What is a Wedding Ceremony?
A wedding is an occasion in which two individuals are legally joined in matrimony. Unlike a separation or divorce, a wedding involves a formal exchange of legal documents between the two persons involved: bride and groom. Wedding traditions and rituals often vary widely between different cultures, ethnic backgrounds, religious groups, and socioeconomic statuses. The wedding has become a very important social and ceremonial event for many couples from different backgrounds. While a wedding is a very public event, it is also a private affair for the bride and groom.
Traditionally, it was considered that only the woman was responsible for household chores during the wedding, such as preparing food, cleaning the house, collecting money, and other tasks. The role of the father was minimal, if not absent altogether. In Western cultures, however, the wedding ceremony has become much more complex. This is because the bride and groom are now seen as a couple and not simply as separate individuals. The wedding symbolizes the union of two individuals into a larger family, as well as the coming together of two families in the new community of marriage. This also means that the wedding can be a time when the groom gets to spend some quality time with his bride.
There are various types of wedding ceremonies. Some have been common for several centuries; others have only gained recent popularity. A few of the common types of weddings that people usually go through today include: church weddings, civil weddings, and traditional weddings. Let’s look at each of them more closely.
Church weddings are extremely traditional and take place in a large hall inside a building. There are usually officiants, ministers, and even musicians at these ceremonies. They are characterized by a prescribed order of events, which includes a wedding meal, readings from both religious and secular literature, hymns sung by either a minister or choir, prayers (if any), readings from both the bible and the respective religions’ sacred texts, readings from the daily newspaper, a general consensus among the guests, and then a recessional which give everyone an opportunity to say a few words. After the recessional, the wedding dinner is offered to the guests as a buffet.
Civil weddings are less formal than churches because they are smaller than most churches and are held in a public space such as a banquet hall or reception hall. Unlike a church wedding, there is no prescribed order of events and there is no mandatory reading from the bible or a prescribed recessional. However, it is still assumed that guests will offer their prayers. Civil weddings also have a written wedding contract that is read and signed by all of the guests before the meal is served.
The most recent type of wedding is what is called a destination wedding. These are extremely popular these days and take place outside of the bride and groom’s hometown. There are no prescribed rules as to what should occur, but there is a great deal of leeway when it comes to decorating the wedding site. The bridesmaids and groomsmen may also participate in the wedding ceremony along with their respective families. This form of wedding has become increasingly popular and is considered to be more casual than the traditional types of weddings. A destination wedding celebration can take place anywhere that a wedding can take place, and the guest list could include anyone who wishes to be a part of the celebration.