Wedding Invitations

In Russia, the most common & traditional weddings are that of the Orthodox faith.  Regardless of the religion, Russia seems to stick to very high standards of tradition and with the exception of the actual church ceremony, most people actually adopt many of the traditions. 

The wedding is often an entire two day event, full of ceremonies, food, dancing, humor, friends & family.

On tradition that caught my eye was this one. As a thank you and in appreciation to the guests, it is customary and considered proper wedding etiquette that the bride and groom give all wedding guests small thank you gifts for attending. That is admirable considering how much it could cost.  That would certainly be motivation to keep the numbers low if you’re on a tight budget.    

On the other hand, this next tradition may motivate the happy couple to invite as many people as possible.

During the celebration, one of the humorous customs is for the guests to litter the floor with money as the bride is responsible for “cleaning it up”. She of course gets to keep the money, but they don’t make it easy on her. Guests will often dump coins all over the floor and continue dumping as she picks it up. This sounds like fun but it must become heavy and tedious after a while.

I hope you enjoyed reading and learning this as much as I did. Perhaps it even gave you some ideas for your wedding.