Celebrate Your Culture with Your Wedding Cocktail Hour

Adding your favorite food to your cocktail hour is a great way to Celebrate Your Culture on your wedding day.  Let your guests enjoy some of the culinary delights from your culture or both cultures if you’re blending two families together. 

Fish Cakes

One of my favorite appetizer that I have at almost every family occasion are fish cakes.  Fish Cakes are made with salted cod fish or commonly called "bacalao" in Spanish speaking Caribbean islands.  It’s like a crab cake but with salted cod fish and it’s delicious! That’s just a little cooking lesson for those who don’t know what it is.  For those brides out there that know and love fish cakes , this is a subtle way to Celebrate Your Culture at your wedding during the cocktail hour.  It’s also a culinary delight that everyone will love no matter where they are from.  Many different cultures have their own variation of a fish cake.  So where ever you are from and however you prepare it, don’t be afraid to add this to your Wedding Cocktail Hour! People enjoy familiar, comfort foods at weddings.  

Are you trying to Celebrate Your Culture for your wedding? I would love to hear all about it. Send me your ideas DJoseph@weddedluxe.com  and I will feature it on the blog?

Live.Laugh.Love….. Luxuriate!

Deniesha  Joseph

Wedded Luxe

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DJoseph@weddedluxe.com

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718.938.4713  

Ceremony Traditions from Dominican Republic and Columbia

My last clients were from Hispanic backgrounds (Dominican and Columbian) and it inspired me to write about wedding traditions from both countries. Today I’ll focus on ceremony traditions. Most Hispanic countries have Christian faith. Most wedding ceremonies take place in the couples’ house of worship. Here in NYC, many couples are choosing to have their ceremony and reception in the same location. Just because your ceremony doesn’t take place in your house of worship, doesn’t mean you can’t have the traditions that are important to you.


Dominican Wedding Ceremony
Every Dominican bride becomes the recipient of 13 coins, ceremoniously passed to her on a silver tray. A child starts the hand-off, transferring the tray to the priest, the groom and then the bride to symbolize their commitment to care for each other and share equally.  You can find these coins online.  Here is a treasure chest with the coins included.  To personalize it, have it engraved with your monogram and wedding date.

                                Photo Courtesy: J McKinley                                       

Columbian Wedding Ceremony
There is a traditional custom in Colombian Christian weddings. After the ring ceremony, the groom and the bride each has to light a candle. Each lighted candle represents the life of each one. After that, they light another candle together and put out the first candle of each one, leaving only the one that they lit as a couple. This bright candle means that now they are the same body and they are going to share every moment of their lives. This is also known as the unity candle ceremony and there are many options out there today so you can customize your candles.

Photo Courtesy: Etsy

Tip:
To ensure you have the right space and setup to perform your ceremony traditions, consultant with the venue manager, your officiant and if you have a wedding planner/coordinator ask their opinion as well. The venue manager will be able to tell you how much space you need at the altar and what the best setup will be for the altar you need. They should know best what the venue can accommodate. You officiant can run you through the all the steps of your ceremony so you know what to expect and how to prepare for it. Last but not least, your wedding planner/coordinator will be there for rehearsal and to ensure your ceremony is setup the correct way.