Wedding Customs

Want to follow some customs from other countries for your wedding? Try adding these traditions from around the world to your day to add a unique and special quality that your friends and family will find endearing.



Denmark: It is a tradition for the groom to select and arrange the flowers for his bride’s bouquet on the morning of the ceremony.

An eighteenth-century law forbade brides to wear makeup to prevent the grooms from being “fooled” by false beauty.

Cats are thought to bring luck to marriages. One belief if that feeding your cat from an old shoe before the ceremony will ensure good fortune.

Korea: A pair of wooden ducks accompanies the bride and groom in a traditional Korean wedding as a symbol of love and fidelity, because ducks are believed to mate for life.

In some Jewish wedding, the groom is required to see the bride before the actual ceremony – to confirm that she is his betrothed.

Although most modern weddings take place on a Saturday, in English folk rhymes, Wednesday is the best day for tying the knot.

In a traditional Scandinavian ceremony, the bride wears a gold crown. Afterward, she is blindfolded and crowns a bridesmaid – the next to wed.

The superstitious Italian Groom carries a piece of iron on his wedding day to protect him from the evil eye.

In ninth-century Europe, many men broke casual promises of marriage, so the Pope instituted an engagement ring as a symbol of – and an investment in - the couple’s union.