Foreign Marriages In the UK

According to a recent BBC2 program 'Married in Britain', there are 62 million people in Britain today and over 7 percent of them were born outside the UK. Resulting in a large variety of different wedding ceremonies and celebrations to be had. But the majority of wedding celebrations will require - Photographers, dresses, shoes, hairdressers, cakes, invitations, rings.

As a couple's nationality is not recorded on the marriage certificate it is hard to know how many of the 240k marriages each year are immigrants but some London wedding dressmakers gave their statistics which said that the women coming to their shop for fittings were 40% British English and 60% foreign.

Many immigrant couples will get married in a registry office first - all that is required is proof of identification and an address - but the bride must understand her vows, so there may need to be a translator present. This is then followed by a traditional celebration for their own culture.

Hindu Wedding ceremonies To maintain the proper Indian wedding traditions, there are as many as thirteen symbolic steps from the greeting of the groom and his family by the bride's family through to the final blessings on the married couple.

Two famous symbolic moments are the wedding knot, where the couple are physically joined together by a piece of cloth attached to their clothing, and the taking of steps around the fire and towards the North - both aimed at faith, financial stability, procreation and the liberation of the soul.

Romanian Wedding Traditions The Romanian groom collects his bride from her house and they have to make lots of noise on the trip so the bride's family can hear that they are coming. However, they then have to give the bride's family money and he will not be admitted until he has given them something - even if it is only the promise to love their daughter for the rest of his life.

In some parts of Romania it is traditional to kidnap the bride and hold her to ransom during the feast after the wedding. Then, once the ransom has been paid, the guilty party have to consume their prize - usually lots of alcohol.

Jewish Wedding Traditions At a Jewish wedding, the bride traditionally walks around the groom three or seven times when she arrives at the Chuppah. This represents the three virtues of marriage: righteousness, justice and loving kindness or the Biblical interpretation that seven denotes perfection or completeness.

Depending on local custom, either at the end of the ceremony or after the bride has received the ring, the groom breaks a lightbulb rather than the traditional glass because it is easier to crush and makes a more impressive sound. He crushes it with his right foot and then the guests yell "Mazel tov!" ("Congratulations").

Some say that it comes from a tale in the Talmud where a rabbi who, upon seeing that his son's wedding celebration was getting out of hand, broke a vessel to restore order.

The Horah is the name given to the circle dance that is often done at Jewish weddings. A well known Horah dance song is Hava Nagillah.

Turkish and African Marriage Traditions For both Turkish and African communities, the drum is a central part of the celebrations - accompanied by a flute for the Turks and lots of traditional songs for the Somalis.

Brazilian Wedding Traditions Rain and the sharing of sweets are both regarded as good fortune at Brazilian weddings and the honeymoon will be funded by guests paying cash to cut small pieces from the tie of the bridegroom.

However they celebrate it, we wish all the bridal couples a happy and prosperous life together.