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Celebrating a Wedding in Turkey Turhan Ece from Turkey
In the rural areas, they are different from the wedding ceremonies of urban areas. In the villages, the wedding ceremonies continue for two days. There are two separate wedding ceremonies—one in the home of the bride's family and one in the home of the groom's family. The ceremonies start Friday evening and finish Sunday noon when the groom's relatives take the bride from the home of the bride's family and bring her to the groom's home. After that, the groom's relatives and the bride's relatives have lunch together, and the bride and groom are left alone in their new home. When a couple decides to marry, the son's family makes an appointment with the daughter's family to get permission for the couple to marry. If the daughter's family accepts this wedding, the engaged couple decides the date of the wedding ceremony together with their families. The bride's family buys some gifts and furniture for their son-in-law, and the groom's family buys some gifts and furniture for their daughter-in-law before the wedding ceremony. Both the bride's family and the groom's family invite their relatives to the wedding ceremony which is held in a hotel ballroom at dinner time. At the beginning of the ceremony, when the couple enters the ceremony hall, the wedding march is played and the ladies of the court accompany them. The bride and groom sit together at the table. Their witnesses sit at their right side, and a government officer who does the wedding paperwork sits at the left side of the couple. The government officer talks about the wedding and asks both the couple and their witness about the wedding. After the couple is married, their witnesses, and the government officer sign the wedding certificate, and the government officer announces that the couple is officially married. And then, the bride and groom kiss each other and dance the first dance. After that, their relatives offer some gifts. At the end of the ceremony, the wedding cake is cut by the bride and groom, and pictures are taken of the relatives as a group. Then, the newly married couple stays in that hotel their first night. The next day, they go on a honeymoon trip. If the couple can't afford to have the wedding ceremony in a hotel ballroom with a dinner, they can have a small ceremony in one of the government wedding ceremony halls without a dinner or something like a party.
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