Weddings Across Cultures

In all our years catering for events around London, we’ve been lucky enough to experience some of the most fantastic surprise parties, corporate events, product launches, University Balls and many more. But by far our favourite event to cater for is the wedding. Every wedding is different and, although our chocolate fountain might be at every one, we’re amazed with the efforts that people go to in making this special day special.

Your traditional English wedding will be very familiar to most of us. The ceremony, followed by drinks and canapés, culminating in the wedding breakfast and speeches and finally being finished off by the obligatory disco. But when you begin to cater to a host of different cultures, nationalities and religions; it becomes clear how diverse our lives are.

Indian weddings are known for their high attendance and glamorous ritual. Depending upon how traditional the bride and groom choose to be, the ceremony can be a lengthy affair. Indian weddings can be immediately identified with the ‘Baraat’, a precession of the closest friends and family of the couple who make a grand entrance of song and dance; well before the disco is let loose! The ceremony of the marriage is known as the ‘Phera’ and involves the clothing of the bride and groom to be tied together, who then move around a central fire (more likely an ornament or cake in practice!).

Chinese weddings are also highly governed by ritual, including consulting fortunetellers to decide on a lucky day. Luck is very important when it comes to a Chinese wedding ceremony; it’s not uncommon for the couple to be wished good fortune a hundred times throughout the day! In fact, the groom even has to repay the guests for their kindness, literally. Money is handed out in red envelopes to a variety of people, before he is allowed to see and marry his bride.

Chinese and Indian weddings are very common on our trips around London. Whilst the two may be very different to each other, and even more different so than an English wedding, we have come to the conclusion that there’s one constant between the trio of celebrations…

Our chocolate fountain always goes down a storm!