Filipino Wedding Customs

The first thing you should do after you have decided to marry your filipino girl is to ask your girl's parents for her hand. This is a tradition where the groom and his parents formally visit the bride's family and discuss the wedding plans eg, guests list, wedding budget. It is customary that the the visiting family bring a gift for the hosts. Expect this meeting to be a rather tense situation where haggling of wedding budget is discussed.

Wedding Announcement

This is a custom where the wedding couple pay visits to elder relatives to inform them about their upcoming wedding. Most of the Filipino elders treat this gesture as a sign of respect. Although it will be less formal, expect some elders to ask about the couple's love story or the groom's work and family background.

Wedding Outfits

With the strong dose of Amercian influence in the Philippines, brides often chose to wear the popular white wedding dress. For men, the barong tagalog is the traditional Filipino formal wear. It is made up of two native fabrics and is cool, almost transparent embroidered shirt. For a foreigner groom, he might wear the conventional black tuxedo, but Filipino male wedding guests will usually show up in their finest barongs.

The Wedding Ceremony, the Filipino Way

The majority of Filipino weddings are now Catholic weddings, but some native traditions remain. During the wedding, special "sponsors" act as witnesses to the marriage. The principal sponsors could be godparents, counselors, a favorite uncle,aunt and even a parent.

Secondary sponsors handle special parts of the ceremony, such as the candle, cord and veil ceremonies. Candle sponsors light two candles, which the bride and groom use to light a single candle to symbolize the joining of the two families and to invoke the light of Christ in their married life.

Veil sponsors place a white veil over the bride's head and the groom's shoulders, a symbol of two people clothed as one. Cord sponsors drape the yugal (a decorative silk cord) in a figure-eight shape (to symbolize everlasting fidelity) over the shoulders of the bride and groom. The groom gives the bride 13 coins, or arrhae, blessed by the priest, as a sign of his dedication to his wife's well-being and the welfare of their future children.

Filipino girls, are not only beautiful women but a delight to be around because of the famous Filipina disposition and personality. Many men who have chosen a Filipina for their wife swear that they are loyal, passionate and faithful past death. Now that you understand a little bit better about the Filipina culture, you can start to find your loving Filipina using an online dating service like FilipinoFriendFinder or FilipinaHeart.

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