15 Essential Tips for Planning Your Multicultural Wedding
I am a second-generation Mexican woman dating a half-Filipino man. I know at the end of the day that he is my forever person and that one day we will be planning a multicultural wedding together. While it’s an exciting and rewarding experience, it also comes with its own unique set of challenges. So what does that look like? As a professional wedding photographer since 2016 who has specialized in capturing multicultural events, I thankfully have seen a lot and have access to some awesome past clients of mine who were able to share with me some helpful tips and tricks to you out there planning a multicultural wedding.
To help you navigate this journey with ease, I’ve compiled a list of 15 essential tips for planning your multicultural wedding.
How to plan a multicultural wedding
1. Start Early
Begin planning your multicultural wedding as early as possible to allow ample time for research, decision-making, and coordination. This will give you the flexibility to explore different cultural elements and find meaningful ways to incorporate them into your celebration.
2. Embrace diversity
Embrace the diversity of your cultural backgrounds and celebrate it throughout your wedding festivities. Whether it’s through traditional ceremonies, cultural rituals or cuisines, infuse your wedding day with elements that reflect your heritage and honor your families’ traditions.
Personalize your ceremony
Some officiants of different religions are open to the idea of conducting the ceremony jointly. Check in with them to be sure, and they can help you design a ceremony that honors both ethnic and religious traditions. Just keep in mind the length of the ceremony, you don’t want it running too long!
Get your guests involved
Is there a specific dress code, attire that you recommend, or a multi-day timeline that your guests need to be aware of? MAke sure you include that information on your invitation suite and on your website to keep them informed! This is an easy way to avoid anyone making a faux pas. Share the resources for anyone who may be attending a multicultural wedding for the first time.
Are you doing any cultural traditions in the ceremony? To better help your guests understand what is happening, you can educate them with brief explanations on the significance in your wedding program. That way they can appreciate the symbolism! You can also have the officiant explain during the ceremony tool.
Have fun with the food!
You can hire different caterers to bring a smorgasbord of each of your cultures, or find specific desserts like Churros Locos! There are also a lot of new fusion cuisine so that could potentially be another fun way to blend both cultures together.
Consider two ceremonies
Sometimes, the traditions from one culture don’t mesh well with the traditions in the other. Consider this: in Indian culture white is a symbol for mourning. Ultimately, if you come into a crossroads like this and are unable to find a compromise that will appease both families, you may end up needing to have two ceremonies.
Schedule dance classes
If you have a specific dance move you want to do you should definitely sign up for a dance class beforehand. But what about your family? Taking a cultural group dance class could be a fun ice-breaker for both sides of your family! They can learn the hora, the kalamatianos, or some salsa moves and really enjoy the party!
Have fun with the music
This is where the party really starts! You can hire a DJ that’s familiar with the music in your culture, request specific artists or songs, or like Ariana and Dominic did on their wedding day; you can hire mariachis to perform!
Hire vendors who know what’s up
There’s a ton of moving parts to weddings and a million little details that have to come together. Hiring vendors who are familiar with your culture and traditions will take a huge weight off of your shoulders. Similarly with DJ’s, they’ll know what tunes to play, and photographers need to be informed of any changes or important moments to make sure they don’t miss the shot.
Consider having a bilingual ceremony
If your family is anything like mine (my parents only speak Spanish) you may consider having a bilingual wedding ceremony. Consider hiring a professional bilingual officiant or you can get a close friend ordained and have them do it for you! Just make sure that it’s someone you trust, translating is not an easy gig.
Check out the Vendors of Color Directory (I’m a co-founder!) while you’re at it!
Stay true to you
Take a deep breath. It can feel overwhelming when you’re pulled between what you have to do and what you want to do, all while making sure both cultures are represented equally. At the end of the day, you want to make sure that you feel comfortable with whatever you decide to do. Don’t lose sight of the big picture: this is YOUR wedding day! Make sure it fits your vision for what you want the day to look and feel like.
Advice from real couples:
Elisabeth & James
“I would say explore ways for cultural aspects to be represented at the wedding. How can the wedding celebrate the beauty of this new union?”
Maddie & Austin
“When I was planning I tried to think of honoring culture in the right way. I made sure to do my research about everything I could and understand the history and why of each thing. For me I know my family’s traditions because I was raised seeing them. But I didn’t know Austin’s so educating myself was #1.
I never knew anything about jumping the broom or even if it was appropriate for me to do it – but after research and of course talking to Austin and knowing he really wanted to do it so I was all in 🙂
Even when planning events at work I always love talking to my peeps of whatever holiday/special occasion may be and learning more about it. Knowledge it truly the key!”
There you have it! I hope this helps make your wedding planning less stressful.
ALLISON & Brendan
Consider what’s shared between both cultures – when Brendan and I think about what our backgrounds share (Brendan’s Indo-Trinidadian and I’m Chinese-Malaysian/Singaporean), we find so much in common, like an emphasis on family and food, and a love of tropical fruits and plants. We used our wedding as an opportunity to celebrate these shared elements – like decorating with orchids (a favorite of both our mothers that grow in both Malaysia and Trinidad) and tropical fruits.
Think creatively about wedding traditions – In order to celebrate our wedding in a way that fit our styles, we modified the Chinese tea ceremony to celebrate our siblings and their partners. It raised some eyebrows, but it was important to us! We also adapted the tradition of Trinidadian rum cake, where the newly married couple hosts wedding guests and serves the rum cake the second Sunday after the wedding, but sharing it as a wedding favor for our many guests who were only visiting for the weekend.
Over-communicate things that might be new to folks – Most people will love the opportunity to celebrate your heritage, but you should make sure to explain what’s happening ahead of time! We did this by sharing our allergy information for any food folks might not have been familiar with and guidance for what to do, wear, and say, at a Chinese tea ceremony.
Find vendors of color – We couldn’t have had such a wonderful event without a wonderful photographer like Marcela, who understood how to capture the glow of many different skintones so beautifully; a day-of-coordinator like Audrey Grace Event, who helped guide our dreams for a full Chinese rehearsal dinner; and Wunderland Events, our DJ who spun a seamless fusion of Chinese pop, east coast hip hop, and Trinidadian Socia music to match our tastes. Vendors of color who get it made the difference for us!
Ready to get started planning your own multicultural wedding? Looking for a wedding photographer?
I’m Marcela, a Latina Wedding Photographer who focuses on inclusivity and showcasing diversity. I would love to hear from you about capturing your wedding day.
Because I think you deserve damn good photos. So let me help you with that.
While you’re here don’t forget to support other BIPOC wedding vendors by checking out the Vendors of Color Directory.
