Polish Customs

tpeach

Since my FI is Polish, I would like to include something from his culture in some element of the wedding and I would like to know the origins of those traditions.  His family hasn't been much help, and the internet is filled with ridiculous information that he has never seen at a Polish wedding before.   Any ideas are welcome.Also, if there is something you love about the traditional Polish wedding that you wished you could have at the receptions you see here, please share. 

ffmaid

If it is not a tradition in his family then it really is pointless to do some polish tradition that is not his families tradition. Why not ask his folks and grandparents about their weddings? Polkas are common in some famlies but not all.

andreaadam

My FI is also Polish. At his grandma's wedding they did some sort of dance with napkins. It was really funny since most of the guests were 75 years old. They all knew how to do it and participated. I agree with PP that you should ask his parents and grandparents about specific traditions. If you incorporate something that no one understands it won't mean as much. Polkas are also pretty common. I told my FI we are limiting our playlist to 1 since I don't know how and he thinks he does but doesn't.

amberhoxeng

My fiance is from England and I have realized its hard to get him and his family tell me traditions! What I have found is that they don't realize the differences until it is brought up later going through details (sometimes at the wrong time for a disagreement! lol). Of course for your case, this is depending on how many American and Polish weddings your fiance's family have attended. My fiance and his family have only attended English weddings and the only American weddings they know of are from the movies. One thing we have found recently while counting the amount of wine bottles we need per table is the head table tradition! For the English it is custom to have his parents sit next to me, and mine next to him with the wedding party following on both sides. This could be a European tradition or maybe just English? Hard to say, but it never hurts to ask your fiance if this is what they do!

tpeach

I guess the problem is that they have some traditions like something with bread, salt, and vodka, but I don't know what they mean and when I mention it, I don't really get too many answers as to what everything symbolizes.  (I searched on the web, but get totally different answers) So, I though that I might do a little something to include his culture, like have a venue serve a certain dish, have a certain dance, put a bottle of vodka on each table, etc...   By the way, his Grandparents and all don't speak English, so I am limited in who I can ask.

brownhenry

I'm Polish!!!
I'm not so sure the vodka on tables is a good idea. I don't remember anyone in my family ever enjoying vodka. I know my aunt and uncle are all over the whiskey and wine. I think vodka and I think Russian not Polish but it could just be the region my family is from. 

The bread, salt and wine is for both sets of parents to do to the newly weds. The kids are given each thing by their parent and words are said. The bread is for bountiful harvest and a fruitful life, the salt is to remind you that life isn't always fair and it can get bitter, and the wine symbolizes that things can turn out alright. (At least thats what I understand.)

I am doing the un-veiling. Its where your mother takes the veil off and puts an apron on you and a babushka (scarf over your head) and then they hold the veil up and do like a dollar dance thing.

Unless you have people who will eat just about anything you might want to stay away from the Polish food.

One other thing is you could do Polish wedding vows or suggest that he say his in Polish. I found some but I had them translated and they aren't really anything special but his grandparents would understand it lol.

So those are my ideas and the things I'm doing but good luck I hope you find something

akleczyn

My friend was showing me pics from a wedding he went to in Poland. It was intense. Before the ceremony, the groom had to go buy the bride. He started by offering a nice bottle of vodka, and kept getting refused until he threw in his wallet as a symbol of sharing his earthly possessions with her (he got that one back of course). 
At the reception, they had two different rooms - I don't know why. One was for eating and one just for dancing. There was an entire table of sausage. There were bottles of vodka on every table and everyone keeps doing shots. This is not so realistic for American weddings, as most places require alcohol be distributed by a licensed bar tender. It went until like 5 am.
Basically the big one is the aforementioned bread thing, and then the unveiling ceremony. Those can get really emotional when ppl know the meaning, cuz the mother lets go of her daughter cuz she is now a grown woman, a wife.  There are diff versions of this, with the bridesmaids sometimes walking in a circle around her and singing this 12angels song (or something like that). Another version, more fun, is that the veil gets taken off the bride and then each bridesmaid has to wear it and dance with her groomsman briefly.