Planning your wedding requires a delicate balance between the traditions your families wish to respect and the modern elements you want to include. Here, we offer a guide to help you finesse the art of balancing tradition and modernity in your wedding plans. By following these suggestions, it will help in providing a more cohesive wedding day.
Be Honest and Communicate
Although weddings are joyous occasions, wedding planning can inevitably lead to stress. The best way to avoid stress and keep things amenable amongst families and partners is to be honest and foster open communication. A pre-wedding plan meeting that involves the parents and happy couple can help set the tone for your wedding.
Discussing but not committing to your family’s suggestions is a good starting point. It allows you to share stories about traditions, learn why they are essential, and consider how they might fit in with your plans. It also shows you are open to suggestions while laying down the ground rules that make it clear you have the final say.
Keep people in the loop as plans become final regarding the wedding ceremony halls Vaughan offers, flowers, entertainment, and menu to help manage expectations. Communication and honesty help avoid disappointment or even anger on your wedding day when family members discover their suggestions were not included.
Consider the “F” Word (Faith)
The role religion plays in your wedding is very personal. However, when family pressure has you wondering how to proceed, there are a few things you can do:
- Revisit Your Feelings about Faith: Do you still hold onto aspects of your faith? Does faith provide support when times are rough? Have you lost all connections with faith and the religion practiced in your home growing up, or are there still elements you respect and cherish?
- Listen to Your Family’s Input: Listen to the reasoning behind your family’s desire to include religion. What is important to them, and how can you have aspects of their wishes in the ceremony?
- Consider Your Fiancée’s Views on Faith: Is your fiancée more religious than you, or vice versa? Is their family more religious than yours or vice versa? Are their feelings about faith a “deal breaker”?
Explore potential aspects of faith where you might be more flexible. This type of reflection allows you to find a way to balance the tradition of religious rites with the more modern ceremony where religion is not included. For example, you might incorporate the breaking of the Jewish Wedding glass, have a reading from the Bible, or adopt the entry of the baraat.
Be Open to Compromise
You’ll soon find that an important family member is always involved in the wedding plans with their heart set on something specific. While you are the couple calling the shots, it’s essential to consider whether vetoing a request is necessary.
As mentioned above, it can be challenging to compromise on some things, such as religion’s role in your wedding. However, take the time to weigh the importance a loved one’s wishes might have on them compared to how much it will impact your wedding day. You can make the right choices regarding ideas you accept and veto.
For example, you might want something other than an utterly culturally-driven menu, but could you include an appetizer or dessert table featuring traditional menu items? You might not like the idea of the flowers your mother-in-law would like to see in your bouquet. Still, you could include those flowers on her table centrepiece or have a corsage made for her.
Review The Traditions
Ask your parents to list the traditions they want to be included on your wedding day. You might not realize there are some charming things that you could include to make everyone happy. Traditions can be injected in many different ways, from the music played while walking down the aisle to the vows and the dances to the menu and flowers.
For example, while the father walking the bride down the aisle is traditional, many brides have both parents join her as a modern twist. Another example is not wanting the celebrant to ask, “Who gives this woman to this man?” or variations of the question.
The bride might feel this is inappropriate in modern times and instead waive the question. Yet, you could ensure the father shakes the groom’s hand when she arrives at the altar instead.
List Your Must-Have Wedding Trends
It would help to list all the must-have wedding trends you’d like to include. In most cases, these are the make-or-break elements that help personalize your wedding and that you aren’t willing to compromise on, such as:
- Green wedding practices using sustainable decorations, local food sourcing, minimizing waste, etc.
- The wedding ceremony halls in Vaughan capture the right ambiance.
- Vetoing embarrassing, outdated traditions such as clinking glasses for a kiss, tossing the Bride’s garter into a bevy of single men, or feeding each other wedding cake.
- Your attire and what your wedding party wears.
- The members of your wedding party.
The list is based on your preferences and the most important things to you. Once your list is complete, discuss your decisions with family members and take the time to explain why these are deal breakers for your wedding plans. It helps smooth the ruffles when people understand where you’re coming from.
Be True to Yourself
What you wear, the vows you exchange, your wedding theme, and the people in your wedding party are essential elements that help define who you are as a couple. No matter what way you look at it, this is your wedding. Who you and your partner are is the most crucial consideration for your wedding plans.
No matter how much pressure there is on you to meet the expectations of your respective families, it would be best if you were true to who you are and respect each other’s wishes to create a wedding experience you will never look back on with regrets. Explore our bridal shower venue to ensure your celebrations align perfectly with your unique personalities and wishes for an unforgettable experience.
To learn more about Chateau Le Jardin’s wedding ceremony halls in Vaughan, click here.