Preparing an Amish Wedding (part 1)
Marriage and family are the cornerstones of any Amish
community. Deeply rooted in religious faith and traditional values, the Amish
wedding is an important part of every Amish member’s life and allows the
community to continue to grow as it has for hundreds of years. However, an
Amish wedding is not the same as a traditional American wedding and Amish boys
and girls begin preparing for the day they will wed when they are still teenagers.
Finding a mate and starting a family is the most important
decision an Amish person must make in order to keep the Amish community
strong. All Amish children are expected to find a spouse, start a family, and
begin contributing to the Amish community as a whole by the time they are in
their early twenties. Amish children are not baptized into the Amish church
until they are young adults because they are required to make the decision to
stay in the Amish community and follow the Amish rules on their own. Once an
Amish boy or girl decides to stay with the Amish community, they are baptized
into the Amish church and are then expected to marry and begin living their
lives as adults.
Once an Amish couple has been dating for a while and finally
decides that they should get married, there is no engagement ring or party. During
this time of dating and engagement, everything is kept very secret in the Amish
community, even from the engaged couples’ own parents and siblings. This is a
common practice in Amish households and official announcement to the families
of their intention to marry are usually made around July or August. The Amish community
itself will not be told of the pending union until a month before the wedding
will take place when the engagement is announced in church or published in the Amish
community newspaper. Some Amish communities have a specific Sunday set aside
in October where the church deacon announces all the Amish couples who plan to
marry and the fathers’ of the brides announce the dates that have been chosen
for the ceremonies. Most Amish weddings take place in November or December,
after the harvesting season is over, and Tuesdays or Thursdays are popular days
of the week to get married because a full day before and after are needed to
prepare for the Amish wedding and this can never include a Sunday.
An Amish bride will usually make her own wedding dress out
of blue or sometimes purple fabric. The Amish bride chooses two attendants who
will also make their dresses out of the same cloth of fabric. All three women
will wear Amish prayer capes and aprons. It is also general practice that an
Amish woman will be dressed in her wedding dress, cape, and apron once she
dies. The Amish groom and his two attendants will wear black suits, white
shirts, black brimmed hats, black high-topped boots, and black bow ties. There
are no wedding rings, flowers, or veils during the Amish wedding ceremony.
Preparing an Amish Wedding (part 2)
