Weddings have accumulated a lot of weight of tradition over the last, oh, couple hundred years. You get married by a clergy member in a church, you honeymoon somewhere tropical, you register for china and flatware, and all the other normal wedding essentials. But slowly, those “essential” wedding must-haves and must-dos are changing. The latest generation of wedding couples doesn’t feel obligated to do things the way they’ve always been done.
For those who’d like to see how it used to be done, here are a few old-school wedding essentials and the way they’re being reinterpreted today. From how we say our vows to replacing confetti with wedding sparklers, we cover all of the basics.
The Officiant One of the Most Important Wedding Essentials
Old-school: A pastor or priest comes with the wedding venue, whether he’s familiar with you as a couple or not. He requires you to go through wedding counseling with the church before he agrees to marry you and collects a modest fee for his services.
New Style: The couple picks their best (or funniest) friend to officiate. He or she gets ordained online, performs the ceremony, and has a couple of drinks as payment.
The Venue
Old-school: Church, park, country club–those three are the only venues worth mentioning, unless you’re doing a simple ceremony at the Justice of the Peace. Wherever you get married must be elegant, over-decorated, and formal.
New Style: Anywhere the couple enjoys being is a potential wedding venue. It could be a theater, a bowling alley, or next to Jabba’s dais at Comic-Con. Decorations are optional, as is formal wear.
The Wedding Party
Old-School: The bride wears a snow-white dress (if she deserves to), the groom wears a tux. Bridesmaids wear matching dresses; groomsmen matching tuxes. The groom has a Best Man and the bride has a Maid of Honor.
New Style: The bride wears white, red, yellow, or any color of the rainbow that suits her. The bridesmaids wear whatever looks great and fits the theme. The groom can wear suspenders and a chambray shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, or whatever looks cool. The groom may very well have a “Best Woman” and the bride might pick her best bro to be the “Man of Honor”.
The Vows
Old-School: Say it with us, now “I, (name), take you (name), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.”
New Style: Instead of rote repetition of vows someone wrote ages ago, most couples are opting to write their own vows that have deep personal meaning. Sometimes they’ll include the have and to hold bit, but most of the time it’s more a statement of purpose for the rest of the marriage.
The Reception
Old-School: An elegant sit-down dinner served on white linen and fine china by crisply uniformed waiters. Just a champagne toast, a cake-cutting ceremony, and a few hours of wedding dancing before the end of the night and then the reception is over.
New Style: The best party you’ve never had an excuse to throw before now. Do you want to have a potluck dinner, followed by bouncing on a bounce castle and playing carnival games until the food trucks show up at midnight? Or perhaps there’s something special you have the DJ doing. If you can imagine it, you can find someone online to put it together for you.
Wedding Sparklers
Of course, we have to include wedding sparklers on our list of new versions of wedding essentials! Wedding sparklers have replaced several conventional items at both ceremonies and receptions. A sparkler for weddings was unheard of at one point, but now it is incredibly common. They have replaced confetti, birdseed, and rice at wedding receptions. Some people even use them in their centerpieces. Additionally, they can be used for epic first kiss photos or to replace the lighting of a unity candle during your ceremony. Because of their versatility, wedding sparklers definitely make the list of updated wedding essentials. To clarify, here’s an infographic demonstrating the popularity of sparklers.
I guess what we’re trying to say here is that now more than ever, your wedding can be anything you and your partner want it to be. If you’re old-school, there’s no shame in it; but there’s also no reason to be tied down to tradition. Items like wedding sparklers can add a lot to your celebration. So can these other new versions of wedding essentials. Don’t be afraid to take a chance and make your big day exactly what you want it to be!
