Phillipine Wedding Rituals

I recently performed a wedding ceremony at the Pantagis Renaissance in Scotch Plains, NJ. It was lovely event – very family oriented, filled with warmth and much spiritual significance.

The bride was from the Philippines and the groom from Puerto Rico. Per Philippine tradition, family members and sometimes very close family friends take on the role of wedding “sponsors.” In addition to helping pay for the wedding, the sponsors are part of the wedding processional and walk down the aisle. It is an honor to be a sponsor. Depending on the level of importance, sponsors can take on the additional title of “principle” or “secondary” sponsor. In this particular ceremony I performed, there were seven couples (fourteen sponsors all together) who walked down the aisle. That was in addition to seven other wedding party members proceeding down after the sponsors. It was very touching and you could feel love in the air.



I performed some interesting rituals. In a Philippine wedding, it is common to have a “cord and veil” ceremony. The tying of the cord (also known as the lasso) is a unity ritual where the bride and groom are wrapped together in a cord in a figure eight. The figure eight – having no beginning and no end – symbolized the eternal bond that their two lives are becoming one forever. Next came the covering of the veil. A white veil was draped over the couple to symbolize that in marriage, providing shelter for a loved one is a basic but important purpose of marriage. As the veil was draped I recited the following “May you forever be united as one under this veil, protected and sheltered from harm’s way.” It was a touching moment.

I really enjoyed performing this ceremony. Congratulations to the bride and groom!