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The Cultures In Weddings  Uploading ....In Britain today, there are 180 different nationalities, the majority of whom have some form of traditional wedding ceremony and supporting them is an army of businesses, including - Wedding ring designers, venues, photographers, shoes, dresses, hairdressers and cakes.
As a couple's nationality is not recorded on the marriage certificate it is hard to know how many of the 240k marriages each year are immigrants but some Essex wedding seamstresses told us that the women coming to their shop for dresses were 40% British English and 60% foreign.
Many foreign couples will get married in a registry office first - you only need proof of identification and an address - but the bride must understand her vows, so there may need to be an interpretor present. This is then followed by a traditional celebration for their own culture.
Hindu Wedding ceremonies
To keep up the proper Indian wedding traditions, there are as many as 13 symbolic rituals involved in the greeting of the groom and his family by the bride's family through to the final blessings on the married couple.
The most famous is the marriage knot, where the bride and groom are joined together by a piece of cloth which is tied to the bride's dress and the groom's scarf - or just laid over the shoulders of the bridal couple, followed by the taking of steps around a sacred fire.
Romanian Wedding Traditions
The Romanian groom comes to get his bride from her house and they have to make lots of noise on the trip so the bride's family knows they are coming. However, they then have to give the bride's family money and he will not be admitted until he has given them something - even if it is only the promise to love their daughter for the rest of his life.
In some parts of Romania it is traditional to kidnap the bride and hold her to ransom during the feast after the wedding. Then, once the ransom has been paid, the guilty party have to consume their prize - usually lots of alcohol.
Jewish Wedding Traditions
At a Jewish wedding, the bride traditionally walks around the groom three or seven times when she arrives at the Chuppah. This represents the 3 virtues of marriage: righteousness, justice and loving kindness or the Biblical interpretation that seven is synonymous with perfection or completeness.
Depending on local custom, either at the end of the ceremony or after the bride has received the ring, the groom breaks a glass. He crushes it with his right foot after which the guests yell "Mazel tov!" ("Congratulations").
The origin of this custom is unknown, although it is thought that joy must always be tempered.
Probably the most famous Jewish custom is The Horah - a circle dance where the bride and groom are lifted on chairs.
Turkish and African Marriage Traditions
For both Turkish and African communities, the drum is a central part of the celebrations - accompanied by a flute for the Turks and lots of traditional songs for the Somalis.
Brazilian Wedding Traditions
Rain and the sharing of sweets are both regarded as good fortune at Brazilian weddings and the honeymoon will be funded by guests paying money to cut small snippets from the tie of the bridegroom.
In whatever way they celebrate it, we wish all the brides and grooms a happy and prosperous life together.
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