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That is not something I've heard of. I hope someone on WB is Russian or is familiar with their customs because now I am really curious!
Haha yeah I hope so too. I tried to Google Russian traditions and couldn't find anything. It was just so strange.
Well, I am russian and have been to 2 weddings back in Ukraine, and just got married to a russian man in the US. I have never seen little girls dressing up like a bride at any of the weddings I've been to, neither I heard of this being any kind of tradition, ever. This is just too weird. Though at my own wedding the MIL dressed up in a white lacy dress, but that's a different story :)
I don't know where the tradition came from, but it comes down to this. The "mini bride" was to distract demons (or was it pixies...) from the actual bride on her wedding day. People believed that the bride would look so beautiful that the demons (or pixies) would try to steal her away or cause mischeif for her. So the mini bride was dressed like her as a distraction. The demons would go after the child instead. It's kind of fucked up.
@Miss Tattoo: WTF? No, don't take the bride. Here, take this cute defenseless child.
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/wtf-is-a-jr-bride
Best quote in the thread (and I'm not just saying it because it was me!)
"Hey Susie! Put this wedding dress on so the demons go for you first! Kthanks!"
I am Russian and I have never heard of a guest dressing up like that. Thats really weird. I know probably 20 years ago the little flower girl would sometimes wear a veil but not just a plain ol' guest :)
OK the replies about the child as demon bait are making me seriously crack up
I'm Russian and have been to many Russian weddings in Russia and here in the US and I've never heard of this or seen it. I agree, that maybe the little girl was just excited.
Russian people have way less etiquette rules than Americans. So no one would ever think twice to let their child do that and no one would ever be offended by that sort of thing. Even adult women would wear white to a wedding without giving it a second thought and the bride would not be offended because there was no malicious thought behind it.
Russian culture is more about making everyone feel welcome and general hospitality than about rules of etiquette. So pretty much whatever the guest want, goes. case and point, with russian invitations, the guest write in how many guests they are bringing with them. My mom FREAKED OUT when she saw that I wrote in the number for how many seats we had reserved for each guest. She thought it was SO rude.
@Miss Tattoo: I've heard about that as an explanation of why we have a flowergirl and why she's supposed to wear a dress modeled after the bride's. In fact, the idea of it creeped me out so much that it was a big part of why we chose not to have a flower girl at all. I was just wondering if it's normal in Russia for a girl who is NOT the flower girl to dress this way or if this family was just odd.
@Fegele: Thanks for your input. I guess even if there is/was some kind of tradition to explain it, it doesn't seem to be that common anymore, yeah?
That's really interesting. I wonder if the flower girl developed from the jr. bride. Personally, my flower girls are going to look like cute little girls in white dresses. There are way too many flower girl dress styles that ick me out.
I wouldn't agree that guests can wear whatever to the wedding. It is a general common sense not to wear white to the wedding, unless you are the bride. At least I was thrown off by my MIL's appearance at our house on the wedding day, wearing white lacy dress. It is not something that goes unnoticed.
All I can say, that Russia is really big, with many different nations, communities, traditions and even languages. It might be that in some places it is still very popular, and in other it never was.
@Fegele: I agree that it's general common sense for anyone but in my experience there's not like a hard core rule about not wearing white. I've seen plenty of white dresses at Russian wedding but almost none at American weddings.
@Fegele: No, that is a modern judgement in cultures that wear white and mostly America I think- and not everyone holds it.
Many brides don't where white. My Indian friend wore a red sari (indicates prosperity and fertility I believe), but that didnt mean other women didnt wear a red sari.
My personal opinion is the don't wear white rule is ridiculous. Unless someone is in my wedding party I wouldnt dare tell someone what they can't wear in reference to a color. However, I would agree dont wear a wedding dress to another wedding.
@Meowkers: You're probably right that it was just the little girl's choice and the mom didn't see anything wrong with it then.
You can't really get offended by a little girl playing dress up and wanting to be like you, can you? I just thought it was strange because I was worried she would be confused with the flower girl.
Guys, this just reminded me a little girl from the movie The Others (with Nicole Kidman). Pretty creepy :)
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I worked (assistant coordinator) a wedding recently where the bride had some family members come from Russia. These guests barely spoke any English or did not speak English at all and they were only in the country for the wedding.
One of the familes had a little girl (probably about 8 years old) who was dressed as a bride - I mean, head to toe bride... she had a lacy white dress and a veil. Now, she was not the flower girl - the bride's youngest sister wore an ivory flowergirl dress and was in the wedding party. This Russian girl was just a guest.
So, I was wondering: Is it a tradition in Russia for children to dress up as brides? I mean, maybe the little girl was just excited and wanted to dress up (I see it kinda the same as a girl dressing as a Disney princess on a trip to Disneyland, ya know?), but unless that's a thing in Russia, it seems so strange that a parent would allow/encourage her young daughter to dress up like a bride at a wedding. Any thoughts?