So, on the German wedding post some people requested a few others like that and I can talk about Brazilian traditions, since they are very different than US. Wall of text warning!!! I'll try to keep everything neat. Also, sorry if anything I've said offends anyone, not my intention.
I'm going to divide the topic in traditions and wedding planning stuff.
Wedding planning stuff:
Weddings here are a big industry, much like everywhere else, and very expensive. However, most brides do not DIY a lot of stuff. It's just not part of the culture, specially because we usually don't have a lot of things like signs, and table numbers. This is changing however, with the influence of Pinterest and a few other websites, more and more brides and doing some stuff by themselves, but never something as big as flowers for example.
The only paper goods we have here are the invitations, without rsvp cards or inner envelops, the menu for the reception and maybe something with the hashtag for the wedding, which is a very recent thing also.
Wedding dresses are almost always rented here. Very few brides buy their dresses. All the bridal stores here rent the dresses, and that can be a first time rent (more expensive), second time and so one, being that as far from the first time rent the dress is, the cheaper it will be. Usually first time renters have the dress made specially for them and after the wedding, the store can rent it. Even so, wedding dresses rents are super expensive here! Many brides that have the means would go to the US to buy one rather than rent one here because depending on what type of dress they want, it could be cheaper. I say would and could because this is not the case anymore with the dollar being 3,50 reais these days.
Churches does not have legal power to declare you married. You have to go to a Cartório (it's not like a courthouse per se, they are privately owned and have legal powers ensured by the government) to get legally married or call a Justice of Peace to your ceremony. Many couples that want to get married in a church do this a few days before the wedding day, say if your wedding is on saturday, they would go to the Cartório on thursday. This requires two witnesses to sign the marriage certificate, usually a couple that are padrinhos.
We have the "day of the bride" and "day of the groom" here. They are packages that beauty salons and barbers put together so the bride and groom and their madrinhas e padrinhos (will talk more about that later) go spend the whole day at the salon, usually in special suites getting ready. For brides is special because these places usually have hot tubs and massages. Grooms can play video games with their friends and drink beers, while getting shaved professionally. It's not required for the couple to do it, but most do some kind of form of this.
Coordinators are pretty mush always used. They have levels of service, but at least a day of coordinator is used. They are the ones who handle rsvp. Usually the way we rsvp here is on a form on the coordinators site or by calling the coordinator. They can also track down the non-responders by calling them and asking if they are coming to wedding.
Wedding traditions:
Madrinhas and Padrinhos: They are the equivalent of the wedding party but with very different duties. Usually the couple get from 4 to 7 couples on each side (7 being a huge amount of people, since it's doubled) to stand with them in the ceremony. These are the most well dresses guests and it's an honor to be a madrinha or a padrinho. They don't have any duties to the party. They don't help with anything, unless the couple asks for something specific, but it's not done very often. What they can help with is to stop a crisis to get to the bride and groom, but that's why we have coordinators. Padrinhos and Madrinhas usually give big ticket items as gifts, such as washing machines, stoves, even refrigerators. Also, they become something like endorsers of the marriage.
Here you do not mail your invitations! It's a big faux paux to mail your invitation to someone and the person can be very offended! The only way that is okay for an invitation to be mailed is if the guest lives very far away from the bride and groom and they have already talked to him/her on the phone inviting them and letting them know the invitation will be mailed. You have to visit each guest to hand them their invitation. This can also be done by parents and sometimes grandparents, depending on the guest, and the invitations for a whole family can be left with a grandparent of that family to hand out for the sons and daughters, but again, never mailed.
no garter toss, but we do have the bouquet toss. Since most bouquets these days are a fortune, the florists send a smaller and cheaper version of it to be tossed.
the bar is always open and the fancier weddings have a caipirinha bar besides beer, sodas, water, sometimes wine and sometimes whisky. There is no such thing as a cash bar or ticket bar. The only weddings that are dry are the ones who are from very strict religions and it is kinda odd here, everyone expects to drink at a wedding.
The aisle order is: groom + mother of the groom, father of the groom + mother of the bride, madrinhas e padrinhos alternating their sides (bride side or groom side), flower girl, bride + father of the bride.
most people still get married at churches, but more and more couples are doing it outside of church with a justice of peace, or a friend if they went to the Cartório before hand.
Bem casados are the traditional favor we give out. They are little cakes with doce de leite inside and wrapped in pretty paper and ribbon and delicious! We can't not have them at a wedding. The name means well married.
during the reception, the couple is expected to go from table to table to say hello and thank everyone for coming.
We don't do thank you notes afterwards, but the couple usually invites the closer friends and relatives to their new home for a meal and to look at photos and the video.
there is a newish tradition that is call "gravata do noivo" which means groom's tie. The padrinhos go around with the groom selling pieces of his tie (it can be a random tie, since the real one is usually rented). They make a lot of noise and go to every male guest asking for money in exchange of a piece of tie. And now the madrinhas are doing that the bride as well with her shoe, but without cutting it. I don't like this and probably am not going to have this at my wedding since it's very money grabbing, specially the bride one, since no one expects it. I don't think any female guest brings money to a wedding.
If there is going to be a lot of dancing the coordinator distributes little toys, like light up necklaces, glow in the dark sticks, feather boas, funny glasses to the guests to play with. Sometimes they even distribute flip flops for the women get off the high heels and dance the night away.
I've never heard of a first look here.
We have 3 types of showers here: the "kitchen" shower, where only women are allowed and they gift the bride kitchen stuff. The bar shower, where both the bride and groom are present and mixed guests are allowed and gift them bar stuff, such as glasses and even drinks. The lingerie shower, again, only women and they give the bride lingerie, this usually double as the bacholorette party. In any of them the guests are people who are also invited to the wedding.
We don't have a big host thing here as people in the US do. Usually no one knows who's the host because it's not something that we really care about here.
These are all the I could think off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many more that I'm forgetting, so feel free to ask anything!
Submitted March 27, 2015 at 04:38AM by keep_me_separated http://ift.tt/1Nf1pKG weddingplanning
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