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Interesting question! I'm not sure if we'll be able to answer because most of us have never experienced a British wedding before, other than viewing Royal weddings on tv. I recently was in Ireland and I have a feeling that the weddings I saw would be more familiar to you than they were to us. I know that in the UK bridesmaids are typically younger girls, but I think this tradition may be changing??? The Irish weddings that I saw at my hotel while on holiday there had bridal parties that looked like an American version. The thing that was distinctive and unique was the little fancy hats that the guests wore to the wedding! They were so very elegant! I have to say that you may be more used to having International tourists watching your wedding parties. At my hotel, there were so many tourists watching the wedding party arrive that it was amusing because it seemed like the guests felt that this was common to their wedding experiences, but here in my part of America it would be very unusual to have anyone from another place watch a bridal party or wedding reception for any period of time. I live in Pennsylvania where the cookie table is expected, and driving past an Amish couple courting in a horse and buggy is not totally unusual! But I agree, we have quite a few traditions here!
@Missbliss: I guess you probably don't see them much - what with TV/Films and now WeddingBee, I feel like I've got a good idea of what a "typical" US wedding would look like. The opposite is probably not true!
Bridesmaids used to be young (a younger sister/friend/cousin adult bridesmaid and a couple of children), but that seems to be changing. The only time I've been a bridesmaid, I was 4/5 years old, but I am being one next year which I'm very excited about!
Hats seem to be fading out of fashion too, which is a bit sad. Usually, a few women wear them, but not everyone.
We don't tend to have a large gap between the ceremony and reception, or have a specified cocktail hour. Instead, there is usually an hour or so where the photographer takes the formal shots and the guests mill around (with a drink/canape in hand), waiting to be called for a photo.
Venues are a bit more limited, especially for legal wedding ceremonies, but people are starting to get more inventive...
I'm Scandinavian but marrying in England and I've come across a bunch of things that I personally find a little odd, here are some things I can think of off the top of my head:
-Wedding 'breakfast', it's lunch or dinner but it certainly isn't breakfast at 5pm!
-Morning suits and top hats, not something I've seen anywhere else
-Fruitcake for wedding cake, this is quintessentially English and very common although it doesn't actually taste that nice
-Only three speeches, I know there are plenty of exceptions to this but there's an expectation or tradition that speeches are made by the groom, best man and bride's father
-Getting a slice of wedding cake in a napkin to take away
@The Unsuspecting Bride: I'd forgotten about the wedding "breakfast". I wonder why it's called that...
I think the speeches probably harks back to a time when the women wouldn't have made speeches. I don't think I've been to a single wedding where a woman has made a speech. I guess in a way that's really sexist, but it doesn't bother me - I wouldn't want to make one and I'm sure none of my bridesmaids would either.
Who makes speeches in a traditional US wedding?
@RainStorm: I think it's called a "wedding breakfast" because in older times a couple would fast for their wedding and break the fast after the wedding.
Oh i thought it was called that simply because it was the first meal as a married couple, just as breakfast is the first meal of the day. You learn something new every day hey!
@The Unsuspecting Bride: I've already told my other half that there's no way on this planet we're having fruit cake as I believe it to be cake in it's most unholy form 
In other words, it is indeed the cake of the devil. Fortunately he agrees with me. Yuck.
@RainStorm: Earlier this month I went to a cousins wedding, one of the bridesmaids made a speech, it was the first time I have seen that at a British wedding. I did think her speech was so lovely, and so nice to hear something about the Bride not only jokes at the grooms expense!!!
I know this is an old thread, but I think it's interesting.
@The Unsuspecting Bride: I'm from the US and at almost every wedding I've been to you get to take home cake in a little napkin. Personally I think it's really messy and a lot of the cake gets left behind for the bride and groom to deal with.
@RainStorm: In my area speeches are traditionally done by the maid of honor, best man, and occasionally the father of the bride.
Cutting the cake with a sword!!! hehe
yeah, I thought speeches were just father of the bride and the best man... I went to an american wedding and every bloody person got up and spoke! maybe it was personal choice rather than nationality but it was faaaaar too long!
I noticed that cocktail hour thing on four weddings, Ive never seen it here.
I must be the only person who likes fruit cake! Sometimes it's dry or horrible, but mostly it's great! Do Americans traditionally eat fruit cake at all? As well as weddings, it's also our traditional Christmas cake and is often served at Easter and Christenings.
@RainStorm: I agree, a good fruit cake can be ace, I guess most people have never had a good one!!!
I've never been to an open bar wedding over here - it seems the norm in the US. Most weddings I've attended have a glass or two of bubbly then wine with the meal, but everything else is cash only.
Further, UK weddings dont have 'cocktail hour' in the same way the US weddings do. There is usually a gap with a glass or two of bubbly and maybe a couple of canapes but nothing on the scale you lot do it!
so that's what I'm having - a British wedding! Yay! Feel much better now.
(fruit cake need not apply)
@RainStorm: I've never had fruitcake. I think a lot of people (at least in my area) consider fruitcake a running joke. Our media tends to portray them as little rock hard logs of cake that get sent as a dreaded gift from an elderly relative.
Fruitcake contains rum. Anything containing rum is a-ok in my books. What about getting married outside? I read somewhere that you can't do that in the UK?
Not 100% sure what the rules are now, im pretty sure the law in England has just changed, you can now get married outside (but only in a tent thingy).
In Scotland you can get married wherever you like (I think) :D
You cant get married at night! It has to be during daylight! I did not know this until recently...
Yeah, must be before 4 or something, cuts down on the options somewhat!
I should know this, but I'm sure they've just changed the getting married outside rule...
@MissNoodles: My fruitcake usually has about a bottle of whisky in it. It's not dry. I LOVE it!
@beebee89: In England a wedding has to be held between 8am and 6pm. In Scotland you can get married any time you like.
Back to the weird British wedding traditions...
In Scotland, after the wedding ceremony it was traditional to throw money to local children and we call it a "pour out" (prounounced "poor oot") or a scramble (depending on where in Scotland you are).
Oh, and in the North of Scotland they do a "blackening" where the bride and/or groom are paraded through the streets before the wedding at least partially naked, covered with treacle and feathers (or cornflakes in some instances).
The bride and groom/whoever is paying for the wedding buys the bridesmaids' dresses, not the poor bridesmaids themselves!
@RainStorm: ok so uk wedding must be between 8 am and 6 pm we dont have the option of getting a mate to get ordained online we dont tend to have groomsmen
we dont tend have rehersal dinners or those ribbon bouquets . we tend to only have one dress for the whole day.
we dont tend to do the different dances just the first dance for bride and groom
ummm there have been lots of things i have seen on here that i found "odd" but i have not looked at wedding stuff for 20 years so i thought i was just out of touch lol
Not something i'd personally have is a chimney sweep. I think they kiss the bride for good luck, also carrying those silver plastic horseshoes again for good luck, again not my thing.
My half brother had a chimney sweep at his wedding! It's the only time I've seen it done. The most obvious difference during the ceremony is that usually the bride goes down the aisle first, and then her bridesmaids follow close behind. None of the men (exceptthe bride's father) walk down the aisle - they all wait at the front.
I think most of this has been said already but:
As far as I know you can only get married outside if you are married underneath an awning (if thats how you spell it).
You can only get married in licenced places. For example where I get married only one part of the room is licenced to be married in so you have to stand there when saying your vows.
We dont have a rehearsal dinner just a wedding breakfast on the day (wedding breakfast is called this as it's your first meal as a married couple)
I've never been to a wedding in the UK where there has been a "garter toss" but have seen in the USA this happens. Maybe they do it here though and I'm not aware.
I have never heard of a chimney sweep being at a UK wedding... that is a new one!! That's like Oliver Twist or something.
Since writing my response I was reading a wedding magazine and I saw this:
"An omen of good luck is to see a chimney sweep after your wedding ceremony. This has become a popular tradition."
Well it's the first I've heard of it!!
Also, apparently it's good luck in the UK to see the following on the way to your wedding ceremony; rainbows, spiders, black cats, lambs or toads.
@englishrose2013: Garter toss is American, yep. (and so gross/cringey, in my opinion) Re. the meaning of wedding breakfast, some of the PPs disagree about why it's called that and I think they've convinced me that you're wrong - you may find those comments interesting.
My SO is what I call (affectionately) Farm-stock (as in his family comes from a farm). His uncle went through a tradition called Blackening which I am forbidden from telling my SO's best man lmao. Here's some info - they only do the groom thankfully http://www.cultureledger.com/blackening-of-the-bridegroom-scotland/
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In my three or so months here on weddingbee, my eyes have been opened to all sorts of traditions, customs and pieces of etiquette that I had never heard of. I'd never realised how different weddings in the US often are! So now I want to know: what do we do that is considered odd or unusual to the rest of the world?!