Italian Weddings | 5 Things You Should Know About Italian Weddings
‘Bringing happiness not only for the couple, but their friends and families too’
Italy is known for its beautiful scenic landscapes and traditions, these traditions are a key part of their weddings. Here are 5 things we learnt about Italian weddings and how they celebrate their magical day.
The Bride’s Outfit
The tradition where a groom must not see the bride the morning of their wedding day is international but the Italians have one for the bride. The bride must not see herself in the mirror with her wedding dress before her wedding day. They are allowed to take a quick glimpse of their reflection, but only if the bride removes a shoe, glove or earring beforehand.
For the bride’s bouquet, that’s left in charge of the groom. They are expected to pay for the bridal bouquet and ensure that it is delivered to the bride on the wedding day. In the northern region of Italy, the groom hands the bouquet to the bride when she arrives at church.
Confetti & Bomboniera
Confetti is well known as colourful tissue paper, shaped with wedding themes, thrown onto the bride and groom once they head out of their ceremony. However in Italy, confetti is different; in fact, they are called Bomboniera, sugar-coated almonds which come in many different colours, gift wrapped in small boxes and are given to the guests as a thank you. They are normally handed in groups of odd numbers like three, five, seven etc, and could symbolise health, wealth, fertility, long happy life and a sign of good luck.
La Giarrettiera
Within the southern part of Italy, there is a tradition where a bride wears a garter as a sign of good luck. Once their ceremony has finished and they are celebrating with their friends and family, the groom will take the garter off the bride and throw it to their guests. However, if the bride is not wearing a garter, the groom must throw her right shoe instead.
Groom’s Tie
When the bride and groom arrive at the reception, it is a tradition that the friends of the husband cut pieces of his tie and perform an auction to the guests in order to help raise money for the couple. Once the tie has been sold to their guests, the money collected would be used for any wedding expenses such as honeymoon travels or beautiful gifts. It’s also said that if a piece of tie raises more money than expected, the couple will live a very comfortable life.
La Tarantella
La tarantella, also known as the tarantula, is a great dance performed by the guests to wish the bride and groom the best of luck in their marriage. The dancers would hold hands, follow clockwise until the music starts speeding up and change directions of the dance as the tempo increases. They dance in the opposite direction with every tempo increase of the music, continuing to change until the guests can’t handle the dizziness.
What do you think about Italian weddings and did you learn something new that you might want to involve in your wedding? Let us know in the comments below or chat with us on our social media!
See you next week.
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