Wedding ceremonies are one of the major social celebrations in life and while society has done away with various rituals and conventions with the passage of time, certain customs still rule the ceremony. While weddings celebrate the union of the bride and the groom, much care also has to be taken by the hosts to ensure that the guests are entertained properly and are looked after well.
The wedding party is made up of the family members and relatives of the bride and the groom. There are certain important functions and rituals which are performed by these participants. They are integral to the wedding ceremony. In fact, it is the activities of the wedding party which adds a flavor of happiness and joy that splash the wedding reception and ceremony with the color of festivity.
The primary function of it is to lead before the bride makes her first appearance in the church aisle. The individuals comprising the wedding party move in groups preceding the bride while being observed by the guests. The male members of this group usually position themselves behind the groom.
This is followed by the bride’s entry and therefore the entrance of the wedding party is seen as the symbol of the beginning of the ceremonial celebrations. This is followed by the exchange of marriage vows and the culmination of the various wedding rites and rituals to signify the union of the couple.
After the wedding ceremony has been solemnized, everyone assembles at the wedding reception where the music band announces the wedding parties who come to the forefront and in their turn are required to introduce the newly married couple. The bride and groom also can make arrangements to acknowledge the contributions in adding festive moods to the ceremony.
The party may be requested to dance to a chosen song of the bride and groom on the dance floor. Apart from that, the wedding party is also given wonderful and innovative wedding favors by the bride and the groom and the customary presence of the wedding party fill up the ceremony with vigor.
Archive for January, 2011
Wedding Party Roles
Friday, January 14th, 2011Wedding Dress Styles – Choosing the Right One
Friday, January 14th, 2011Choosing a wedding dress is probably one of the most time consuming and difficult things for a bride to do. There are so many styles to choose from that it can be quite overwhelming. When you break it all down, there are basically 5 choices, the A-Line or Princess, Empire, Column, Ball Gown and Mermaid.A-Line or Princess StyleThis is a great dress that is suitable for most body types. The way the dress is made gives the impression of height and is good for the bride who wishes to look taller. The cut also helps to make the bride look slimmer which is a bonus. The style means that there is a full skirt and the whole dress is very versatile. It accentuates the best bits of your body and hides the others!EmpireThis is a very good dress again for most body types but especially good for those women with a smaller bust or those with a larger bust. This is because the dress brings the focus of attention to around the neckline. With some jewellery here, the effect is increased and the neckline becomes the centre of attention.ColumnThe column style dress is quite well fitting and is more suitable for the slimmer lady. It is not the most forgiving so if you have body areas that are perhaps a little larger than you are happy with, this dress will not do well to hid it. Due to the hugging nature of the dress, it will make the bride look taller, the downside is that it can be a little harder to move in!Ball GownThis style of dress is good for the slimmer bride and also for those who do not wish to show off the leg area too much. The way the dress fans out at the bottom does not show off the legs at all but the centre of focus if at the upper half of the body. This style is also probably not best suited to shorter women as it can look proportionally unequal.MermaidThis style of dress is best suited to the slender bride as it does show off the figure and does not look flattering for those who do not enjoy their body curves. There are a range of styles to choose form and you can see if there is one for you.Just remember that once you have decided upon your dress, you need to invest in the proper dress storage box for it otherwise you risk ruining your investment in many years time through fabric degradation.
Online Dating Research Update – Hookmeup & La Trobe University
Friday, January 14th, 2011The research is being conducted online in IM with online daters between the ages of 18 and 30. Participants chat with the interviewer about their online dating experiences – what’s been good, what’s been bad and anything in between. Participants discuss if they think there’s anything risky about online dating, how many people they’ve met through online dating, what have been the outcomes of these meetings and how does it all compare to meeting people in other ways.
Well, some of the interim results are in and we’d like to share them with you.
Professor Pranee Liamputtong says:It’s interesting, when we compare these early project findings to some similar research we did five years ago, you can see a real change in how and why people are using online dating. Five years ago online dating was less common and a lot of people felt some stigma around using it, whereas now it’s much more the norm. Many participants are reporting that this is one of the most common ways they and their friends meet people.
So what are people using online dating for? Participants so far have shared a variety of reasons. It seems most people seem to be using online dating to seek out a long term partner. But that’s not to say sex doesn’t feature. For some people online dating still offers an opportunity to explore their sexuality; such as allowing people to try different sexual behaviours or to explore their sexual orientation. As one participant who uses online dating as with her partner summed up “meet people and maybe have sum fun, make friends”.
Online dating also offers a great way for people to widen their networks allowing you to meet people that you wouldn’t otherwise and it can all be done when you’re comfortable at home. One participant noted that she liked online dating because it “enabling me to meet someone who I shared interests with – without having the hassle of trying to have a conversation in some noisy bar or pub where all of the guys mates are watching his every move”.
Of course everyone has some method of screening their potential dates. The most obvious are by looks and personality as they are displayed initially through a profile and then through chat, email and phone calls. But how else are our fellow online daters screening their potential hook ups?
Increasingly people are using an array of online methods to screen their dating prospects. Some people like to look for consistency between what a person writes on their profile and what they type in chat. Some people like to use webcam as it helps them read body language and expressions to assess sincerity and honesty. And now with the rise of social networking sites, a number of online daters will check out their prospective dates MySpace or Facebook pages to see if everything adds up and matches what they already been told and the photos they’ve already seen.
So does this all sound similar or different to your own online dating experiences? If you’d like to be part of this project and share your thoughts, experiences and opinions about online dating then just add onlinedating@latrobe.edu.au to your messenger or visit the project webpage to find out more.