English wedding traditions

Need your help forum peeps! The wedding planning has begun for me and UKC DF. Formal wedding will be in the US in February or April. We will also be doing a pseudo reception back in the UK once my spousal visa comes through and I officially move.

I would like to incorporate some typical English tradition into the ceremony, not to mention into the party in the UK. But he isn't much help with knowing what some of the traditions are. God bless men, but they really are clueless on wedding stuff.

Does anyone have any English wedding traditions they would like to share? I'll take anything that you have found to be interesting and different than the states.

I think the only thing we really did was my husband gave a speech before the meal, which is fairly unusual in the US. He wanted to do it, so I didn't complain! My girlfriends and cousins thought that was just awesome! Other than that, our wedding was fairly American (open bar, ended by 11pm, no 'afters' and inviting different people to different things, etc).

sixpence in your shoe, carrying a horseshoe in bouquet, fruitcake wedding cake.

www.hitched.co.uk I think has a section on them.  Yep here it is!

http://www.hitched.co.uk/planning/trads/tradshome.aspx

Don't buy a wedding sixpence if you can help it, way overpriced.  Better to buy from a jeweler/coin dealer type place.

I think the only thing we really did was my husband gave a speech before the meal, which is fairly unusual in the US. He wanted to do it, so I didn't complain! My girlfriends and cousins thought that was just awesome!

This is one big difference I noticed. Here we have 3 speeches - one by the father of the bride, followed by the groom, then the best man. My dad's speech was amazing and hilarious, he had tonnes of props to hand to me and DH (including an 'Emma's Chief Tormentor medal which he handed to DH  )

A very formal thing to do at a British wedding is a receiving line - the bride and groom stand with their parents in a line and welcome everyone into the dining room - this gives them an opportunity to welcome all their guests. I chose not to have this at my wedding as it takes ages and its just a bit too formal for me but several weddings i've been to have had this.

We also had a toastmaster who introduced us as a couple and introduced all the speeches

Hmm, i'll try and think of more things but ive only been to 2 American weddings so i'mnot sure of all the differences.....

A very formal thing to do at a British wedding is a receiving line - the bride and groom stand with their parents in a line and welcome everyone into the dining room - this gives them an opportunity to welcome all their guests. I chose not to have this at my wedding as it takes ages and its just a bit too formal for me but several weddings i've been to have had this.

That's fairly common at American weddings too.

Oh! Thought of another one - the order of processional.  In the UK the Bride goes before her attendants.  I chose to do things the American way and have my two bridesmaids walk out first, felt my entrance had more impact that way.

That's fairly common at American weddings too.

Oh! Thought of another one - the order of processional.  In the UK the Bride goes before her attendants.  I chose to do things the American way and have my two bridesmaids walk out first, felt my entrance had more impact that way.

Ahhh cool - I didn't know that (but i've only been to 2!)

I sent my bridesmaids down first too, the back of my church had massive glass doors and i wanted them to shield me a little bit before everyone saw me! But then i was also trying to add little American bits to my wedding!

My DH and I searched around and found a place that could rent a morning suit to us, so that he would be dressed as he would in a UK wedding.  He didn't have the top hat, but the suit looked very dapper on him.

This thread comes up from time to time. If you want to read what people have said in the past:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=66998.0
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=64322.0

Thanks Noirem. I searched, but apparently not very thoroughly.

And thanks to others for the good info!

Believe me, if I had a penny for every time I failed to find something in a search and someone else came up with the link I'd, well, it doesn't matter how much money I'd have - I can't spend it here anyway! I'm awful at using the search feature.  It's easier if you know the thread exists.

I thought of another tradition - my FiL, two months after the wedding, keeps commenting that during the reception the Best Man didn't read out the cards from guests who couldn't make it. Personally, I think that would've been excruciating for everyone, but if there's one or two special people who want to write something it could be sweet.

Believe me, if I had a penny for every time I failed to find something in a search and someone else came up with the link I'd, well, it doesn't matter how much money I'd have - I can't spend it here anyway! I'm awful at using the search feature.  It's easier if you know the thread exists.

I thought of another tradition - my FiL, two months after the wedding, keeps commenting that during the reception the Best Man didn't read out the cards from guests who couldn't make it. Personally, I think that would've been excruciating for everyone, but if there's one or two special people who want to write something it could be sweet.

I can never get the search feature to work correctly.  I know it has changed to a google search since I was first on here, but it still doesn't seem to work for me.  I'll do a search for something I know is there with a specific phrase that I know is in the thread title and throughout the body and come up with no results.  I then go out to the google homepage and do a site specific search through google itself and come up with exactly the thread I was looking for.  I've always felt something was off on the search feature here.  It's better than it used to be, but it is still somewhat frustrating.

I wanted SOMETHING British at our wedding for my fiance so I gave him choice of the recessional song - he chose "Jerusalem". :p

And we aren't doing the garter toss - more so because he didn't want to stick his head under my dress and grab it with his teeth. lol

And we aren't feeding cake to each other, but that's because I don't want him to shove it up my nose.

And we aren't feeding cake to each other, but that's because I don't want him to shove it up my nose.

Thats hilarious.

Thats hilarious.

He says he wouldn't but come on - that's one of those things you just don't pass up to do. :p

I wouldn't mind putting a sixth pence in my shoe. Wonder were I could find one....

I wouldn't mind putting a sixth pence in my shoe. Wonder were I could find one..

I got mine for $1.65 and free shipping on Ebay! I read about the tradition a couple of months ago and the rhyme came back to me from the recesses of my memory, something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a sixpence in her shoe! So I got one in my birth year