Incorporating Persian Wedding Traditions

clueless2009

Does anyone have advice on how to create a ceremony that incorporates some elements of a Perisan wedding? I am half Persian and half English, FI is American, of English descent. Neither family is at all religous.  We were planning to do a non-denominational ceremony but would like to add in the Kalleh Ghand and Sofreh table somehow. Does anyone have advice?

green795

We are having the same issues. FI's dad is from and lives in Iran (FI is actually visiting him now!) and he's going to ask his dad for help. We were actually raised Catholic, and my mom's from Italy so we're trying to include many elements. We're doing the table at the reception next to the guest book table, with an explanation of what each item symbolizes. We are also going to have a table of the wedding cookies and some traditional Italian cookies. But when FI comes back from Iran, I'll hopefully have some more info to post.

Lilnaz11

Hi there! I am Persian too, but my fiance is not. We are doing a traditional Christian ceremony, then immediately after, we are doing the Aghd with the grand and everything, with the sofreh right on the stage where we're exchanging vows. Then, at the reception, we're doing "the knife dance" right before the cake-cutting. Also, in the ceremony program, we will have a little write-up of what everything is all about. PS- In the soften Aghd, we are not using a Khoran. We are using a Persian book of poetry, I think it's called "hafez" . The person conducting our Aghd is keeping it completely secular.

Lilnaz11

Sorry, my IPad auto-corrected several words on the above post

Peledreamsofrain

Where are you having your ceremony?  The Sofreh table is something that most churches absolutely won't allow (I had a co-worker whose brother had a lot of drama around his wedding because of that).  If your venue is non-denominational, it shouldn't be an issue.

The biggest thing we tell brides looking to culturally blend wedding traditions is to talk to the families involved.  ASK them what is important to them, and what they would really treasure seeing.  There are regional variations that they might surprise you with.

MoonlightSilver

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Peledreamsofrain

D'oh, good catch Moonlight.

OliveOilsMom

@KnotPorscha Advertizing and on a zombie thread!