Sheila Stone
Before the wedding, the bride and groom’s houses are stuffed with handmade wedding mementos from friends: swans and doves holding the couple’s names in their beaks, little straw note holders, silver and gold cups.
The bride usually wears white but wedding guests may wear red, a favorite color or even black.
Before the ceremony, the bride and groom are blessed by their parents at home. Several sets of godparents, padrinos and madrinos, are the sponsors of the wedding. They make a promise of both financial and spiritual help to the couple. They begin by providing a gift of 13 gold coins. These symbolize Jesus and the twelve apostles.
Usually the wedding ceremony takes place in the evening on a weekend. The church is decorated with white flowers and the couple walks in on a carpet of red rose petals.
During the ceremony, the bride offers the pledge coins and the minister blesses them. Both the bride and the bridegroom exchange marriage rings as a symbol of the union.
When the couple kneels to say their vows, the godfather winds a lasso (a very large beaded rosary) around their shoulders in a figure-eight. This symbolizes the unity and protection of marriage.
Live music is a very important part of the reception. Wedding cakes are small, round pastries made with almonds and dusted with powdered sugar. They are wrapped in colored tissue paper and given to each guest as a wedding favor to bring home.
Piñatas are usually provided as entertainment for the children. A piñata is a hollow decoration stuffed with candy. A rope from the ceiling suspends it high over the floor. One by one, the children are blindfolded and given a chance to try to break it with a stick. Once it breaks, the candy falls out and the children all scramble to get some of the sweets.
For the first dance, the guests form a heart-shaped ring around the bride and groom. There is also a money dance, where guests pin money on the bride and groom’s clothing in order to dance with them.
The young women of the group may grab the bridegroom to sing a song to him. It is called “El Mandelon” which roughly translates as head of the household. They dress him in an apron, put a baby and a broom in his hands and sing, “Now you can’t leave to walk around alone, mandelon, mandelon.”
After the heckling by the bridesmaids ends, the bouquet is thrown to the next lucky girl. Then the bridegroom’s friends gather in a tight group and toss him into the air as a send-off to his new married life.
Sheila Stone is the Relationships Editor for Simply Family.
