A guide to the perfect Celtic wedding in Ireland

What you should wear, eat, buy and recieve during a real Celtic wedding

MEGHAN SWEENEY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, April 13, 2012, 8:05 AM

Updated Friday, April 13, 2012, 8:05 AM

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A beautiful Celtic Irish bride

Photo by Google Images

TOAST: The person who introduced you. This is done to honor Ireland's matchmaking tradition.

GIVE: Harvest knots as favors. To signify devotion, young people in Ireland would give harvest knots made of straw to their love interest, worn on a man's lapel or in a woman's hair. Tie harvest knots out of straw (here's a step-by-step guide: http://www.mrsmurphys.com/Irish%20Wedding%20Traditions.htm) and decorate them with small flowers or bells to give to guests as favors. Attach a scroll explaining the significance.

INVITE: The "strawboys" to your wedding reception. A peculiar Irish wedding tradition was for youths wearing cone-shaped straw hats and masks to arrive at the wedding dance where the leader claimed the right to dance with the bride. They wore straw suits resembling many-layered hula skirts, or white shirts and petticoats decorated with colored ribbons. At the party's end, the strawboys burned their costumes in a huge bonfire. Reenact this scene for a truly traditional Irish wedding.

RECEIVE: traditional Irish gifts. On your registry, be sure to ask for the following: salt and pepper shakers, so your home will never be without food, wine glasses or tall toasting flutes, so your home will never be without plenty to drink and a candlestick holder, so your home will always have light.

Orginally published 2009.

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IrelandNorth | Apr 14, 2012, 06:33 AM EDT

Murph46! If your son married a beautiful lass who is now your daughter, would that not mean that he married his sister, which is against the laws of consanguinity. Unless she was your step-daughter, which might be OK, if quasi- incestuous. I assume you mean that the girl he married is now your daughter-in-law, which is of course hunky dory. Searlit! Groovy, baby! Pass the joint - why don't ya! Hey! Was that you I met at Woodstock all those years ago. Make love not war - man! Pounder! Better than a Jewish [or Catholic] mother. Phew! A fate worse than death. Bythebay! Is that why you never married, leaving you a poisonous old spinster. TayandCake! Hope you didn't author it under your IC pseudonom. Could be why it's outa print.

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TayandCake | Apr 13, 2012, 03:29 PM EDT

Irish wedding= get pissed, have a fight and sleep with a brides maid

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mclichte | Apr 13, 2012, 12:34 PM EDT

I wrote a book about Irish Wedding Traditions and there are many more in the book - unfortunately out of print now..but you can find it on Amazon....

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Searlit | Apr 13, 2012, 11:18 AM EDT

The Celtic people probably had marriages that lasted longer with less domestic abuse than what goes on today.

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pounder | Apr 13, 2012, 11:06 AM EDT

.....and a Jewish divorce lawyer, for,you know,later on.

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Searlit | Apr 13, 2012, 09:51 AM EDT

I like this. It's so back to nature. I think the Irish must have been the original Flower Children. Peace & Love your environment.

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Murph46 | Apr 13, 2012, 09:25 AM EDT

Cool, my son was married in a grove to a beautiful (now daughter) lass that looked very much like the one in the picture!It was awesome,and included a bagpiper!

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