be the newlyweds.

Although it is a romantic way to begin the ceremony and that it touches guests’ hearts, the first dance is simply to get the dancing and the party started.

This is a tradition with little meaning behind it, yet one of the most popular today. I will also be having a first dance at my reception, because well, it’s my wedding.

Garter and bouquet toss?

Proof that humans have always been desperate and in love with the idea of sex.

In early times, it was expected for couples to go into a nearby room  and “close the deal” right after the ceremony. I don’t know why, but it was acceptable for guests to “view” such action. To prove this was happening, the men typically reached out for a piece of the bride’s intimate attire to show the rest of the guests, IT was to be done.

In some cultures, guests would even snatch  pieces of the bride’s dress as she left the church to “help” get her undressed, and it was also said that the pieces of her garments were to bring good marital fortune to whom possessed them.

I guess that we just took the savage out of this tradition and moved forward. The garter toss is basically to allow the groom up the bride’s dress, while the bouquet toss is supposed to bring marriage to the single lady who catches it.

This is definitely in my list.

Wedding registry for me?

Apparently “white” people send gifts as soon as you announce you are engaged. That’s cool. Us Hispanics  are lucky if your tia (aunt) Lupita shows up sober to the wedding.

I have read that for a gift registry, a bride should register in several stores, taking into consideration your guests’ budgets. And that for every 100 guests, a minimum of 125 items are supposed to be listed in order to give your guests “options”. AND THEN THE MAGIC HAPPENS: Gifts appear at your front door as if your fairy Godmother had swung her wand.

One should not use these gifts until after the wedding and should send thank you notes. Aww.

Like I said, I am hispanic with guests from actual Mexico and am not likely to have wedding registry. A couple of my guests will bring gifts such as house cleaning products, and others will drop off an envelope with some cash in it during the reception. Others will simply show up for the free food and booze, because that what we do as hispanics.

Why the games?

So my mother insists I should make two lines, one of men, and the other of women, and have them hold hands and run around the reception hall until one of the lines disintegrates… hmm all this while the groom and I stand in chairs, facing each other  while hold hands. Okay.. I have seen this done and I won’t lie, it is fun but what's the point?

Games in any party mean you, as a host, want to give your guests a pleasurable experience and make sure they are entertained.

In weddings, games are said to have been a way to have the two families meet each other for the first time. Games were icebreakers and woke the competitive spirit of each family name.  In many cultures this became a problem and games slowly faded away. Today only a couple are done in each wedding, merely for the fun of it and no other specific reason.

Watching someone fall in front of a crowd is always fun, right?

Why honeymoon?

This is pretty cute. If you are in love with what is at this point your husband/wife.

As back as the 1500s, couples were sent away to be alone and ease up the tension of realizing they were now stuck with each other, and to help relax them, you know, for the physical activities that they must endure.

These trips were mainly out to visit relatives who had not attended the wedding, as in some sort of obligation to now be known as a marriage to everyone they knew.

Couples can leave as soon as the wedding is over, or sometimes even a week later, depending on their culture.

In the 1800s, traveling became easier and people learned to make money off of tourists, so the idea of a honeymoon was blown out of proportion.

There is another explanation linked to the whole “easing of the couple” idea.  This is that it was and continued to be a belief by some, that the first month of marriage is the best. This because it is filled with passion, sweetness, tenderness, and pleasure. …. Of course, because a month is just enough time to start noticing that he leaves the toilet seat up and that she doesn’t shower on Sundays. lol

I guess this is simply just a “fun” experience for today’s newlyweds, especially the ones like Joel & I, that have lived together for a while before getting married.

Rice throw outside of church, what?

Why am I not surprised.

This was another ritual for good fortune.

So apparently the rice also symbolized prosperity and fertility, something every couple wishes for… anyway, rice lost its popularity in the early 1900s and oats, grains and even dried corn were used instead. This was because people believed that if the bride ate the rice thrown at her, it would dramatically expand in her stomach and she would DIE. Wow. I wonder how they come up with that assumption.

Thankfully, we have evolved as a society and have now opted for rose petals and even soap bubbles, that apparently represent the same thing, .. or do they?