Puerto Rico Traditional Wedding

The wedding party is organized at the bride's house. Lights are strung to make it more bright and attractive.

The bride and the groom flaunt traditional costumes and traditional food is served at Puerto Rico weddings.

The bride and the groom are offered a traditional drink called café con leche using coconut cups.

The wedding cake gets decorated with sea shells and pine apple motifs.
At the reception the bride and groom cut off the capias from the bouquet and pin them on the guests.

The capias includes a piece of folded narrow ribbon printed with the bride and groom's names on one end, and the date of the wedding on the other.

The bride's bouquet is made up with beautiful flowers specially the traditional flower amapola.

The bouquet usually includes a fan which is a part of the traditional Puerto Rican wedding attire.

The bridesmaid carry amapola, fan to the wedding which symbolize good luck.

During the ceremony a soft music is played to make the ambience romantic and cozy.

While the priest performs the traditional Puerto Rican wedding he blesses a plate of coins and offers it to the groom.

After exchanging the wedding vows the groom gives the plate of coins to his bride which she treasures as a part of wedding gift from her husband.

The gifts of coins signify good luck and prosperity for the newlyweds.

At the traditional Puerto Rican wedding it is mandatory to place a doll dressed identical to the bride at the head of the main table. This bride doll is covered with charms and is offered to the guests.

Following this a feast is organized along with traditional Puerto Rican music and dance.

A Puerto Rican traditional wedding is a happy and joyful event.

Travour.com describes and provides information on the wedding traditions of Puerto Rico and around the world.

Wedding Cakes Tips

Choosing a wedding cake is one aspect of wedding planning that can be both fun and difficult at the same time (with so many options to choose from these days!) Fortunately, like choosing a wedding dress, the right cake often has a way of presenting itself and most couples just "know" when they've found the right one.

Begin by looking at glossy pictures of wedding cakes in bridal magazines and start compiling a small collection of potential pictures. Next, you'll want to begin to look at wedding cake vendors in your area - if they have a web site for you to view some of their past creations that'll be a huge help in predetermining whether they share your vision of the perfect cake.

A few wedding cake "traditions" and tips to keep in mind as the wedding day approaches:

1. The top 'tier' of the wedding cake is by tradition saved for the couple to freeze and enjoy on their 1st anniversary. Ask your catering manager or wedding coordinator to save and package this up for you after the reception.
   
2. If you've purchased a cake topper, ask your coordinator to retrieve it for you to save.
   
3. Purchasing a special cake-cutting knife before the wedding is a great idea - not only will it look nicer, you'll insure that you do have one there rather than relying on the caterer to bring one. You can drop it off with your coordinator before the wedding begins.

A Great Little Money-Saving Trick on the Cake:

You can actually have your bakery or cake designer create one or more "fake" tiers for the cake, which are simply styrofoam-covered platforms with the same outer layer as the rest of the cake, made to look exactly the same as the real tier. For the cake-cutting ceremony, you'll still cut into the real tier of cake, of course, but your guests won't know the difference when the sliced cake is brought out from the kitchen - slices that came from a much less expensive sheet cake!

Did you know? A Little Wedding Cake History...

In medieval England, wedding guests traditionally brought their own wedding cakes to the big day and attempted to stack one on top of the other to form a multi-tiered collection of cakes. The bride and groom would then try to kiss each other over the whole stack - if they were successful and managed to kiss without the cakes toppling over, it was said to be a sign of good luck and prosperity!

Writing Your Own Wedding Vows

Declaring your wedding vows in front of your fiancé, family and friends is one of those special moments during a wedding that can be heartfelt to you as a couple and undoubtedly meaningful to everyone else in attendance.

Writing your own vows is a wonderful way to make the wedding ceremony even more special, and truly add a personal touch.

While you must be married by an official or officiant who is able to legally declare you husband and wife, the actual wording you choose for your wedding vows need not adhere to the typical, formal words or vows you may have heard at other weddings.

** Please note that if you will be married in a place of worship and wish to customize your wedding vows, you may have to obtain permission to do so and subsequently have these vows approved by your official prior to your wedding day.

Your officiant will more than likely have a collection of vows that he or she has used in prior ceremonies -- this is a good place to start when constructing your own vows. Feel free to use wording that appeals to you both and don't be afraid to add other words, promises etc. that are important to you.

Here is a set of traditional wedding vows that you can start with and add other words or promises to - you may also prefer to keep things simple and traditional as many couples do, and just use these vows as is:

I, _______ (bride/groom), take you _______ (groom/bride), to be my (husband/wife), 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.

Most importantly; don't worry that you have to memorize your vows - only do so if you're both comfortable with it. You may be far more comforted knowing that your vows are recorded in a journal which you'll both read from during the ceremony.