The Brides of Culture Bridal Exhibition, started in 2009, is readying for its fifth year of offering culturally diverse wedding dress styles, design, and other ideas for the brides and grooms out there who are looking to embrace their culture when getting married. The event will be held on September 13 in Canary Wharf, London, with over 45 vendors making an appearance to offer brides and grooms of all races and ethnicities choices they won’t easily find elsewhere.
In an interview with Luton On Sunday, Brides of Culture’s Abi Laditan said that the difficulty couples face when looking to embrace their cultures during their weddings really inspired her to start Brides of Cultures, noting that her own desire to marry a Nigerian man was the final push she needed. ““I got engaged to my now husband, who like me is of Nigerian heritage, in October of 2008. As a genuine lover of weddings and planning events, I happily took my time to organize my big day. In the planning of this ‘extravaganza,’ I realized the lack of resources for other brides-to-be from similar cultures.” With two exhibitions a year for the last five, Ms. Laditan’s idea has certainly taken root.
Multicultural Marriages Are Increasingly Common, but Wedding Choices Don’t Show That
It’s strange, to say the least, that with multicultural and multiethnic marriages rising in the United States and the United Kingdom that events like the Brides of Culture Bridal Exhibition aren’t more common. According to the most recently available data from Pew Research, one in every seven marriages in the States is interracial or interethnic. Even so, unless you want to follow Western European traditions — you know, white dress and whatnot — you’re going to have a hard time tracking down clothing, caterers, and musicians that can help you embrace your culture on your big day. The average couple spends $29,000 on their wedding. At the very least, that money should get them what they want.
The problem is being helped somewhat by independent vendors and artisans on the worldwide web, as Latina reports. Vendors on the popular artisanal marketplace Etsy offer loteria style bubbles, dulce de leche sponge cakes, and much, much more. Still, without similar exhibitions or vendors in our area, local couples are hard pressed to embrace their culture as they marry, without, it seems, heading someplace that is more celebratory of the concept.
How did you bring your culture into your wedding? What businesses, local or online, did you use to make your dream wedding a reality? Let us know in the comments below.