Wedding Culture in Italy (+ Wedding Wishes in Italian)

Learn about Italian wedding culture

Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone, welcome back to ItalianPod101.com.

My name is Desy.

Mi chiamo Desy.

And in this video, we're going to talk about wedding culture in Italy.

il matrimonio in Italia

First of all, let's say that wedding is matrimonio, marriage, but it's also called nozze, le nozze.

So if I'm talking about the marriage, it's il matrimonio, while the celebration is le nozze, le nozze.

The celebration depends on which way you choose, like the civil union or, you know, the religious ritual.

And let's say that with the civil union, at this point, it's kind of similar.

The only part that is not there is the charge, right?

Because in case of the civil union, you go to the city hall and there you sign and get your papers done.

And then you go and celebrate somewhere else.

For the civil union, it's basically the employee that celebrates the union.

Otherwise, you can request for it to be someone that you know.

Either way, the person that is doing that has a tricolor sash.

So una fascia tricolore with the flag of Italy, of course.

You can even pay for them to get to your celebration spot, so you can do everything there.

Otherwise, then you move everyone or you make everyone go to basically the restaurant where you're celebrating

or depending on how you want to celebrate, it could be anywhere, right?

Let's assume you're going the traditional way.

So you first go to the church, in chiesa, and that's where you exchange your vows, le promesse.

And then after that, you know, when you go out from the church and everyone throws rice at you,

then you move to the next spot which is, generally speaking, where you eat a lot.

But let's see a bit of tradition together.

So, il vestito della sposa, the wedding dress of the bride, the bride's wedding dress, has to be white, bianco.

And generally speaking, there should be no white or black for guests as well.

Even though recently, especially for like late night weddings, black is okay.

But theoretically, in tradition, there should be no black.

Because black is just for funerals.

Ifiori, flowers, so the bouquet of the bride, should be actually gifted by the husband

and it should get to the bride's house in the morning.

Or in the south of Italy, flowers have to be sent by the mother-in-law.

Of course, there's also people that just buy that themselves.

I'm just telling you what the tradition should be.

Also, on the day of the wedding, given that the husband shouldn't see the bride with the wedding dress,

the bride herself shouldn't see herself in the mirror the day of the wedding.

I know that's kind impossible to do.

So, if she wants to see herself in the mirror, she should do that without a shoe.

And not only, without a shoe and without an earring.

So, it's not the complete outfit and that works.

But if she has everything, she can't see herself in the mirror.

That's bad luck.

Then, bomboniere e confetti.

Bomboniere is wedding favors and confetti, be careful here because that's a false friend, is sugared almonds.

So, the little candies, let's say, that you give to your guests,

they always have to be in odd numbers, so one, three or five or more.

But usually, people choose to give five because they also have an hidden meaning.

Fertility, Fertilita, Fertilita.

And long life, lunga vita, lunga vita.

Five of them.

Eat all of them when you get them.

Then, we also have fede nuziale.

Nuziale comes from nozze, as I said before.

Fede nuziale is the wedding ring.

Also, in Italy, it's common to do a serenata, serenata, a serenade.

The day before of the wedding.

So, the husband to be with family, friends and blah, blah, blah,

they go under the bride's house and they just sing for her, especially in the south.

I've seen that done in the north as well, though.

There are also some rituals that have to be done on the day.

So, like games at the wedding from the husband and the bride.

I'm talking about the cutting of the necktie, so tagliare la cravatta.

The husband is supposed to have his necktie cut into pieces

and give those pieces to the main guests.

Some of them, of course, don't do that anymore because they want to keep the necktie,

but it's tradition to do so.

First of all, because the husband shouldn't need the same necktie anymore, right?

Because you just wear that at your wedding.

And also, because when you give a piece of that, people are supposed to give you money back,

so it's kind of, you know, like giving some more money to the couple.

But not everyone does that or they just give out the pieces of the necktie.

While for the bride, of course, she has to, you know, throw the bouquet and see who gets that

because that's the next girl that's going to get married, right?

I think that's everywhere.

But also, there is the giarrettiera, the garter.

So the husband gets it with his teeth from under the skirt of the bride.

And then he throws them to unmarried men as well.

So it's like the same as for girls.

That being said, if you get invited to a wedding, you may want to know what to say in your wishes,

for example.

Also, you're supposed either to like get a gift from the wedding list,

la lista nuziale or lista di nozze.

Otherwise, you just give an envelope with money in.

And in this envelope, you may want to write something as well, right?

Or with the gift too, some wishes.

People used to say that saying congratulations wasn't well received,

but that's more like in the past.

Nowadays, it's really used.

Congratulazioni or just auguri, auguri, wishes.

I migliori auguri, i migliori auguri, best wishes.

But let's say together some more elaborated wishes, okay?

For example,

Possa questo essere l'inizio, the beginning, di uno splendido cammino condiviso.

Of a splendid shared path.

Splendido, splendid, condiviso, shared, cammino, path, journey.

Possa questo essere l'inizio di uno splendido cammino condiviso.

Or a bit less formal.

Augurandovi il meglio per la vostra nuova vita insieme.

Augurandovi, wishing you il meglio, the best, per la vostra nuova vita insieme.

For your new life together.

Augurandovi il meglio per la vostra nuova vita insieme.

Wishing you the best for your new life together.

Grazie per avermi invitato a questo giorno di gioia e amore.

Grazie, thank you, per avermi invitato to invite me.

Grazie per avermi invitato a questo giorno di gioia e amore.

Thank you for inviting me to this day of joy, gioia e amore and love.

Non potremmo essere più felici di vedere che avete trovato l'altra parte della mela.

We couldn't be happier.

Di vedere, to see, che avete trovato l'altra parte della mela.

That you found the other side, the other half of the apple.

L'altra parte is side while l'altra metà is half della mela of the apple.

You know, referring to the metaphor, the common one.

Otherwise, if you want to be a bit funny, you can go like...

Il nostro consiglio per un matrimonio di successo.

Our advice for a successful marriage.

I say our if you're writing as a family, but you can also say il mio.

Il mio consiglio per un matrimonio di successo.

Onora, ama, honor, love, and, e, alza la tavoletta.

Lift the seed, right?

So when you go to the toilet, you know, husband and wife always argue about this thing.

Onora, ama, e, alza la tavoletta.

And lift the seed.

Of the toilet.

This is it for weddings.

I hope that I gave you an idea of what to expect for an Italian wedding and what to say.

And remember that if you haven't done it yet, you can sign up for your free lifetime account

on italianpod101.com so that you can learn Italian in the fastest, easiest, and most fun way possible.

Thank you for watching.

I'll see you soon.

Bye bye.

Ciao, ciao.

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