Wedding

Wedding

A wedding is a ceremony where two or more people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vows by a couple, presentation of a gift (offering, rings, symbolic item, flowers, money, dress), and a public proclamation of marriage by an authority figure or celebrant. Special wedding garments are often worn, and the ceremony is sometimes followed by a wedding reception. Music, poetry, prayers, or readings from religious texts or literature are also commonly incorporated into the ceremony, as well as superstitious customs originating in Ancient Rome.

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Weddings

Wikipedia article: wedding

Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally recognized union between people, called spouses, that establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws. The definition of marriage varies around the world, not only between cultures and between religions, but also throughout the history of any given culture and religion. Over time, it has expanded and also constricted in terms of who and what is encompassed. Typically, it is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged or sanctioned. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity. When defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal. A marriage ceremony is called a wedding.

Collective

Wikipedia article: Collective wedding

A collective wedding or mass wedding is a marriage ceremony in which several couples are married at the same time

Mass weddings are sometimes preferred for economic and social reasons, such as the reduction of costs for the venue, officiants, decorations, as well as the celebrations afterwards which can sometimes be shared between multiple families.[2] In 2011 a collective wedding ceremony in India involved 3,600 couples, including Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and Adivasi. Many of them were the children of poor farmers.

In the Philippines, mass civil or religious weddings are a common phenomenon, and are often sponsored by government and charitable groups as a form of public service.[4] Local politicians and sometimes celebrities participate as common wedding sponsors at such mass rites, which enable couples (and by extension their children) to benefit from formal state recognition of their unions. Parish churches also regularly offer collective Nuptial Masses for their low-income congregants, at times in partnership with the secular government of that predominantly Catholic nation

Elopement

Wikipedia article: Elopement

Elopement, colloquially speaking, is often used to refer to a marriage conducted in sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married. Elopements, in which a couple runs away together and seeks the consent of their parents later, differ greatly from abductions and bride kidnapping in which there is no consent of the bride and/or groom. To elope, most literally, means to run away and to not come back to the point of origin.

Handfasting

Wikipedia article: Handfasting

Handfasting is a rural folkloric and neopagan custom, initially found in western European countries, in which a couple hold a commitment ceremony. The commitment may be seen as temporary and secular, or of a longer, spiritual variety, depending on the context.

Handfasting is a historical term for "betrothal" or "wedding". In the Early Modern history of Scotland (16th and 17th centuries), especially in the Hebrides, the term could also refer to a temporary marriage.

Master/slave ceremony

Master/slave ceremonies are a way to make an official statement to the BDSM community that the couple have agreed to jpin into a formal Master/slave relationship

I have included the description of such a ceremony between saRRah and I/

Same-sex wedding

Wikipedia article: Same-sex wedding

Same-sex marriage (also known as gay marriage) is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender, entered into in a civil or religious ceremony. There are records of same-sex marriage dating back to the first century. In the modern era, same-sex marriage started being legalized at the beginning of the 21st century. Today, it is available in 28 countries.

White wedding

Wikipedia article: White wedding

A white wedding is a traditional formal or semi-formal wedding originating in Great Britain.

The term originates from the white color of the wedding dress, which first became popular with Victorian era elites after Queen Victoria wore a white lace dress at her wedding. The term now also encapsulates the entire Western wedding routine, especially in the Christian religious tradition, which generally includes a ceremony during which the marriage begins, followed by a reception.

White weddings are generally reserved for the first marriage of the bride, thereafter any color may be worn.

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