Preparing an Amish Wedding (part 2)
The day before the Amish wedding is performed, married
couples in the Amish community assist the bride in preparing the food for the wedding
celebration. This is one of the few days where the Amish men assist the women
in the kitchen. On the day of the Amish wedding, everyone gathers at the
bride’s home and an early morning church service is held where the couple will
exchange their vows. Divorce is not allowed in an Amish community, so the
importance of the union and the ceremony is made very clear to the parties
involved. The Amish wedding ceremony usually involves the church minister
counseling the young couple, making sure they understand the permanence of the
ceremony, hymnals are sung, scriptures are read, and a long sermon is usually
conducted. The Amish couple is then asked to make their vows, the couple is
blessed, and a final prayer is said to end the ceremony.
After the ceremony, around noontime, the party and feasting
begins. Typical Amish wedding day meals include roasted chicken, mashed
potatoes and gravy, salads, creamed celery, cheese, bologna, bread, butter, honey,
jelly, fruits, pudding, cakes, pies, and ice cream. Tables are set up around
the perimeter of the largest room in the Amish home and a special table, called
an Eck, is set up in the corner for the bridal party. The Amish bride sits to
the left of her Amish groom, symbolizing where she will sit in their marriage
buggy. The single Amish women of the community will sit on the bride’s side of
the room and the single Amish men will sit on the groom’s side. The couples’
parents and siblings will typically sit together in the kitchen.
After this first meal, the rest of the afternoon will
usually involve talking, singing, and game playing. Sometimes an Amish wedding
celebration is used as an opportunity for matchmaking between teenagers who are
over the age of 16 and are assigned specific seats before the evening meal in
order to bring them closer together. Very few gifts are given to a newly
married Amish couple at their wedding. Usually just the closest family members
or friends provide the couple with practical gifts, such as Amish quilts,
tablecloths, canned foods, or farming tools. A second meal is served around
sundown where the bride, groom, and their parents now sit in the middle of the
room at the main table and the same type of food is served again. Most Amish wedding
celebrations usually go on late into the night.
The newlywed Amish couple will then spend their first night
in the bride’s home in order to help with the cleanup the next morning. The
Amish do not go on honeymoons, but they do spend the next several months
spending the night or weekend with different Amish family members on both sides
of the family in order to get to know each other. It is during this time that
the Amish couple may receive gifts, such as dishes, cookware, or other
household items that will be useful to them in their new lives together. The
couple then will live with the Amish bride’s family for the rest of the winter
and will begin setting up their new marital home in the spring. The Amish bride’s
family will usually provide the new couple a dowry which might include major
appliances and the household furnishings. Other items will be given to them
over the winter by other family members and all of the acquired household items
will be used to furnish the Amish couple’s new home.
Preparing an Amish Wedding (part 1)
