The Geography of the Wedding of Catholicgauze and Catholicgauzette

By now Catholicgauzette and I are settling down and recovering from the massive, epic, and thoroughly enjoyable wedding/honeymoon we had. Instead of giving a run down of the wedding I will describe the elements of our wedding that were highly influence by geography.

Catholicgauzette's Wedding Outfit

A white wedding dress was chosen to be Catholicgauzette's wedding dress. The white today symbolizes purity but in fact the color choice is a product of the first wave of globalization and reestablishment of Anglo-American ties in the Victorian Era. White became the popular color for wedding dresses because of Queen Victoria's choice of white for her wedding which occurred in 1840. Both European countries and the English-speaking New World were allowing room for cultural cross-pollination despite high levels of nationalism. Victoria's style managed to transcend monarchists, republicans, and nationalists. Women did not care one way or the other because Victoria was a British queen, they only cared that she looked good in a white dress. The trend suck and is tradition today around the world.

Meanwhile Catholicgauzette's veil was of the mantilla-style. This design is popular in Spain and Latin America. My wife's experience with working with this area of the world has made her a Hispanophile. The veil is also popular among more traditional Catholics which Catholicgauzette and I both describe ourselves as. Thus the veil was one that instantly appealed to us.

Fancy Church

Fancy, eh?

We were married in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region of western New York. The city of Buffalo is the most ethnic Polish city in the United States with the exception of Chicago. This makes the area very Catholic with many old style, ornate churches. The one we were married in is one of the largest in the region complete with alter, paintings, and stained glass. The sheer amount of wealth that was invested in the church reflects the booming economy that was once in Buffalo, New York. Great Lakes-St. Lawrence-Atlantic Ocean shipping, steel manufacturing, grain storage and more made Buffalo a rapidly growing economic power house in the latter half of the 1800s and into the early 1900s. However, the Rust Belt-effect along with shipping changes, government mismanagement, and various other factors has greatly harmed the economy in the Buffalo-Niagara region. Today the massive churches serve as monuments to a past golden age for the region.

The Service

Catholicgauzette and I are neo-traditionalists. We have no problem with a "modern", English-language service though we do prefer a respectful service with Latin prayers. The combination of old and new reflect our own culture with what we feel emphasizes the respectful awesomeness that is required when worshiping God. We are part of the newer generation of Catholics in the United States (of non-Hispanic background: Hispano youth is generally less "smells and bells" than English-speaking Catholic youth in the United States) who seek stability and faithfulness in the old ways while keeping the reforms that help relate Catholicism to the contemporary world.

Food

People from the Buffalo-Niagara region love to brag about their food. Polish and German influences combine with urban, working class resourcefulness to create a melody of great taste in Buffalonian cuisine. We had kielbasa sausage (Polish), beef on weck sandwiches (German-influenced American), and Buffalo wings (American). The beef on weck and Buffalo wings are pure Americana. A German immigrant who owned a pub added salt on a kaiser roll roast beef sandwich in hope that patrons would buy and drink more beer and thus made the beef on weck sandwich. Buffalo wings were invented in Buffalo, New York by a bar owner who wanted to have a cheap to make yet profitable appetizer. The incredibly cheap chicken wing was discovered to taste delicious when cooked in a spicy sauce mix. Today Buffalo wings can be found all over the world (sadly for food fans the beef on weck sandwich is still limited to the greater Buffalo area).

International Travel

Now this is where the wedding got exciting. Our photographer-friend and his sister are proud citizens of Mexico. They traveled all the way from Mexico City to celebrate with us and take photographs of our special day. In between the wedding and reception we traveled to a nature park for a photo shot. The photographer-friend placed his bag on the ground to help us to the car. Sadly while he was helping us someone stole his bag with the cameras, photographs, and his and his sister's passports (Yeah). After the reception the Mexicans, Catholicgauzette, and I did a vast array of actions including contacting the police and family members. The nearest consulate for Mexicans was less than forty miles away; however, it was in Canada. The nearest consulate in the United States was in New York City. The Mexicans also used family connections to find out they have distant relatives who legally live in New York City for six months and spend the other six months living it up in northern Mexico. So because of consulate locations, globalization of migration, and the tightness of families in Hispano culture both Catholicgauzette and I were able to drop off our Mexican friends safely in New York where they could get new passports.

International travel, food, wedding dress, church, and service were all influenced by geography. In the end of the day I married the love of my life and began our life together.

Weddings Around the World: Portuguese-American

Blogger, reader, and friend Catlin of the GIS Lounge. In this post she writes about her wedding in the Portuguese-American community in New Jersey. If you wish to submit an article about your culture/country's wedding traditions just comment below and we will make it its own post!

My husband and I were married back in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey in a heavily immigrant section called the Ironbound. The area gets its name from the railroad tracks that surround the neighborhood and is home to many Portuguese immigrants. It’s estimated that about 50-75% of the area is Portuguese. The area is densely packed with Portugese shops and restaurants, particularly along Ferry Street. Every summer, a huge festival called "Dia de Portugal" (Portugal Day) attracts over half a million people to the community.


Both sides of my husband’s family emigrated from Portugal to the Ironbound in the 1960s so it was only fitting to celebrate with a Portuguese wedding. Our wedding Mass was celebrated in the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Newark. Our Lady of Fatima was built in 1955 and was one of the first churches built in the United States to serve the Portuguese immigrant population. The Mass was celebrated in both English and Portuguese.


Our wedding reception was held at Iberia Peninsula Restaurant on Ferry Street, one of the main Portuguese restaurants in Newark. One of the most important things when hosting in the Portuguese culture is to make sure your guests are NEVER hungry. That means food, and lots of it. At the reception was a table called the “Mesa Típica”. This is a table set up that holds the old traditional food of Portugal such as salted cod (Bacalhau). Eating from that table is more for the hard core Portuguese and is more intended as an homage to the old days than for actual eating. For the guests, there were multiple courses with enough food to feed five times the number of people actually at the reception. Note the leitão (suckiling pig) in the photo - a must have offer at all major Portuguese gatherings.

The night of celebration was capped off with lively dancing. Once of the popular dances at a Portuguese wedding is a group dance called “Bate o pé”, which means “Stomp your foot”. Everyone gathers in a circle and dances to this song:

Bate o pé, bate o pé, bate o pé, faça assim como eu.
Bate o pé, bate o pé, bate o pé, foi assim como a minha amor me prendeu.

Stomp your foot, stomp your foot, stomp your foot, and do it like me.

Stomp your foot, stomp your foot, stomp your foot, that's how my love got me.

Weddings Around the World: Multicultural Canada

The Catholicgauze/Catholicgauzette wedding post is coming. But now it is time for long-time reader Canada to write about how diverse Canada is when it comes to weddings. If you wish to submit an article about your culture/country's wedding traditions just comment below and we will make it its own post!

The most common and noticeable observation in Canadian cultural geography is that Canada prides itself on being a cultural mosaic.

Diversity and expressions of traditions and cultures is welcomed here in your neighbour to the north.

We see this most in times of celebrations such as holiday festivals or weddings.

Some Canadians bring together their cultures of the families in terms of dress, ceremonial tradition and of course food. It is not uncommon to have 2 different wedding ceremonies reflecting different cultures.

In Canada, wedding photos happen in scenic outdoor locations, even sometimes in winter. This happens whether the wedding has been at a Church of city hall.

Some Canadians opt for the cottage wedding of going to some place a few gours outside of town and doing a more casual atmosphere in dress and celebration.

So in the Canadian culture of weddings, cultural diversity rules.

Weddings Around the World: Eastern European Jewish

From reader GeneK. In this post he examines Jewish weddings in Eastern Europe. In this post she writes about weddings in Hong Kong. If you are interested in writing a guest post about weddings in your country, culture, or subculture just contact us via e-mail at catholicgauze [at] gmail [dot] com or just comment below.

I do not know much about Polish Roman-Catholic weddings, however Jewish ( secular, not religious portion of the ceremony (the part of the wedding outside the temple)) weddings of Polish neighbors to the East ( Former Soviet Union ( Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania , Moldova and est.)) done slightly differently. Partying ‘til the dawn and tons of food and drinks as well as non-stop music and dancing (literally non-stop dancing, it is not a figure of speech) similar to the polish celebration. However speeches is really important part of the wedding, and ‘til every guest will not contribute to this portion of the ceremony the wedding will not be over. This tradition actually moved to the new countries and heavily practiced among Russian Jews in America, Canada, Israel, Australia or Germany.

Weddings Around the World: Poland

From reader IW

Greetings from Poland and congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I got married in Poland last year, and the difference between a typical American wedding and a classic Polish Catholic wedding can be summed up as follows: in Poland there is less speechifying ("I first met the bride while bowling with Rob..") and much more drinking and dancing, and the weddings last until dawn where as in the US they tended to die down after about 2:00am, if that.

Also, there is a cute custom in some parts of Poland where the wedding party is stopped by local lads who form a blockade in the road, until the best man gets out of the car and "pays the toll" in the form of a bottle of vodka. Hilarity ensues.

Good luck and enjoy!

Weddings of the World: Hong Kong

The first guest post about weddings around the world comes from the wonderful wife of long time reader Eddie. In this post she writes about weddings in Hong Kong. If you are interested in writing a guest post about weddings in your country, culture, or subculture just contact us via e-mail at catholicgauze [at] gmail [dot] com.

Hong Kong wedding traditions can vary at points (especially pertaining to the ceremonies themselves) due to families having different customs relating to their origins from particular provinces in China. One exceedingly common tradition is for parents to consult a fortune teller in order to divine the best date (i.e. the luckiest date... a wedding on this day would be long-lasting and graced with good fortune). The fortune teller uses the birthdays of both parents and the couple to arrive at this “best day” .For at least more than a hundred years in Hong Kong, almanacs have been published that are utilized by the fortune tellers in designating this date.

Often, both parents' homes are visited on the wedding day with the groom first visiting the bride's parents (and assorted family) and presenting a gift of tea to them to show respect to them and join their family as he calls upon the residence to pick up his soon to be wife. Responding to him, the bride's family will give money or accessories (i.e. gold jewelry) to the couple. The bride repeats this in a visit to the groom's parents' residence. During this time where the bride is outside in transit, an open red umbrella is held over the bride at all times in order to ensure her good fortune in the marriage.

Unique impositions on the wedding plans of couples in Hong Kong include the problem of near-future high expenses (especially concerns about housing costs) to worry over in addition to the not-insignificant financial burden of holding a traditionally elaborate wedding reception/banquet. All of this cost is covered by the groom and his family as the centerpiece gift given to the bride's family, though delicate negotiations can unfold over the groom's efforts to restrain extravagant guest lists proposed by the bride's family. The banquet enjoys a prominent role in today's weddings because it is the longstanding tradition most likely to be maintained over others that may have been dropped or simplified and reduced in recent years because of cost or a perception they have become archaic.

A few random notes about Hong Kong weddings to share include the experience of the bride, who has to change into anywhere from 3-5 dresses for different events during the wedding day. The night before the festivities, the bride’s mother will invite a woman who enjoys a happy marriage with many children to brush her daughter’s hair while bestowing blessings of good fortune and joy upon the bride. Also, during the night ceremony/banquet, it is not uncommon for all gifts (normally cash with a minimum of $500 HKD (more than $50US) given by invited guests to the couple to be handed by the bride to her mother.

Lastly, for the prospective cultural and social geographers, an interesting trend worth studying in greater detail is how in recent years, the trendy popularity of some Christian symbols for use in weddings, most notably the church as the backdrop (seen as romantic and charming), has led to a further diversification of Hong Kong's already considerable array of wedding traits.