Planning a Mexican wedding involves melding tradition with modern-day sensibilities.
Modern day weddings are often exercises in blend old-school traditions with contemporary tastes. Mexican weddings are no different. In planning a Mexican wedding, it is important to research age-old conventions before interweaving them with contemporary traditions. This can be done with everything from selecting wedding attire to planning the menu.
Instructions
Pre-Planning
1. If location allows, inquire if local missionaries still conduct weddings.
Send bilingual invitations with information in English on one side and Spanish on the other. Following Mexican tradition, list both sets of parents on the invites to make it a communal gesture, a symbol that two families are soon to become one. Once invitations are sent, explore settings. If location permits, see if old missionaries still hold weddings.
2. Negotiate for discount rates when booking rooms for numerous family members.
Investigate hotel options. In Mexican culture, family is paramount, and couples should plan on a large turnout. Before reserving rooms at local hotels, try to get the best estimate possible. Then, negotiate with hoteliers regarding group discounts. Do not accept the first offer and interview multiple establishments.
3. Select sponsors. Sponsors act as mentors throughout the planning process, helping couples multitask and deal with emotional roller coasters. While they are most often the godparents sometimes they are trusted friends. On the day of the wedding, they are allotted a place of honor and should be given gifts to acknowledge their help.
4. Flamenco dresses with tiered skirts are one style of a Mexican wedding dress.
Pick wedding outfits. Select bridal gowns designed in the flamenco style with ruffled, tiered skirts or gowns that hug the body and overlay it with a short, open bolero jacket. In lieu of a normal veil, wear a mantilla. A mantilla is a lacy scarf that is held in place with a comb and sweeps around the shoulders. Grooms wear Guayabera shirts, also known as the Mexican Wedding shirt. Made of linen, this shirt has front pockets and vertical rows of tiny pleats that are sewn closely together. Some grooms wear a tuxedo jacket over the Guayabera.
Wedding Day
5. Called el lazo, a rosary wrapped around the couple symbolizes unity.
Assign duties to wedding party members. One person supplies 'el lazo'--the elongated rosary--and wraps it around the groom and bride after they say their vows. It symbolizes their unity and eternal love. A second person in the ceremony provides the cushion that the bride and groom kneel on to receive the priest's blessing. At the reception, another person gives the newlyweds 13 gold coins that represent the 12 apostles and Jesus; and symbolize God's love and blessing.
6. Food staples include tortillas, rice, beans and honey-kissed sopapillas.
Set up a Mexican banquet. The typical Mexican wedding cake is a fruity delicacy that is either soaked in rum or given a rum glaze. Other foods include Mexican staples such as beans, rice, tortillas filled with chicken or beef and sopapillas filled with honey. Fruity sangria is the ideal thirst quencher.
7. Hire a mariachi band to entertain guests.
Dance the Dollar Dance. This is a dance where males fill a bride's sachet with coins to dance with her. Sometimes they will pin small bags with money on her dress or slip individual coins in her bouquet. A mariachi band should serenade throughout the ceremony. During the reception, wedding favors include lace fans, 13 imitation gold coins or little terra cotta pots with miniature Mexican flags.
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