Celtic and Irish Wedding Traditions
If you want to honor your heritage, there’s lots of meaningful ways to bring Celtic and Irish wedding traditions into your day. From choosing your wedding outfits to planning your ceremony and reception, you can find lots of ways to celebrate Ireland’s unique customs, superstitions and folklore.
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Are Celtic and Irish Wedding Traditions the Same?
When people think of Celtic, they usually think of Ireland and Scotland. In fact, the term Celtic is used to refer to a whole group of people from Celtic nations. These nations include Ireland and Scotland, plus Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Mann.
Irish people are Celtic, but they have their own specific language and culture. Ireland shares a lot of Celtic wedding traditions, as well as having plenty of their own. If you’re planning an Irish wedding, there’s lots of meaningful symbols and traditions to choose from.
Celtic Wedding Traditions
Being a Celtic nation, Ireland shares some wedding traditions with other countries. Some traditional ceremonies, like handfasting are popular in Ireland as well as Scotland and Wales. You’ll find that Celtic countries also have some symbolism in common, like Celtic knots and horseshoes.
Plan a Handfasting Ceremony
In Celtic tradition, the handfasting ceremony was the actual wedding. The couple would make vows and literally, have their hands tied together with a ceremonial cord. This is where the phrase “tie the knot” came from.
To bring this tradition into your wedding day, you can include handfasting as your unity ceremony. You can make or buy a beautiful handfasting ribbon or cord. Braided designs with Celtic charms make a great memento of your wedding day.
Use a Celtic Knot Motif
While scholars and historians aren’t sure about the exact origin of the Celtic knot, most agree that the design is a symbol of the Celts belief in continuity and interconnectedness. There’s lots of different designs, including the Trinity Knot, the Spiral Knot and the Love Knot, that resembles two interlocking hearts.
There’s a few different ways you can bring this design into your wedding day. You can find stationary printed with the design. Or you can choose a handfasting cord made in a braided knot. You can even exchange wedding bands with a Celtic knot design.
Plan a Ceremonial Pebble Toss
If you’re planning an outdoor wedding near water, a pebble toss is a fun way to bring your guests into your ceremony. Each guest is given a small stone to hold during the ceremony. At the end, each guest tosses their stone into the water while making a wish for the couple good fortune and happy future.
Hire a Piper For Your Wedding Ceremony
If you’d like to have Celtic music at your ceremony, you can hire a piper to play. In Celtic tradition, if the piper is the first to greet the bride, it will ensure a long and happy marriage.
Scottish bagpipes can get pretty loud in a church. If your wedding is outdoors, bagpipes would be a great choice. If your wedding is indoors, make sure to hire Irish Uilleann pipers. Irish pipes are smaller and have a lighter sound that’s better suited to indoor weddings.
To incorporate this tradition into your wedding ceremony, have the piper playing while the guests arrive. They can also lead the processional up the aisle, then play to announce the bride. After the ceremony, the piper can follow the couple back down the aisle.
Use a Lucky Horseshoe Charm
The horseshoe has long been considered a symbol of good luck. When the Celts began to settle in the British Isles and Europe, they believed there was a variety of fairy folk living in the woods and causing misfortune.
Because fairies are repelled by iron, the Celts would hang iron horseshoes over their doors, as a way to keep evil at bay. As well as the iron, a horseshoe also looks like the Celtic moon god’s crescent.
To use this lucky symbol on your wedding day, you can sew a horseshoe charm into your wedding dress or tie one to your bouquet. If you’d like to have a theme, you can choose wedding stationary and decorations with a horseshoe motif.
Irish Wedding Traditions
While you can use all the Celtic wedding traditions at your Irish wedding, there are some that are specific to Ireland. For example, Irish lace and the Claddagh ring are all from the Emerald Isle. To personalize your wedding ceremony and reception, choose your favorite traditions.
Wear a Claddagh Engagement Ring
One of the most popular ways for Irish couples to honor their background is with a Claddagh engagement ring. The design is made with a crown, a heart and two hands to represent loyalty, love and friendship.
The first Claddagh was designed in Galway, in a fishing village called Claddagh. A local man created it as a love token. After he presented it to his beloved, she wore it as her wedding ring. To this day, a Claddagh ring is a romantic way to propose.
Mark The Last Stitch
If you’re making your dress, you can use a good luck tradition from County Cork. Marking the last stitch on the dress will bring the bride good luck on her wedding day. If you don’t make the whole dress from scratch, you can still sew in a patch or a charm. If you want to keep to the Irish superstition, you can mark that stitch as your last.
Add Irish Lace to Your Bridal Outfit
Another way to honor your Irish heritage is by wearing a dress or veil made with Irish lace. Irish lace has a long and important history as handiwork for women. It’s highly valued for it’s delicate and intricate designs.
The beauty of Irish lace has been incorporated into wedding gowns throughout history. The most famous modern bride to wear Irish lace is Kate Middleton, at her royal wedding.
Each type of lace is named after the place it was designed and made. The lace design from the princess’ dress is called Carrickmacross, after the estate that began making it in 1820.
To bring this tradition into your wedding, you can find genuine Irish lace incorporated into wedding dresses and veils. Or you can choose a lace design with an Irish motif, like claddagh hearts, shamrocks or Celtic knots.
Carry a Wedding Handkerchief
A traditional Irish bride carries a linen handkerchief on her wedding day for good luck. She can keep it as a memento, or if she has children later, she can turn it into a christening bonnet. To incorporate this tradition, you can buy personalized, embroidered wedding hankies.
You can put your hankie into your pocket, sew it into your dress, or wrap your bouquet with it on your wedding day. You can also find wedding hankies for your parents or grandparents. These personalized mementos can be a great gift for your bridal party or family.
Use Lavender For Your Wedding Flowers
In Irish tradition, lavender is a symbol of happiness and brides often add some to their bouquet. There’s lots of ways to incorporate the flowers into your wedding day.
You can add a few stems of lavender to your bouquets and boutonnieres. Another way to bring the tradition into your day is by adding a lavender toss to the end of your ceremony or reception. You can even find invitations, programs and signs with a lavender theme.
Add a Shamrock or Four Leaf Clover to Your Bouquet
The three leaves of a shamrock represent faith, hope and love. On a four leaf clover, the fourth leaf represents luck. You can bring these symbols into your wedding day by adding some shamrocks or clover to your bridal bouquet. If you can’t find fresh plants, you could pin a charm shaped like a shamrock or a clover to your bouquet instead.
Rent an Irish Kilt Tartan For the Groom
In Ireland, men don’t wear a kilt for social events. Tartan kilts are associated more with the Scottish. In fact, most men in Ireland think that kilts are for the military or Irish dance costumes, and would not wear one to a wedding.
Most people in America don’t have the same association and lots of American men do wear a kilt for their wedding. If your groom wants to wear one, the Irish don’t have a tartan to represent their clan, like the Scottish do.
Irish kilts are either a solid color, or a green plaid called the Irish National Tartan. Another option is to wear the tartan that represents the county or province where his family originated.
The Irish kilt is worn with a double breasted jacket called a Brian Boru. You can also add a sporran - the belted pocket that goes around his waist. Finish the outfit with a shamrock crest that pins to his tartan.
Offer Your Guests an Irish Whiskey Cake
In the past, fruitcake symbolized wealth and prosperity. Only the rich could afford the fruit, nuts and spices that make up the cake. One Irish wedding tradition is to serve the guests a fruitcake made with Irish whiskey.
Even though the whiskey cake is delicious, it’s an unfortunate fact that fruitcake is not universally loved by all. If you want to keep this tradition alive, you can choose a small whiskey cake as your groom’s cake, instead of the main cake. That way all your guests will have a dessert they like.
If you’re not having a groom’s cake, you can order a regular wedding cake and ask for the top layer to be an Irish whiskey cake. Or you can plan a cupcake table, then make or order a small fruitcake as a cutting cake.
If you’ve planning to DIY your wedding food, you can even make your own Irish Whiskey Cake. Warning: this is a hardcore DIY! But the good news is that it can be baked months in advance. In fact, this cake gets better with age. The whiskey soaks into the fruit and nuts and it gets more and more flavorful. If you want to try it, check out this Irish Whiskey Cake Recipe from Painless Cooking.
Themes For a Celtic or Irish Wedding
Choosing a theme for your wedding is a great way to make sure all your elements work together. Having a theme will help narrow down your decisions. Plus, it’s a lot easier to choose colors and decorations if you have a theme in mind. If you’re planning a Celtic or Irish wedding, some good themes could be:
Celtic Cross
Celtic Knot
Triple Spiral
Crescent Moon
Tree of Life
Wedding Bells
Claddagh
Irish Harp
Ireland
Emerald Isle
Shamrock
Four Leaf Clover
See more ideas for Celtic and Irish wedding jewelry, veils, invitations and decorations on my Etsy Favorites List: Irish and Celtic Wedding Traditions.
Choose the Traditions You Love
Remember, you don’t have to do all of these things! If you want to go all out, decide on your theme and run with it. If you’re more low key, you can pick and choose the traditions that you love the most. You can add one or two to your wedding ceremony or reception as a meaningful nod to your Celtic or Irish heritage.
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