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Creating a picture perfect wedding can be an easy task once you have the right ideas to make it truly special.
Including wedding traditions into your own wedding is one of the best ways to bring in romanticism and heritage to the celebration.
In particular, Hungarian wedding traditions come from a culture full of life, camaraderie, and love. They are the perfect match for a wedding. With these kinds of traditions sprinkled throughout your wedding, the celebration is sure to be spectacular.
Here are some of our favorite ones to help you start planning.
1. Vibrantly Detailed Wedding Gowns
This is one of the more iconic Hungarian wedding traditions. Hungarian wedding gowns are vibrant and colorful, made with intricate embroidery.
The brides also wore headpieces woven from wheat that represented fertility and prosperity.
These traditional gowns show that you don’t always need to wear white at a wedding for it to look stunning.
2. Bridal Send-Off
Before the wedding ceremony, in Hungarian tradition, the best man would go to the bride’s home in the name of the groom.
He would ask the bride’s parents to allow the bride to leave the home and would thank them for raising her.
This symbolic tradition might feel a little out of place in this day and age. But these kinds of Hungarian wedding traditions can also show respect to the bride’s family.
3. Best Man and Maid-of-Honor
The best man was often given the role of wedding planner. He would have a strong role in making sure everything was ready for the big day. For example, he would be the one to hand out invitations to all of the guests.
The maid-of-honor had her own list of duties as well. She’s the one in charge of ensuring that the celebration went along without any hiccups, leaving the bride and groom to enjoy their special day.
4. Ceremonial Songs
For many Hungarian wedding traditions, music and dance play a large part. Ceremonial songs are still often used even today.
The inclusion of folk-singing, poetry, and traditional choirs bring a beautiful backdrop to the wedding.
5. Candlelit Waltz
This particular dance is reserved for the last dance of the entire night. This dance gives a sense of community as all of the guests circle the newlyweds while holding candles.
While dancing, the couple blows out the candles until they are left with only their own candles. They then blow those out as well.
Then, they leave together to change out of their wedding attire.
6. Midnight Change of Dress
After the candlelit waltz, the bride will change into a new dress known as the new wife dress. It is often red but can be an array of colors these days.
This changing of attire is a symbolic gesture. It symbolizes saying goodbye to her old life and accepting her new life as a wife.
This is often done around the stroke of midnight, bringing the bride into her new life along with the coming of a new day.
7. Newlyweds Serve the Guests
In these Hungarian wedding traditions, the newlyweds spend their time serving the wedding cake for all of their guests.
It gives them a way to interact with their guests. It also shows their gratitude and love for each individual celebrating their special day with them.
8. Engagement Kerchief
Some time ago, when a man proposed to his beloved, she would present him with an embroidered kerchief as a keepsake if she accepted.
During the wedding ceremony, this same kerchief would be wrapped around the bride’s head by the eldest woman in the venue. This exchange is a symbolic way of showing how the bride is becoming a wife within the ceremony.
9. Celebrate with Hungarian Cuisine
Food is an important part of all weddings. There are two vital dishes to prepare if you want to include Hungarian wedding traditions into your own ceremony.
The first is a Hungarian chicken soup which is often served during the main meal. The other is stuffed cabbage which can be served around midnight. Both of these dishes are staples within these traditions.
10. Gingerbread Hearts
These wedding favors are not only beautiful decorations, they are also a sweet treat to pamper your guests with.
They can be decorated to show off the newlyweds or they can even include heartwarming messages specific to each guest.
11. Gypsy-themed Music
When choosing the perfect type of music for your wedding ceremony, nothing is quite so traditional as gypsy music.
Finding a live band for this specific musical genre may be a little more tricky than other genres, but the extra effort will be worth it.
12. Gala-Suit Clothing
These kinds of wedding clothes are very traditional in their unique style. The male suit goes back to the 19th century, though it has design ties to the 16th century. The bridal clothing, on the other hand, can be traced back to the Italian Renaissance.
If you would like to pay homage to tradition in an outward and visual way, gala-suit clothing is the way to go.
13. Dancing With Guests
The bride has the busy job of dancing with all of the guests throughout the celebration. She can dance with families or couples as a group, instead of focusing on the individuals.
During this dance is when the mothers of both the bride and the groom would collect wedding gifts from the guests.
14. Newlywed Coin Dance
In this dance, the newlywed couple dance together as their guests throws coins at them in good fun.
After the dance is over, it is up to the newlyweds to collect the coins from the ground. It is a traditional way to gift money to the new couple.
15. Kalocsa Embroidery
Embroidery provides a beautiful intricacy to a wedding. No Hungarian wedding traditions list would be complete without it.
Using these detailed designs as part of your decorating scheme will give you vibrant pops of color throughout the venue. They also allow for you to tell a story within the embroidery itself.
Incorporate These Hungarian Wedding Traditions For a Spectacular Celebration
Even if you’re the type of person who likes to live in the here-and-now, it’s a great idea to incorporate traditions together with modern flair. Traditions help to ground the wedding ceremony in the roots of a stunning culture.
They make a wedding something to remember for all time.
Now that you’ve learned about the traditions, find out how to pick the perfect venue for your wedding.