Religious style wedding | Wedding style

Similar to a classic-style wedding, your religious wedding and all its elements have been crafted and standardized by the generations of brides and grooms that came before. Going with a religious style for your wedding day is a great way to intertwine you and your partner to-be’s faiths with love.

We at CineStory films have shot a good variety of religious weddings, ranging from Catholic to Islam ceremonies. Here are some tips and must-knows to make your religious wedding the holiest and most beautiful it can be.

CEREMONY

If you’re opting for a religious ceremony, you’ll notice that you have to do almost little to no planning when it comes to the order of things. However, as religions differ in practice and belief, so do their respective marriage ceremonials.

Though we’ve seen a good number of beautiful religious ceremonies, it’s probably best to consult a religious official when thinking about the schematics of your ceremony. But like all weddings, your religious style wedding can present opportunities to be more personal and expressive.

In most weddings, you, your loved one and your religious official will consult religious texts during the ceremony. Whether you’re scrolling through the Quran, the Bible or the Torah, you’re bound to find texts that relate to your big day. If those texts, whether they be about love, the sanctity of marriage or the importance of tradition, strike a chord with you, you can speak to your religious official about integrating that into your ceremony.

More often than not, religious style wedding ceremonies take place in a place of worship. For Jewish weddings a temple, for Christian or Catholic weddings a church and so on. Holding your ceremony in a religious space, if you’re thinking more modern, isn’t always set in stone, however.

Of course, deciding on the basics and details of a religious style are wedding is a bit easier when both members of the couple come from similar religious backgrounds. You can refer to both sides of parents and religious officials on the basics of a religious wedding if you’re unsure.

But this isn’t to say it’s impossible to hold a religious-style wedding if both partners are from different religious beliefs. In fact, creating a ceremony that aims to fit both traditions can be fun and can present more opportunities for a ceremony that truly celebrates the coming together of two families.

DRESS

What you and your spouse to-be sport for the big day depends almost entirely on religious traditions. When thinking about your gown or wedding day clothes, it’s best to remember that religious isn’t always synonymous with boring and bland.

In fact, a number of religious style weddings have gown types that come in a wide range of silhouettes and colors, which you can customize with appliques, jewelry and more. What’s fascinating about wedding day wardrobe for your religion is that besides looking pretty, your gown probably holds significant meaning.

Let’s think of the Catholic or Christian wedding gown, for example. We often see the white gown as a sign of purity. Additionally, the symbolism behind the veil that comes with the gown serves a number of purposes, including protecting and concealing, depending on who you ask.

For Islamic weddings, brides don intricately designed dresses and headdresses. These kinds of dresses can come in bright colors and brides don beautiful henna tattoos on her hands, taking the garment to another level. Muslim brides, in addition to the vibrant clothing and henna tattoos, also sport bright and elegant jewelry including long necklaces, headpieces and noserings. They also wear circular earrings and other pieces that could have been passed down from previous generations.

For Orthodox Jewish weddings, brides wear gowns with more conservative silhouettes. As opposed to strapless and revealing wedding gowns, Jewish brides often wear long-sleeved gowns with high-cut necklines.Unlike the bright garments one might see at Muslim weddings, Orthodox Jewish wedding gowns also skew on the lighter side. Just as in Catholic and Christian tradition, the white wedding gown symbolizes purity in Jewish tradition.

RECEPTION

Once you, your spouse and your friends and family have survived the formalities of the ceremony, then you can afford breaking out of the mold for hours of fun and celebration at the reception.

Like the attire and ceremony, each religious will have different customs and requirements of for the reception. Regardless if you’re joining your entourage for group dances or blessing the challah at your reception, you can still expect moments of excitement and happiness worth remembering.

In Jewish tradition, wedding ceremonies include a good number of well-wishing rituals. Some of the basic elements of a Jewish wedding reception include the couple blessing the challah or ceremonial bread, guests dancing and entertaining the newlyweds with mitzvah dances and of course, the hora.

Though the celebrations of most weddings can last a few hours, Muslim wedding reception customs can last for days. The Muslim Walima is the main part of the celebration where the couple and their loved ones feast on fish, chicken and rice and receive gifts from guests. In addition to the traditional practices of presenting the bride and groom with gifts, food and beautifully decorated garments, the rituals of a Muslim reception can be influenced by the different cultures of Muslim countries.

One of the key tips of planning your religious-style wedding is to be openly communicative. Whether you or your spouse-to-be come from the same or different religions, it’s important for both of you to say what you’d like to see from your big day.

Lastly, those going for a religious-style wedding often have someone in their corner that other brides don’t – a religious official who has seen multiple weddings similar to the one you’re planning. If you’re ever second-guessing what does and what doesn’t comply with the traditions and regulations of your wedding ceremony, it’s always best to consult your religious official and run your ideas by them.

Religious style weddings are a great opportunity to incorporate the past and generations of family traditions into the present. The rituals that have been crafted and perfected over years and years of marriages can endow you with the same well wishes and prosperity they did those that came before.

Religious style wedding | Wedding style