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How much champagne do you need at your wedding?

Traditional Italian weddings and marriages were arranged by the families of the bride and groom. Once the families were in accord, the engagement was announced.

What to do and not to do when making your wedding speech

How to plan an extraordinary picnic just for the two of you.

…the definitive South African Bridal show lineup for 2010

The wedding is one of the most important family celebrations. These short moments of joy in the difficult life of peasantry follow many traditional customs before young couple exchange the wedding rings. First, the engagement period Zareczyny or Zrekowiny. The main event on the night of engagement was the tying together of the hands of the couple to be married. There were numerous variations on this custom, but in whatever form it appeared, the central elements were an uncut loaf of bread and a white towel or scarf. Because engagement was as binding as the marriage itself, it was always done in a public act in front of family and friends who acted as witnesses. Starosta (an intermediary) joined the right hands of the couple above the bread, tied them together with white cloth, and made the sign of the cross over their joined hands representing “the joined endeavors of the man and woman to prepare the bread

Weddings are big affairs in Spain and you’re likely to find the whole extended family and entire village turns out to celebrate (expect at least 200 guests at traditional ‘bodas’). Some of the customs are similar, such as throwing rice, but others are less familiar.