British Wedding Traditions | Learn British Culture #Spon

125,876 views ・ 2018-05-19

English Like A Native


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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someone is getting married and I'm here to tell you all about the traditional
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British or wedding hello everyone my name is Anna English this is English
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like a native and in anticipation of the royal wedding I thought this was a
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perfect opportunity to discuss the culture and the traditions surrounding a
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British wedding now this subject is huge there's so much
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information that I could give to you but I thought I would just give you a
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general overview of the British wedding now before we dive on into this subject
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I do want to give a huge shout out and a big THANK YOU to our long-term sponsors
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take a look. right let's talk about weddings. when you
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meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with depending on your
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circumstances you can choose from three options. you can either have a civil
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partnership a civil marriage or a religious marriage. but what's the
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difference? civil partnerships are only available to
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same-sex couples, so two boys or two girls who want to spend their lives
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together can choose to have a civil partnership, it's very similar to a
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marriage but there are a few differences for example adultery is not recognized
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as grounds for divorce. interesting. same-sex couples also now
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have the option to have a civil marriage or a religious marriage. now civil
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marriage and religious marriage are pretty much the same it's just that a
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religious marriage contains religious content like religious songs and
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religious readings will be held in a place of worship like a church. the way
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it generally works with the majority of the people in the UK is that you marry
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someone that you fall in love with. you're free to choose who you want to
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marry and when you want to marry them. it's not uncommon these days for a
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couple to spend a lot of time together sometimes years before marriage even is
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suggested. many couples even live together for many years and in some
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cases, like in my case, couples will have a child before they decide to get
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married and actually marriage isn't always a step that a couple decides to
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take. some people don't believe that it's good for a relationship or even
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necessary to get married and whatever decision that people make surrounding
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marriage it's all accepted in the UK. we're very liberal and open-minded we
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just want people to be happy. so who can get married? well there are
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three basic rules both parties have to be 16 or over. the second one is that you
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have to be available to be married so you either have to be single or you have
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to be divorced from a previous marriage so legally you've been taken out of that
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marriage or a widow. you're a widow if your previous partner who you were
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married to is now deceased if they die you become a widow in which case you're
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free to marry again, and finally you cannot marry someone you are closely
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related to. now from now on I'm going to be referencing a heterosexual couple
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because that's what my knowledge base is and what my experience is. if there's
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anything you'd like to add that is more suited to your situation then please do
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share it with us in the comment section below so we can all learn together. so in
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a traditional heterosexual couple in the old days, and still quite a lot now but
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it is changing, it's expected for the man to propose to the woman. a woman can
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propose to a man but it's traditionally done in a leap year. don't ask me why
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it's very strange. so traditionally a man would propose to
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the woman, now in the old days a man would first ask permission from the
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woman's father or at least the woman's family to ask if he could propose to the
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woman. these days a man generally just goes straight to the woman and asks her.
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he will get down on one knee and he will present a ring (typically a diamond ring)
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and he would ask the question "will you marry me" and then the lady gives her
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answer either yes, no or I need some time to think. something to note, a proposal is
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also sometimes referred to as asking for a lady's hand in marriage.
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so if she says yes everyone's happy the engagement is announced to the world and
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everyone celebrates. there would normally be some form of engagement party and
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then the planning starts. of course it depends on when you decide to book your
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wedding. some people decide to have a very long engagement. I've known people
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who have been engaged for years and years and years and there are two
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reasons for this. perhaps it's because the timing to get married is not quite
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right because of illness or family issues or work perhaps, but also some
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people delay the wedding because weddings in the UK are very expensive
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but once the date is set and everything is being planned one of the first things to
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do is to send out invitations and find out which of your guests will be coming
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along. now invitations can be two-tiered some people are invited to the whole
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event, so the actual service of marriage as well as the party and the event that
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happens after the marriage, other people are invited just to the party afterwards
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and this can be for a number of reasons. perhaps the church in which you're
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deciding to marry in is very small and won't hold many guests or perhaps you
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have a very tight budget and you can't afford to feed everybody and to get
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everyone into the church on time so you just invite extra people to come in the
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evening. as the wedding date approaches there is a celebration that happens
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with both the bride-to-be and the groom to be. the bride will get together with
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her female friends and have a hen do this is a party for the bride-to-be and
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her friends, and the groom to be will get together with his friends and have a
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celebration called a stag do. sometimes this is one night, sometimes it's a whole
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day, and evening some have a stag do which is the whole weekend, some even
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have a whole week which i think is a bit greedy but each to their own.
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but the hen do and the stag do are designed to celebrate their
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last moments of freedom, their last moments of living as Singleton's before
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they tie the knot and become a married couple, bound to each other for the rest
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of their lives. when the big day arrives the guests
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congregate, that means they get together, and they become known as the
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congregation, so they congregate at the venue and they are there with the groom
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as well as his best man so that's a special man a best friend or a brother
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or someone who's chosen to support him on the day he look after him, and along
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with the ushers, and the ushers are basically helpers to help the
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congregation to find their seats and help everything run smoothly. now seating
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in the venue will normally be split in two. guests of the groom on one side and
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guests of the bride on the other leaving a walkway right down the middle
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known as the aisle, and the groom will stand at the top of the aisle with his
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best man waiting for his beautiful bride to arrive. once the guests are all seated
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and everyone is ready then the bride arrives usually in style in a very posh
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car or a horse-drawn carriage. just before the bride enters the venue she
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gets together with her bridesmaids and pageboys if she has them, she will also
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be there with the father of the bride if she decides to go in with her father. now
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traditionally the bride and father of the bride would enter together first,
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followed by the bridesmaids but these days it tends to be the bridesmaids who
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go first. they walk down the aisle everyone looks at them and it creates a
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sense of anticipation "we can't wait for the bride" then the music starts and
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traditionally the music is 'here comes the bride' or it's also known as the
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wedding march and they walk down the aisle to this music and everyone's like
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"Oh beautiful"
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and she'll be wearing a beautiful white dress sometimes an ivory dress or cream
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dress and in some cases they wear all sorts of colors but traditionally it's a
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white dress and she'll have a veil potentially over her face to cover her
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beauty until she arrives at the top of the venue, faces her groom, who will
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remove the veil and reveal her beautiful face. so then the ceremony begins the
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bride and groom are stood at the altar with whoever is running the ceremony and
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everyone else takes their seats. now there are a few particular points that
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everyone expects in a wedding that you should definitely look out for if you
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attend a British wedding they are: objections. now this always
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makes me giggle because it's such an awkward moment during the ceremony. the
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congregation are asked does anybody object to this wedding do you have any
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legal reason why you think these two can't be married and everyone goes quiet
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and everyone looks around to see if anyone will do the dramatic thing of going they
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can't get married because I love him or because he's married to me. I've never
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seen anyone object to a wedding in the middle of a ceremony but I'm sure at
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some point it must have happened. the exchange of vows. so this is a really
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lovely moment when the bride and groom face one another and read out the vows
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that they have decided to give to one another the promises they want to make
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this is always quite a special moment and then of course the exchange of rings.
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which in every wedding I've ever been to the exchange of rings has always been a
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hilarious moment I guess because they get hot and nervous, their fingers swell and
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the rings don't always fit so it's always a little bit of a struggle for
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them to try and get those rings to fit properly, it always causes a few giggles.
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then once they've been pronounced man and wife once it's official then the
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we'll be told that he may kiss the bride and there's a beautiful smooch, a snog at
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the front of this venue and the whole congregation is like "yeah it's love it's
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amazing it's wonderful we're so happy". each ceremony will also include a
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signing of the register this is a legal requirement so they can make the whole
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thing legal and official, and during this time usually because it's not that
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interesting to watch people signing official documents normally there is a
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performance of some sort a musical interlude someone might get up and sing
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or play the guitar or there might be a nice track that's playing so everyone
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can have relax and listen to the music it's usually very nice and then when
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it's all done and dusted the bride and groom walk hand-in-hand out of the venue
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together and this is where the congregation can go outside and throw
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confetti or sometimes rice over the bride and groom as they exit the venue.
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it depends on the venue though because some venues now ban it because it makes
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such a mess but yes traditionally that's what you would expect. at this point the
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photographs will happen so when everyone is still looking fresh there's a good
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amount of daylight the photographers will come around gather different groups
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of people together and make sure there are sufficient photographs of the day.
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while the other guests are waiting there's usually a drinks reception and
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canapes going around so they don't get too hungry and too bored then they'll be
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asked to take their seats everyone will be seated according to the table plan
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with the bride and groom on the top table usually overlooking all of their
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guests, and then there'll be a meal. now this is called the wedding breakfast the
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first meal after the marriage the wedding breakfast. now as the rest of the
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day continues there are a number of things that will happen firstly most of
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the guests will receive a keepsake this might be something like a tiny little
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charm or a coaster with your name on it or
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a special handkerchief or it's just a small gift to remind you of that special
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moment in that special day. speeches. a traditional British wedding is never
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complete without a lot of speeches. now anyone can give a speech but usually you
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have to have a speech from the groom and the groom will normally say something
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wonderful about his new wife, thanks the bridesmaid, thanks everyone for coming, he
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has certain things he has to fulfill in his speech. then you will always have a
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speech from the father of the bride as well who will again say something
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wonderful about his daughter, tell the new groom to look after his daughter
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that kind of thing and then the most famous one is the best man's speech.
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remember the best man is the groom's best friend or chosen person he normally
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knows the groom better than anyone else and this is normally or should be the
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comedy speech, the light relief, the time when the groom starts to feel very
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nervous because normally the best man will tell lots of secrets and stories
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about the groom that the groom is very embarrassed by. carrying on and these are
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in no particular order there'll also be a moment where the cake is officially
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cut. a traditional wedding cake will have lots of tiers.
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in the old days you used to keep some of the tiers for a very long time I think
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one of them you would keep until your first child's christening or something
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like that. nowadays it's normally just cut by the bride and groom, make the
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first cut then it's separated out and everyone gets to enjoy a piece of cake.
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then there is the first dance where the bride and groom take to the dance floor
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a very special song is played for them and everyone watches them have a little
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bit of a dance before everyone jumps onto the dance floor and boogies the
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night away in recent years we've seen a trend of brides and grooms learning a
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set routine and surprising their guests with a fully choreographed dance routine.
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in some cases it's led to people being hospitalized
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because they try to do things after having a few drinks which they probably
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shouldn't be doing. and then everyone just has a wonderful time and there's
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usually some sort of book or something going around that people can sign or add
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their mark to so that the bride and groom have a keepsake of their own which
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has an input from all of their guests, and after all the celebrations have
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finished the bride and groom usually go on a holiday known as a honeymoon. so
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lots of information there to remember. now like I said this is traditional
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weddings and more often these days people are getting more imaginative and
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feel like they have more freedom to create a celebration that is tailored to
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them and their friends and their families. now if you are married please
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do tell me in the comments box below what was the highlight of your wedding.
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what's the one thing that you really loved during your ceremony or during the
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celebration of your wedding, and if you're not yet married but you hope to
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be married at some point in the future tell me the one thing that you really
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really want for your wedding perhaps it's a particular venue perhaps it's a
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particular person or perhaps you want to have a certain band playing in your
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after party, but do open up and let me know your thoughts down below. if you
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found today useful please show me your thumb and if you're not already
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subscribed then please do smash that big red subscribe button and the bell
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notification button so you don't miss any future lessons. until next time guys
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thank you for joining me, take care and goodbye.
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