Your Great Big Italian Wedding ? How to Make It Happen An Italian wedding is a joyous occasion, filled with traditions and memories. From the walk down the aisle to the last waltz, planning your Italian wedding can be as much fun as the event itself. Tradition starts with the engagement and the giving of a diamond ring as a token of the promise to marry. The choosing of the ring is of utmost importance, since Italians believe that the flames of love provide the intense heat to create a diamond. The diamond ring chosen must symbolize the groom?s love for his intended bride, and the many facets and undiscovered joys of their life together. It is also traditional for the bride to be to start gathering her trousseau and items for her new home. This tradition has become the bridal shower, and important part of planning your Italian wedding. A charming Venetian custom is the `obstacle race?, when the bride and groom take a walk together and obstacles are placed in their path by friends and relatives. How they react to these obstacles says a lot about how they will handle the challenges of married life. Invitations should be issued handwritten or engraved on linen or parchment paper. It is worth getting these especially made, as Italian wedding invitations are so beautiful that they will be treasured among keepsakes for generations to come. For the bride, nothing is more important that choosing the right wedding dress, and with an Italian wedding, the bride can wear a dress exactly to her taste, whether it is the epitome of Italian grace and style, or a froth of romantic lace. The bride is expected to wear a veil, but no other gold than her wedding ring, which she receives at the ceremony.To be truly traditional, the bride should carry a small white satin bag, called a borsa, in which guests may place small gifts and money for the couple. An Italian wedding isn't over in a couple of hours, so planning should start well in advance of the event. Because a large crowd is usually invited, a suitable venue should be chosen. Indoors or outdoors will be suitable, as long as there is plenty of room for the guests and the groaning table of food! The day may start with a church attendance early in the morning, with the wedding ceremony held in the afternoon and the reception planned to go on into the wee small hours. The wedding feast is one of the most important aspects of an Italian wedding. The traditional number of courses is 13, but can be 14 or more! Traditionally, Italian wedding soup should be served, made with delicious beef meatballs and rice, topped with parmesan cheese. Among the courses should be tasty little appetizers with mozzarella, crostini, Italian sausage and antipasto. Little sweet nibbles such as twists of sweet bread dusted with icing sugar should also be offered. There should be an abundance of salad and a variety of dressings. Main dishes can include salmon, chicken or lamb with pasta, of course. Dessert can be a classic dish such as tiramisu or panna cotta with the wedding cake. Drinks served should include espresso coffee and liqueurs. The wedding table should include bonbonieres, filled with pink and white sugar almonds for the guests. These can be tied to the chairs with white satin ribbon. Flowers should be abundant and suitable to the season, placed in vases and tied in bunches around the venue. Fresh flower bouquets should be carried by the bride and her attendants, and tied to the honeymoon car instead of beer cans! Dancing and music are vital to a proper Italian wedding. A band should be secured well ahead of the event, with a repertoire that includes traditional as well as modern numbers. Find a band that knows the traditional Italian wedding music such as the Father and Daughter Dance, and the Tarantella. The most important ingredient for a successful Italian wedding should the happiness and joy of the bride and groom. This is an occasion when young and old gather together to celebrate one of life?s most precious moments, the start of a life together.

Gail Kavanagh

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 Throw a Traditional Italian Wedding 

 Despite what you might think, you don't have to be a sun-kissed couple fresh from the shores of Sicily in order to have an Italian wedding. A couple of Italian descent are more than welcome to weave Italian traditions into their wedding -- whether or not they've ever set foot in Italy.

Many of us find that the most satisfying weddings combine nostalgic old traditions with contemporary ways of doing things. And old religious observances, historic dances, and traditional Italian foods are sure to give your wedding a warm Italian heart.

As everyone knows, Roman Catholicism is Italy's primary religion. So a traditional Italian wedding typically means a traditional Catholic wedding as well, including a full mass with the ceremony. However, it's still true that not every Italian is Catholic. Although it may be a bit unusual, if you and your partner aren't Catholic, you can still incorporate the Italian traditions in your reception. One of the most charming is the dove release, symbolizing the love and affection of each newlywed for the other, although this tradition is not very old.

 No Italian wedding is complete without a few traditional dances, such as the Tarantella. Although the Tarantella's origin is somewhat murky, most of the stories about it involve a spider bite, and tell of a dance either meant to counteract the venom, or one that simply mimics the uncontrolled motions of the sufferer. At any rate, these days the Tarantella is performed at wedding parties to wish the couple a fine future together. Participants form a circle and dance in a clockwise direction, until the music speeds up and the dancers must change direction. The tempo changes several times, each time forcing the dancers to change direction and dance even faster. The Tarantella continues until it becomes impossible to keep up, and the dance falls apart.

What's the most distinguishing aspect of an Italian wedding? The food, of course. The Italians invented the evocative word abbondanza, which somehow means something more than mere "abundance," and no Italian wedding would be complete without an overwhelming feast of many courses. Traditionally, the wedding reception begins with an antipasto course of cheeses, olives, mushrooms, and pickled sweet peppers. This course is followed by subsequent courses starring pastas, meats, salads, soups, and desserts, each one punctuated by freely flowing wine.

It's interesting to note that some of the foods at an Italian wedding have symbolic overtones. For example, the giving of sugar-coated almonds to guests symbolizes that marriage is both bitter and sweet. The number of almonds given is associated with traditional meanings: for example, three almonds speak to fertility, while five almonds wish for wealth.

Another authentic Italian wedding tradition is the breaking of a glass at the reception's end, somewhat like a similar tradition within the Jewish faith. However, the deeper symbolism underlying these traditions is very different. Within Judaism, the broken glass symbolizes human frailty and the hardship the couple's ancestors endured as a result of their faith. But in Italian weddings, the broken glass points toward the future. The number of shards is said to predict the number of happy years the couple will have together. 
It's deeply satisfying for couples of Italian descent to weave these traditional elements into their modern-day wedding. Even if only your distant relatives still reside on Italian soil and you've never been to Italy, it's still absolutely fine to follow these traditions. And that's not to say you have to be Italian, either -- all that's required is that you appreciate the richness of Italian culture and are willing to try something new.
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