Which day stands out in our memories forever: a day that we will never, ever forget? What is the crux of each and every one of our family lives? I think you, in fact everyone, would agree with me when I say that it is our wedding day!

From as young as 12 years old I began to dream about my future family and my wedding day! I tried to get all possible information about wedding tips and ideas. My room was piled up with magazines and books on weddings in different countries, wedding traditions in different cultures and nations. Many years passed since that time. Till now this information helped not only me for my the most important day in my life, but to many of my friends and colleagues - for their wedding day. And today I would love to share my homework on weddings with you. Worth-trying wedding ideas from foreign cultures. Surely, it will make your own wedding very unique and really memorable. And here it follows... An example of unique combination of old and modern traditions we can find in Russian and Ukrainian weddings.

Customs of weddings in Russia

Nowadays, Russian weddings come in a variety of different forms. They can contain elements of a traditional Russian wedding and also hints of a European or American-style wedding. The latter have become more and more popular and modern in recent years. True Russian weddings are unique in the fact that they are always lavishly played out! We say "played out," as a Russian wedding ceremony is usually conducted as though it were a theatre spectacle where there is a script and everyone knows their role.

In times gone by, a form of courtship would have taken place to secure the union of the happy couple. By tradition, the groom's parents would ask the bride's parents for their daughter's hand in marriage for their son. Nowadays, this tradition has become practically extinct and only from time to time will the groom ask the bride's parents for their daughter's hand in marriage or request an approval of their union.

As part of the Russian wedding ceremony, people still enjoy the tradition of ransoming the bride. Before the young couple leave to go to the ZAGS (Registry Office), the groom must go to his future wife's house where he will be greeted by friends of the bride, relatives and guests. They organise various fun games for the groom, like, for example, asking him challenging risque questions, persuading him to carry out certain tasks and demanding a ransom for the bride. The groom must fulfil all the tasks, namely, singing, dancing, reciting poetry, solving riddles and various other challenges. Then, as a ransom, he must give out sweets and money to all those who have arranged the obstacles along the way to him winning his bride (in other words, those who have set the groom challenges to prove that he is worthy of his bride.)

There is an age-old tradition that on the day before the wedding the bride will arrange a hen party and invite all her friends who will support and protect her in her new life. It is becoming an essential part of new traditions that the groom should organise a separate party for his male-friends; a tradition that has been imported from the West. The groom will say goodbye to his bachelor lifestyle whilst in the company of his friends.

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