A Russian groom has it tough! On the morning of the wedding, the groom has to pay a 'ransom' and pass a series of tests, including obstacle courses and quizzes about the bride, to get to her. Brush up on that trivia!
''Creeling the groom'' is one of the older traditions from Scotland, that's only practiced in some of the rural areas in today's time. The groom's friends fill up a creel (basket) with stones and it is then tied to the groom's back, who is supposed to run around the town without dropping any stones. He can only stop when his wife-to-be agrees to kiss him. Make sure not to tick her off the day before!
If anybody wants to dance with a Cuban bride, they have to pin some money on her dress first! It usually goes towards covering the cost of the wedding and the honeymoon. Keep those groovy moves coming!
It is customary in Hungarian weddings for the bride to gift her new husband with handkerchiefs (in numbers of 3 or 7), and in return the groom gives his new wife a bag of gold coins.
In the Neur tribe of Sudan, in order to continue the lineage of women who cannot have children, they are married off as a 'husband' to other women- who in turn are impregnated by 'secret boyfriends'. The barren woman is considered as the legitimate father to the child from then on.
In Greece, the bride usually carries a lump of sugar in her glove as a symbol for having a sweet life ahead. Make sure to keep an eye on her though if she has a sweet tooth! ;)
In Venezuela, it is considered good luck for the couple if they can escape the reception party without anyone noticing- and good luck also for the first guest who notices that they're missing.
Some tribal parts of Papua New Guinea present the groom's family with pigs, the number of which decide the price of the bride.
A wedding in Niger is incomplete without a dance performance by a camel! No, really!!
A bride of the Tujia community from China takes wedding tears to a whole new level. She starts crying for one hour everyday a month before the wedding. Ten days in, her mother joins in and ten days after that, the grandmother does too. Eventually all the women join the party. Some even compose Crying Wedding songs.
In an Indian wedding, 'Joota Chupai' is a big fun tradition. For the wedding ceremony, when the groom has to take off his shoes to enter the ‘mandap’, (the platform where the ceremonies take place), the girls from the bride’s side, usually her sisters and cousins, steal and hide them. After the wedding, when the groom has to leave the mandap, they use the shoes to extort a significant amount of money out of him. It’s a fun game which gets the families bonding.
Mauritanian women are force-fed to put on weight so as to be more appealing to prospective grooms. They start as young as 5 and little girls are sent to 'fat-farms', which is kinda like summer camp for eating (but not as enjoyable). In a poor country like Mauritania, it is considered a sign of wealth and prosperity if the bride is overweight. Today, as more girls are being educated and understand the health problems they could get into, this tradition is not as widely followed.
This German tradition of Baumstamm Sägen occurs right after the church ceremony. When the couple exits the Church there is a log on a sawhorse and the couple has to cut the log in half! This is to symbolize the first tough tasks of their future they can accomplish together
In this French wedding custom, pot de chambre, the guests fill up a chamber pot (that's right!) with left-over food and chocolate and champagne, and sometimes bits of toilet paper to further enhance the visuals. The day after the wedding, early in the morning, the bride and the groom are supposed to drink from it to refuel their energy after the wedding night.
