Wedding Centerpiece Ideas | Unique Wedding Centerpieces

Caribbean weddings surely do borrow from popular U.S. wedding customs.  However, Caribbean islanders have a rich African and European heritage, so you can be sure they have some customs of their own.  Caribbean weddings can have a special flavor all their own. 

One popular tradition is for the bride and groom to don their very finest clothes, and walk from the home to the church.  This serves as a way to announce the wedding and to celebrate the occasion.  Community members line the streets, and they admire the couple as they stroll by.  Most guests are invited to the wedding via word-of-mouth, and it isn’t unusual for guests to “crash” the wedding; invitations aren’t traditionally required in the Caribbean!

Ceremonies are often comprised of Catholic, Mayan and African elements.   The bride’s father or parents will escort her down the aisle.  You won’t usually find a best man at a traditional island wedding.  The ceremony is capped off with a reception, often punctuated by beautiful steel-drum island music.

The gifts at a Caribbean wedding often include hand-make quilts and furniture.  The gifts are often handmade, reflecting the beautiful talents of island denizens.

When serving a reception dinner in the Caribbean, it is hard to go wrong with curried goat and spicy chicken jerky.   Often those dishes will be punctuated with fried plantains and conch fritters.  You’ll feel the island ambiance when eating these scrumptious island treats.

Caribbean wedding cakes are unlike any other; they’re unique to the islands.  They’re known as “Black Cakes,” and have a meaningful tradition associated with it.  Mothers pass the recipe to daughters, and the daughter is charged with improving the recipe in some way.   The tradition is meant to produce increasingly more delicious cakes each generation.

The basics of the cake are always the same:  a pound of flour, brown sugar, butter, glazed cherries, currants, prunes, raisins, and 12 fresh eggs.  ~ The cake is accented with a hard rum sauce, and the dried fruits will have been soaking in rum for anywhere from 2 weeks to a year.

After the wedding is over, the couple goes on a kind of honeymoon.   Usually, the groom provides a secluded place to stay, or the couple travels to a nearby island.  After a week of togetherness, they return home to begin their married life together. 

Technorati Tags: carribean travel, island weddings, puerto rico, wedding planning

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