Wedding Traditions: Lebanon vs. Greece

Here we will be presenting ONLY what is different in the traditions between Lebanon and Greece during the wedding. 
You will be attending a MIX of the Lebanese and the Greek Traditions but in OUR way. Enjoy! ;)

Lebanese Traditions   

• Before two days of the wedding, the Bride bring her clothes to her new house with all the ladies and her best friends and showing in her bedroom the under wears of the wedding. 

• Each family that arrives to the Bride house takes a photo with her.

• The parents of the Groom come to the House of the Bride, give her a kind of jewelry and take her to the wedding and giving their blesses.
  
• The family and friends of the Bride, while she is leaving to the church, make her a kind of  celebration with songs, shouts, rice and music.
• At the church, the parents of the Bride enter first to the church, following by the parents of the Groom, the little kids, then the Best Man and the Maid of Honor and then the Couple.
• The Guy throw a kind of  clothes related to the bride so that a men in the crowd can catch it ( the same as the girl that will catch the bouquet)

Greek Traditions

• The guy demand the girl from her parents. And in the time of the engagement the parents of the Groom give a kind of jewellery to the future Bride. (Opposite to the Lebanese that happens in the wedding)

• Two days before the wedding, family and friends are invited to the future house of the Groom and the Bride. A priest will make the mystery of Holy water and throw in all the house. An old-fashioned tradition is the baby-rolling ceremony on the matrimonial bed. Babies of friends and family are placed on the mattress and gently rolled from side to side. The bed is also strewn with rose petals, coins , money and sugar-coated almonds (called koufetta) to bring fertility and prosperity to the couple.

• Greek Orthodox weddings are always on Sunday.

• The groom  present for his bride her bouquet at the church upon her arrival.
• Wedding rings are traditionally worn on the right hand, not the left, given during the ceremony inside the church by the Maid of Honor.

• Crowns during the wedding ceremony: the bride and groom are adorned with crowns by their Best Man that are connected by a single strand of ribbon. This signifies the union of the couple as well as indicates the pair's "rule" over their household.
• Traditional money dance at the reception where people dance with either the bride or groom, pinning money to their clothes.
• The wedding doesn't finish at 12h or 1h am but stays until 4h - 5h am in the morning!