People are often curious and ask us whether in our many travels around the world we’ve seen many marriages taking place. And the answer usually is we’ve probably seen weddings pretty much everywhere we went to, but we didn’t experience much of them because, obviously, we weren’t invited. So we can’t really know in depth what kind of wedding traditions were taking place, but we do have some memories of those little wedding snapshots we experienced.
For example, in the north of Portugal people take the concept of wedding jewellery to an extreme. Finely crafted gold necklaces are worn by the bride and are often bestowed upon her by her family, and many of them are heirlooms. In Prague people have the tradition of taking a picture in front of the astronomical clock, so you will see people travelling from far away just to get that one picture. Some people actually don’t get that picture taken but, sometimes days after they’re married, get back in their wedding clothes and go back to the tower for a picture. Finally, in Spain we witnessed a very special wedding motorcade where everyone was sounding their car horns at passersby. First we thought they were angry for the slow pace, but they were in fact just expressing their happiness.