If you’re planning a Cyprus wedding, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the beautiful culture the country has to offer. One of the ways to make your wedding extra special is to incorporate some Cyprus wedding traditions into your big day.
Whether you’re a Cypriot wanting an authentic wedding or you’re having a destination wedding, in this blog we’ll cover some of the many elements of a Cyprus traditional wedding you may want to include on your special day.
Wanting to plan a destination wedding? At The Wedding Travel Company, we have a range of wedding packages for locations across Cyprus and the rest of the world to help you tie the knot in style.
An integral part of a Cyprus wedding, both the bride and groom undergo formal dressing ceremonies involving friends and family.
This ceremony is known as ‘Stolisma’. It takes place on the morning of the wedding and involves the bride’s closest family and friends dressing her in wedding attire. During the dressing ceremony, the bride is blessed and adorned with jewels. This tradition is a way of demonstrating the love between the bride and her loved ones.
The groom also has his own dressing ceremony on the wedding day, where male friends and relatives help the groom get ready. There is often traditional music during this ceremony and the groom is also blessed. The groom’s best man is an important part of this tradition and takes the lead in ensuring the groom looks his best.
If you’re looking to share your special day amongst loved ones at a family wedding then this is one of the Cyprus wedding traditions you may want to include to bring your family closer together and share a special moment on your wedding day.
One of the most significant moments of a Cyprus traditional wedding is ‘Stefana’, or the crowning ceremony. If you want to marry in a church, the Stefana tradition involves the priest placing a crown on the heads of the bride and groom. These crowns are made from branches, leaves or in more modern times precious jewels and metals.
The crowns symbolise the joining of the couple as one and are a beautiful addition to the exchanging of rings you’ll see at all types of weddings.
This is one of the more famous and unique traditions involved in Cyprus weddings. This tradition is not a literal dance but more of a walk named after the prophet Isaiah that takes place between the bride and groom right after the ceremony.
During the ‘dance’, rice and flower petals are thrown over the couple as a blessing of good fortune and fertility as they take their first steps as a married couple.
With so many components to plan before and during the ceremony, and even more for the reception, we know how stressful it can be to plan a traditional wedding. That’s why our Cyprus wedding planners are on hand to take the stress out of planning and ensure everything runs smoothly so you can enjoy your big day to the fullest.
Our planners are familiar with both traditional and non-traditional weddings so they’ll be able to perfectly tailor your wedding to include any Cyprus wedding traditions from food and drink to entertainment. To find out more, check out our top 5 reasons to work with a Cyprus wedding planner.
Alongside ceremony traditions, there are also a range of activities and traditions that take place at the reception.
A Cyprus traditional wedding is primarily centred around celebrating with family and impressing the importance of community. However, there are still traditions you can incorporate into an intimate wedding that honours Cypriot tradition and one of these is Prosfora.
After the wedding ceremony, the couple will share bread and wine which represents their dedication to a new life shared with each other. If you’re a Cypriot and you want a smaller wedding but still want to honour smaller traditions, Prosfora is one of the Cyprus wedding traditions that can still be enjoyed even with a smaller wedding party.
During the reception, the couple will begin the money dance. As the pair dance, wedding guests pin money to their clothes as a way of contributing to the costs of the wedding. This is both a celebration of the couple's love and an important gesture from guests to help ease the financial strain of a wedding.
If you’ve gone all out on a luxury destination wedding, Zeibekiko can help ease couples' minds and provide a way for guests to support the wedding costs.
Just like in western weddings, the bride will throw the bouquet of flowers and the woman who catches it will be next in line to marry. Similarly, the groom throws his wife's garter to the male guests and the man who catches it is also said to be the next person set for marriage.
This is a lighthearted and humorous tradition that helps keep the mood of the wedding light and occurs at weddings of many different cultures.
If you’re set on a sunny wedding abroad full of Cyprus wedding traditions then it’s time to get started with planning. At The Wedding Travel Company, we have a range of brilliant wedding packages that can be fully customised to suit any couple's needs. From budget weddings to more luxurious affairs, all of our weddings are designed to give you a stunning experience that is affordable.
You can plan your wedding up to 3 years in advance so there’s plenty of time to budget. Our planners will be on hand at home and abroad to help you throughout the whole process and will handle everything on the big day in Cyprus from arranging catering to planning entertainment.
Take the first steps and get in touch with our experts and you’ll be saying “I do” in front of the stunning Cyprus sun in no time!
