Follow tradition or start your own?

Recently, my bride-to-be and I were talking about the various anniversary gifts that people typically buy for one another after they’re married - you know, paper for the first year, cotton the second, and so on - and we both kind of agreed that we like the “traditional” gifts rather than the “modern ones. That’s not to say that being “old-fashioned” is what it’s all about, but some part of me thinks the traditional options are much more classic and meaningful, rather than some of the more materialistic items from today. I’m sure that ticks off a retailer or two, but even so, you can be “modern” and still do paper, no? Someone I was speaking with a few days ago shared that she and her guy had bought a new leather couch for their third anniversary - that’s pretty awesome.

Tonight, I caught this item from the Community Press & Recorder, where Betty Kamuf goes through where a lot of today’s wedding traditions came from. She has one detail I wasn’t familiar with - that guests, traditionally, were not served cake at the reception - which is something that I really enjoyed that some good friends did at their awesome wedding last fall. They went the extra step to take down the flowers from the chuppah and give a bouquet to all the women in attendance, and hand a takeout container like you might get with chinese food for a piece of cake to everyone. Definitely classy and fun, all at the same time. Also, rice, grain, or bird seed were tossed at the couple on the way out as “a symbol of fertility.” Huh.

In any case, it’s gotten me thinking - what kind of new traditions do we want to start, or which do we want to find elsewhere? We’ll be playing golf with the family the day before - something her brothers have all done on their wedding weekends - but we haven’t ironed out all the other details. It’s kind of funny to think that you have this as one of the two or three opportunities to leave a “mark” on your family & friends, but if there was ever an opportunity to do so, this is it.

What have others done as “traditions,” either old or new, at theirs wedding or thereabouts?