Greek Wedding Traditions

On the heels of that breakout hit movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” more and more people became enthralled with this huge sense of family and showmanship that come with some Greek wedding traditions. While many Greek families can be large and proud of their family heritage, some of the younger generations feel that these Greek wedding traditions are becoming old-fashioned and quaint.

You will discover that some Greek weddings follow the rituals of the Orthodox Church. In fact, Greek Orthodox weddings in regards to Greek wedding traditions make up a large majority of them. For those brides who want to be a little different, they may take some rituals from ancient Greek wedding tradition. Two of these ancient Greek wedding traditions include carrying ivy in her bouquet as a symbol of never-ending love or even incorporating yellow or red in her wedding attire.

Greek wedding dresses themselves are often traditional white gowns. However, some could be rather ornate or incorporate ancient Greek influences. As for Greek wedding flowers, in ancient wedding in Greece, brides carried ivy and orange blossoms. While the ivy tradition still lives on today, other flowers are often incorporated in place of the orange blossoms. If you wanted to put on an inexpensive Greek wedding, one of the ways to save is picking your own flowers for your bouquet as well as décor. You can easily find your ivy and even orange blossoms.

Greek Orthodox and Catholic weddings are similar in that they are full of tradition with the mass as well as scripture readings. The Greek wedding ceremony also incorporates something called a crowning in which a sponsor of the couple crowns them. These crowns are joined by a ribbon to represent unity. This is just one of many Greek wedding traditions that are observed.

While ancient Greek wedding laws don’t really apply anymore, there are several other Greek wedding traditions that are still being honored. For instance the Greek wedding bread is still served at many weddings. This bread has coins baked into them. And in regards to Greek wedding favors, candied almonds are the first choice. Again, this is all part of common Greek wedding traditions.

At the reception, you will likely want to have at least a few Greek wedding songs so that you can dance a few traditional Greek dances. There are two main dances that are done to song in from Greek wedding traditions. One dance is for the new bride and groom and the other is performed in a circle during the reception.

All in all, if you are of Greek heritage or your soon-to-be spouse is, you can be for certain that several Greek wedding traditions will make its way into your ceremonial festivities. Just go with the flow and you will have a memorable time.