Incorporating heritage?

Starfish724

I am mostly Irish and would really like to incorporate my heritage into my wedding, but I have no idea how. We can't really use green as a wedding color since we are outdoors in a vineyard which is all green anyway. I tried to google it, but of course I get all of the websites advertising for me to buy "Irish wedding supplies." My family isn't much help, since my biological father's side is all Irish but I haven't spoken to any of them since I was 10 and my mother's Irish side of the family hasn't been much help. So my question is this: how have you incorporated your heritage into your wedding? And do you have any ideas for me?

Court8181

Hey Star!  Both FI and I are Irish and we are incorporating the claddagh symbol throughout our wedding.  We had a friend design a modern take on the claddagh with our names and wedding date, and we've been using that for programs, invites and so on.  The meaning of the claddagh, love, friendship and loyalty just seems so fitting for a wedding!!Kelly green is one of our accent colors and we are using Bells of Ireland flowers in our centerpieces. I wanted someone to read the Irish Blessing as a reading but since we are having a Catholic Mass and it is considered non-secular, that got vetoed rather quickly by the priest .  I think I'm just going to print it in the programs instead!We are also incorporating "The Bell of Truce" into our ceremony, which is a Celtic tradition.  Basically, the bell will be rung at a point in our ceremony and then we will place the bell in our home.  The tradition is that when you and DH argue, one of you should ring the bell and it will remind you of your wedding day and why you got married in the first place. I agree, googling it brings you to a bunch of useless crap, and honestly a lot of it just seems really old fashioned to me so it was very important to me to try to find a "fresh" take on incorporating Irish traditions.  Whew, this got long!  Hope some of this helps!

caitie789

Both FI's father and my father have passed away.  On their funeral cards they had an abridged version of the irish blessing.  Before their passing it had always been in my house and has been special to me for years.  After our vows our mothers are going to take turns reading the verses of the irish blessing.  I am sure it will be a tear jerker, but it was going to be our last reading anyways and we felt it appropriate to include our moms this way.Is there something you love about being irish?  Look at it that way and try to bring it into your day.  Does it need to be a visual thing?  If so there are more subtle ways of incorporating things like perhaps use a celtic knot on your programs or use the claddagh symbol as it stands for love, loyalty and friendship...everything that embodies what a wedding is. 

kristen0393

My FI & I are both Irish too and will be incorporating both the Irish Blessing and possibly a handfasting into our ceremony. I'm not quite sure how to incorporate the handfasting yet but I think it's a beautiful ceremony. I'm hoping to find a JP who will be able to help with that! :-)

Starfish724

A blessing is a great idea, any helpful links where I might find a few? Or books even? I do love green, especially Kelly green (plus Kelly is my last name!). Initially I thought I might add a bit of it to my gown or veil, but then my gram said it was bad luck for someone to wear green on their wedding day. I did find a cute garter that has the Claddagh on it. Maybe I could incorporate it into my cake as well. Hmm...I'll have to think about that.

Starfish724

Oh and I do love the bell, I had already planned on using that though. My gram has one on her hutch in her house, and I'm usually the one to ring it when they start bickering. Usually makes my gram roll her eyes and my gramp laugh.