One of the most magical things about weddings is that it’s the coming together of two worlds. Of course, the union between the two of you is the whole cause for celebration in the first place, but it’s also a joining of your family and friends. That’s why weddings are so unique, because all of your loved ones are together, in the same place! This is especially true if you and your fiancé(e) have different cultural backgrounds, and are planning to celebrate with a cultural fusion wedding. It’s so important to honour both cultures on your wedding day, as it’s a perfect reflection of the two of you. We interviewed Sharon Anderson, a bride who held her wedding at the Charleston Event Center in 2021, about her experience planning a cultural fusion wedding:

What cultures were represented at your wedding and why was it important to you to incorporate multiple traditions?

“Our wedding was really special for us because not only was it a celebration with the joining of our family and friends, but it was also a union together of two separate worlds and very different cultures. My husband’s family is from Minnesota but he was raised in Nepal and India, and my family is from Korea but I was raised in Vietnam. The two of us met in a dormitory school in Thailand and attended high school together so we had a lot of different cultural backgrounds that we wanted to honor on our wedding day!”

In what ways did you infuse both cultures into your wedding day?

“As we started preparing and planning our wedding, we had to talk through the different cultural traditions that we really wanted to keep, and other ones that we were willing to compromise on. As we had so many different cultures that were meaningful for us, we tried to really narrow our options down to things that were symbolic for both of us.

Since we grew up in Thailand and our relationship started in Chiang Mai, we wanted to cater Thai food for our reception. We chose some of our favorite dishes we used to eat in Thailand (Pad Thai, Red curry, etc) as our entrees so that our family members and friends could taste our favorite dishes from our childhood. We also wanted to honor the Indian heritage that my husband grew up in, so we went to an Indian restaurant for the rehearsal dinner.
Both of us grew up eating a lot of tropical fruits in SouthEast Asia (passion fruit, lychee and pineapples just to name a few), and so instead of the classic flavors, like chocolate and vanilla, we asked our dessert vendor to bake our wedding cake with our favorite passion fruit flavor custard.
Wedding favors were another way where we shared a little bit of our cultural background - we bought little fridge magnets of a married couple wearing a traditional Ao Dai (Vietnamese outfit) and gave them as favors to everyone who came to our wedding.
Language is also a huge part of my Korean identity so for our wedding invitations, there was one side of the page that was in Korean and the other side was written in English. We also provided both English and Korean lyrics on our wedding program so that it could be equally enjoyed by guests.
One of the most powerful and emotional moments of the wedding for me was when our parents sang “The Blessing” song to us during the ceremony. Jeremy’s parents sang their part in English and my parents sang their part of the song in Korean, and then they sang the chorus together in English - I thought it was beautifully symbolic of the coming together of two different worlds through our marriage, and despite the differences in culture and language for our parents, it was tangible that they all deeply cared and loved us and wanted to shower our relationship with their blessings.”

Were there any similarities in the customs?

“In both American and Korean culture, being hospitable and providing a good meal for the guests who come to celebrate the wedding is important, and so both of us really wanted to have good food for our wedding. We wanted the food to be memorable for us as well as the guests, so we took a long time trying and tasting different catering options.”

Tell us about your attire choices.

“For our attire, we chose to wear a western white dress and black tuxedo for our ceremony and traditional Korean outfits Hanbok for the reception. In Korean culture, the colors that the bride and groom wore were very symbolic of the yin and yang; the bride wore bright red colors and the groom wore a deep blue, similar to the circle at the center of the Korean flag. However, I wanted to put my own spin to the outfits and chose my favorite pastel colors for the Hanbok.”

What was your favorite part of your wedding day?

“The favorite part of my wedding day was walking down the aisle with my dad and seeing my husband standing in the front, and also looking around to see all of my closest family and friends rooting for our marriage and our love. There were a lot of people who had traveled many miles to attend our wedding, and it made my husband and I feel so loved and special because of everyone who was there to take part in it.”

Do you have advice for couples planning their cultural fusion wedding?

“One piece of advice that I would like to give couples who are planning their cultural fusion wedding, would be to make sure to sit down with your parents or your significant other’s parents and check that you are all on the same page with the different marriage customs and expectations. Since wedding traditions vary greatly across regions and cultures, doing your research beforehand can help avoid conflict and confusion on the big day!

Another thing that I found to be really beneficial for our relationship, was to receive premarital counseling by someone who was experienced and familiar with cross-cultural relationships. We were first attracted to each other because of our differences, but we sometimes found it difficult to make decisions or understand each other because of our differences. Discussing important topics such as finances, religion, gender roles, and parenting with my husband was really important because we both had different perspectives and values, and having a mentor or guide who could help us tackle these questions together and provide insight, gave us a clear sense of direction as to how we could bridge the gap difference.”

Are you planning a cultural fusion wedding, and looking for somewhere to host it? If so, we’d love to chat and love to be a part of it!