Thursday 29 January 2009

English Wedding vs Mariage français

If you’re French and invited to attend an English wedding, you may have some surprises, and vice versa. The main different are the dress code, food, and the length of the reception,to name a few things.

The dress code
In general in the UK the groom, ushers, father of the groom and bride all wear the same outfit, a Morning Suit, (British type of tuxedo). Whist in France they typically do not have any ushers and the groom wears a simple smart suite. As for bridemaids, in France they tend to be under the age fo 10 and the bride and groom have a witness each, whilst in the UK there can be any number of bridesmaide all wearing idientical dresses.

The wedding reception
The biggest difference here is the legnth of the event. In the UK a traditioanl wedding is held at noon, followed by a seated lunch, made up of a starter, main dish, wedding cake, and some speeches by the Best man, the bride's father and the groom…and at 6pm, it’s all over and everyone waves off the newlyweds as they head on their honeymoon and then sometimes go back to more disco dancing.

Whereas at 6pm a French wedding is just getting starting! Straight after the ceremony, the guests are invited to a “vin d’honneur”, which is a cocktail party with champagne and canapés. People who are not invited to the dinner tend to be invited to this, which last for around 2hrs. Then there is the main sit down meal which includes a series of dishes, a starter, a fish dish, some alcohol sorbet or a small glass of spirit to help the digestion, a meat dish, a cheese plate, perhaps a dessert, and finally the wedding cake.

Basically do not expect to leave a French wedding dining table early. By the time speeches, games and pranks have all taken place, it will probably be well past midnight and this is when dancing starts.

1 comment:

  1. We were invited to a wedding at the Castle Hattoncatel Château in Lorraine. It was a magnificent place and wedding. It was a mixture of an Enlish and French wedding.
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