Persian Wedding at Four Seasons Resort, Orlando

Persian Bride Marrys Groom from New Jersey

Persian Wedding at Four Seasons Resort, Orlando, FL from Celebrations of Tampa Bay on Vimeo.

Maryam Farshid & Derek Dilberian united in this Persian wedding at the Four Seasons Resort, Orlando at Walt Disney World. What a beautiful resort with its reflecting pool, perfectly manicured landscaping, and amazing chandeliers. Maryam such a beautiful Persian bride and Derek, a lively, passionate guy from New Jersey, made for a very romantic wedding. One of the Persian Wedding traditions as Derek picks up a jar of honey (asal) that from the table. He dips his little finger into the jar of honey, and feeds it to Maryam his bride. She then does the same for him. This is to symbolize that they will feed each other sweetness and sustenance throughout their lives together.

The Persian culture makes the vows a little fun. When the officiant asks the bride of her willingness to be wed, her goal is to make the guests, and especially the groom, a bit nervous by making them wait for an answer. So after he asks her if she consents to marrying the groom, she remains silent. After a couple seconds of nervous silence she responds bā ejāzeyé mādar va pedaram, balé! (with the permission of my mother and father, yes!)

Another fun Persian Tradition is the Cake Cutting. In Persian tradition, the cake cutting begins with the knife dance or raghseh chadoo. A female family member or friend, typically a bridesmaid, will start dancing with the knife, and the groom must offer money to the dancer in exchange for the knife. But the dancer will tease the groom and take the money and pass the knife to another woman to continue the knife dance, until finally they present the knife to the groom.

The groom also has some culture, being from New Jersey.  I would have never expected to see a groom walk down the aisle to Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar” on a Persian wedding.  After the groomsmen walk down to a traditional string quartet song, Derek danced down the aisle to this 80’s rock song amidst cheers from the guests.  During the first dance, the bride was whisked away by one of her bridesmaids, to change into her evening gown, while the Derek, was totally comfortable dancing on the floor by himself entertaining the guests.  Maryam then returned in her evening gown and the bride and groom finish their first dance.  A great blend of two different cultures which the guests really enjoyed.

For more information on weddings at the Four Seasons Resort, Orlando, see http://www.fourseasons.com/orlando/weddings/

For more of our middle eastern weddings see our Ethnic Weddings Page .