At Remitly, we are relentlessly focused on culture and globalisation. As the world becomes more interconnected, we know that many of our customers will end up celebrating big life milestones in different countries—including your wedding.
Cultural Diversity in UK weddings
Bringing your own culture into your wedding celebration is a beautiful way to honor where you’ve come from as you look ahead to your future. Cultural wedding celebrations also create unique experiences for family and friends. Focusing on your cultural traditions at your wedding can make the day feel more meaningful and tied to your identity.
If you’re marrying someone from a different culture than you, incorporating different cultural elements can also represent the mixing of your backgrounds and the bond you share as a couple.
Common Wedding Traditions Among Immigrants
There are plenty of ways to bring your culture into your wedding celebration. Planning a fully cultural wedding will fully immerse you and your guests on your big day. Or, you can add small details to highlight your culture while keeping things more modern. Here are some of our favorite ways to highlight culture on your wedding day:
Cultural attire
One of the most visible ways for you to honor your culture on your wedding day is to wear cultural attire. You can even invite guests to join in on the fun by wearing cultural attire. This adds a personal touch while also showcasing the beauty of your heritage. Wearing cultural attire will also leave a lasting impression in formal portraits and photographs of your wedding day.
Invitations and stationery
The invitation sets the tone for your wedding ceremony. Consider incorporating important traditional symbols, motifs, and colors in your wedding stationery. If you have guests who might be unfamiliar with your culture, include details explaining traditions and cultural elements they will experience at your wedding.
Traditional ceremonial details
Whether you decide to have a religious or secular wedding, traditional details can be built into your ceremony. For example, Hindu weddings often include a fire ceremony or Agni. You’ll see Caribbean couples exchange unity coins or arras. In Jewish marriages, the breaking of the glass is a sacred tradition.
Decor elements
Many wedding venues are a blank canvas for you to decorate how you please. When considering details like the table settings and flowers, find ways to honor your cultural heritage.
Music and dance
These universal languages can transcend cultural barriers, even if you have a guest list of people from different backgrounds. If your wedding is more culturally homogenous, using music and dance will get people excited for the celebration. You can rely on friends and family members, or hire professionals to perform at your wedding.
Food and drink
Work with a caterer that specialises in your culture’s traditional food. This way, you can offer delicious cuisine that represents who you are.
Language
Having a multilingual celebration is a great way to highlight your culture. If you have guests from different backgrounds, having parts of your ceremony in different languages helps to welcome them all intimately to your wedding.
Types of Wedding Celebrations by Culture
According to census data, the most populous ethnic minorities in the UK are Asian and Black communities. Meanwhile, two of the largest immigrant populations in the UK are Polish and Romanian. Here, we’ll highlight some of the ways these different communities celebrate their wedding days.
Southern Asian wedding celebrations
Some of the biggest immigrant groups in the UK come from India and Pakistan. These countries share a common Punjabi culture, which is sometimes tied to Sikhism or the Hindu religion.
Overall, the wedding celebrations in southern Asian cultures are big, vibrant, and luxurious. And unlike western ceremonies, southern Asian weddings are typically very colorful. The bride and groom will often wear colorful traditional outfits, called lehenga and sherwani. Wedding celebrations are often multi-day affairs that culminate in a big reception.
Weddings in the Black British community
Weddings in the Black community are marked by joy, music, and dancing. There are also a lot of traditional beliefs associated with the wedding day.
For example, in Caribbean weddings, the bridesmaids wear white to confuse evil spirits and prevent them from finding the bride. In fact, this is why Pippa wore white at the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton! It’s also traditional to serve “black cake.”
Meanwhile, in Nigerian weddings, the groom typically provides a “bride price” to the family of the bride to demonstrate that he’s financially ready to marry.
Polish weddings
The dominant religion in Poland is Catholicism, so be prepared for a formal church wedding. Polish wedding ceremonies are typically more serious and conservative. At the reception, it’s typical for the family to present the bride and groom with bread and salt. The bread symbolises a wish for abundance, while salt represents life’s difficulties and learning to cope.
Romanian weddings
It’s a Romanian tradition to choose godparents or nasi for the wedding ceremony. These are the two most important people, after the bride and groom. They’ll serve as guides for the newlyweds and help them throughout their married life. The traditional line dance called the hora miresei is a typical part of Romanian wedding celebrations.
Traditional Versus Modern
At the end of the day, there is no right way to get married. No matter how you celebrate your wedding, you’ll be wed to the person with whom you’ve chosen to spend the rest of your life. Whether your ceremony and reception are traditional or modern is a decision you should make to represent who you are as a couple. After all, your wedding day is a reflection of your love and commitment to each other.
Choosing a traditional wedding is a way to highlight the time-honored ceremonies of your culture. On a big day that can involve a lot of nerves, it can even feel grounding as you and your guests will know exactly what to expect. Relying on traditions can also convey feelings of formality, respect, and seriousness while bringing together different generations of guests.
On the other hand, a modern wedding creates space for you and your betrothed to personalise and customise your day. This could be a great choice for creative couples who are committed to expressing their unique personalities and beliefs on their wedding day. You can also include traditional aspects in your modern wedding, blending old and new, or incorporate different cultures.
Popular Venues and Resources
Regardless of what type of wedding you’d like to have, you’ll find a venue that will live up to your dreams in the UK. From traditional to modern and intimate to elaborate, here are a few spaces we love to give you some ideas:
- Grand Sapphire Hotel and Banqueting, Croydon: This is an excellent venue if you’re looking to throw a luxurious, elaborate wedding that honors your cultural heritage. The Grand Sapphire has in-house wedding planners to help you make your dream wedding a reality. They specifically focus on multicultural weddings.
- Crondon Park, Essex: The historic countryside barn serves as a blank canvas for your wildest wedding dreams. This venue is intimate and can fit up to about 150 guests.
- Hunton Park, Hertfordshire: If your wedding will be a bit larger, this stately Georgian mansion house is a great pick. While the interior spaces are beautiful, the gardens and grounds will be stunning backdrops for your wedding photos.
- Worcester Cathedral, Worcester: This Church of England cathedral boasts beautiful architecture and a rich history that wedding planners rave about. This 7th-century building features intricate stained glass windows and impressive stonework.
- The HAC, London: The “HAC” is short for the Old Street’s Honourable Artillery Company’s Armoury House. That’s a mouthful! This bespoke wedding venue has three different ceremony spaces and six acres of private gardens.
These venues are just a taste of what the UK has to offer in terms of wedding planning. There’s a lot more information available on the web and via different apps. If you’d like to dive deeper into the British wedding planning world, check out the following resources:
- Say I do: Use this platform to create a free wedding website and find inspiration and wedding planning tips.
- Coco Wedding Venues: This is the go-to website if you’re not sure where you want to host your wedding.
- Gay Wedding Blog: If you’re planning an LGBTQ+ wedding in the UK, this is an invaluable resource and source of inspiration.
- Rock My Wedding: One of the most popular wedding planning resources in the UK and where you can go to find wedding vendors.
- Loved Up North: Although a lot of UK wedding inspiration is focused on London, the Cotswolds, and other southerly locations, it’s often more economical to get married in the northern parts of the country. This platform focuses specifically on northern weddings.
Brainstorm Your Perfect Wedding
As you plan your future, consider the following questions to get you started off on the right foot.
- What parts of my culture do I want to highlight at my wedding?
- Do my guests need any additional information to appreciate my wedding ceremony fully?
- How do I want to feel during my wedding ceremony? At the reception? How do I want my guests to feel?
- How can we manage language differences?
- What will be the most emotionally charged moments that have to be captured by the photographer?
If you’re moving to the UK, planning a wedding could mean incorporating elements of one or more different cultures. So, think about what’s most important to you and your future spouse. You want to look back on your wedding day and know that every detail was perfectly planned.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can immigrants get married in the UK?
Yes, you can get married in the UK as an immigrant. All you need to do is apply for a visa, if you don’t already have the right visa permission, and provide notice of your marriage or civil partnership to the registrar at designated locations. After giving notice, you’ll have to wait 28 days before you can legally hold your wedding ceremony.
Who can conduct weddings in the UK?
For your marriage to be legally binding in the UK, the ceremony must be performed by a Church of England minister. Although anyone can officiate your wedding, independent celebrants cannot perform a marriage that’s legally recognised in the UK. If you’d like to have a wedding ceremony that is not performed by a Church of England minister, make the standard legal declarations and register the marriage with a designated registrar.
What should I do in the UK after getting married abroad?
In general, if your marriage is legally recognised in your home country, it will be recognised in the UK. You might need to present certain documents to support or register your marriage in the UK.
Who traditionally pays for weddings in the UK?
Unlike in many immigrant communities, the bride’s family traditionally pays for the wedding in the UK. On the other hand, the groom’s family is typically responsible for the rehearsal dinner.