wedding money in Canada or USA

Hi,

The tradition is that the bride's parents pay for everything.

However, I'd say this is changing. One reason is that weddings are becoming extremely expensive. Another is that people are getting married older, and thus often have established  and well-paying careers with money in the bank.

At least in Canada's multi-cultural setting, newer ethnic groups may have other traditions that they follow.

In Canada, we also have legalized same-sex marriages. For these, I have no idea who pays.

Best wishes, Clive

Hi,

Such things are matters of custom and cultures. There are many countries and cultures in which the bride's parents pay.

Clive

I have to strongly disagree with the statement that the bride's family hosts the rehearsal dinner and the groom's family pays for the bar.

The "tradition" (which as has already been said, it no longer quite so customary) is that the bride's family pays for everything except the flowers (as you said) and GROOM's family hosts the rehearsal dinner. I have never, never in my entire career of attending weddings been to a rehearsal dinner hosted by the bride or her family, although everything else has been divided up every which way as time goes on.

In my own wedding, the groom's father felt strongly about having a live band instead of a DJ, which was in our budget, so he paid for the band. My parents paid for the reception otherwise. I paid for my own dress and I honestly don't remember who paid for the flowers.

Once upon a time, the rehearsal dinner was for the actual members of the wedding party and their spouses (if there were any). With a Saturday wedding, you would have a rehearsal on Friday night - making sure everyone knew who would stand where at what time, etc. Then after the rehearsal, you would go out for a nice dinner. This has expanded over time to include other out-of-town guests if the groom's family wants to include them, and family members not in the wedding, etc. Some of the rehearsal dinners I've been to have been a more elaborate meal than the wedding reception (just not cake or dancing). But again, it's always been the groom's family who hosts, not the bride's.

 Just as a side note, when my sister got married, I was her maid of honor. Apparently there was a tradition there that it was bad luck for the bride to do the rehearsal, so she sat in the front pew and watched, and as the made of honor, I stood in for her at the rehearsal. That was interesting. I've never encountered that before. Another cute tradition is that at the bride's wedding shower, she saves the bows from the gifts, and makes them into a bunch that stands in as the bouquet of flowers at the rehearsal. Since you actually practice handing the bouquet to the maid of honor while you join hands for the actual ceremony and such, it makes sense to have something to practice with.