This friend is engaged to a Vietnamese guy, so they are having two ceremonies on back to back weekends. A traditional Indian ceremony in Charlotte, where she's from (which actually takes place over three days), and a traditional Vietnamese ceremony in DC, where he's from. But there are touches of both cultures in each ceremony.
She promised her parents she would keep to as many traditions as she could, and it's been so cool to see how she's adapted them to 2015. For example, her parents actually had an arranged marriage. My friend and her fiancee were obviously not arranged, they met in their dorm freshman year, but her family still presented him with a "dowry" a few weekends ago. Traditionally, that would have been the first time the couples and families met, but of course they are all old friends now. Her family presented his with several gift baskets of fruit, cheese, meats and chocolates (where traditionally it would be like gold, land, money, goats, etc.) They formally "exchanged" gifts, and then just turned it into a big ole joint wedding planning weekend.
I gave her a hard time and ask what would have happened if his family rejected her. She said she had some backup goats to offer them just in case :p
