Looking for some opinions/advice....
FI is Russian Orthodox and I am Lutheran. We need to get married in the Orthodox Church for the marriage to be recognized by the Church, and there are a lot of traditional rituals we will be performing, but Eastern traditions.... not the Western wedding traditions I am used to and was looking forward to!
For example, there will be no "Here Comes the Bride", no processional, no flowergirl, no Dad giving me away, and no vows.... instead there will be a ring service at the back of the church, the crowning and marriage service at the front of the church, and some more very traditional elements....
My thought is to leave the ceremony as is, Russian Orthodox traditional (I actually have no choice, it is what it is) but have a mini Lutheran wedding ceremony at the start of the reception... I thought instead of have a big bright fun loud entrance for my FI and myself, to allow the bridal party to enter in that fun fashion and then, to have a western traditional wedding song playing as my FI and I enter, where we will go stand by the cake table, and have my Pastor there to recite the Western traditional vows, possible ring exchange again or ring blessing, and then cut the cake, have a mini sermon with prayer, then eat dinner and carry on with the reception!
thought???