Dominican Wedding Traditions

I am getting married in the Dominican Republic in November 2001 and am looking for wedding customs and traditions. My fiance is Dominican but doesn't know much about this subject and I am not having much luck finding information. I would like our wedding to be very tradional and incorporate a lot of the Dominican culture and customs. Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks -- Morgan

This topic has been discussed here and myself and others have written at lenght about wedding traditions in the DR. You can do a search in the archives. My husband, who is American, and I had a traditional wedding in Santo Domingo. We incorporated Dominican wedding customs as well as a few American ones. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Natasha

I have tried to do this search a couple and haven't been able to find anything about the customs or traditions.

I would also appreciate any assistance.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Natasha

THANKS!

I missed that one Natasha

Great post on your wedding. It made me remember all the little things which happened during the ceromony which I forgot about. Typical male, I guess. We were married Dominican style at St. Nicholas Church on 187th and Wadsworth in Manhattan. The priest was Guatemalan and did everything in Spanish and English. Everything was exactly as Natasha wrote except we released a couple of doves when we left the church and recently I have seen butterflies released. The reception was in Queens and there was a MC who did everything in Spanish and English. The reception had 110 people which 95 were Dominican. It was a long night of dancing Merengue and other Spanish music. They had trouble feeding us because everyone wanted to dance. My family from Illinois still talks about it after almost 11 years.

Re: Dominican Wedding Traditions -- thanks Natasha

Natasha,

Thanks so much -- this will help a lot.

Re: Dominican Wedding Traditions -- thanks Natasha

Hi Morgan,

Bear in mind that you don't have to incorporate every tradition. By getting married in the DR (I assume in a church) you will most likely automatically include a traditional aspect or two, i.e the signing of the marriage certificate during the actual ceremony. I believe that Protestant and Catholic weddings in the US don't really do this - at least I have never seen it done.

Also, the most traditional custom I think is that of the exchange of the coins (las arras). This is really cute and my husband and I loved the moment when it happened during our ceremony. Programs of the ceremony detailing and explaining each tradition were handed out to guests at the church. Guests REALLY liked that. Again, good luck!

Regards,
Natasha

Dont know where is the Problem, just do it ;-)

And the Presidente looks so "ceniza" as it should be.

Re: Dominican Wedding Traditions-- to Natasha

Thanks for all your help Natasha. Actually we are getting married on the beach -- my fiance is not very religious. We talked about a lot of your examples and traditions and unfortunatley most of the religious traditions won't work. I did like the idea of having more children in the ceremony. My fiance has 4 nieces and 2 nephews so we are going to give them roles. I also like the exchanging of the coins but my fiance said he had never heard of it and that his siblings never used it in their weddings. I want to keep things tradtional to the family, unfortunately it seems a lot of their traditions have become Americanized.

Anyway, thanks again for all of your great suggestions and please let me know if you think of anything else.

Morgan