Italian Weddings: Greeting the Bride and Groom with Rice, Pasta and Confetti

After the post on a Wedding in Tuscany, I promised to show you what happens when the bride and groom come out of the church. At the bottom of this post I’ve listed who won the Pocket Espresso to Go giveaway!

Usually in an Italian wedding, all the guests wait outside until the couple comes out and then showers them with rice, coriandoli (confetti), pasta and even white rose petals. There are many different interpretations why rice is used, but most agree that it’s wishes of prosperity and wealth, and perhaps even fertility.

Sometimes, depending on who’s throwing, they can get a little overzealous. I would imagine about 100g of rice is about to hit the bride in the head here.

The bride and groom aren’t the only ones who are affected by all the confetti flying around.

The bride and groom get covered, but they don’t rush to remove the confetti. Most of the time they’ve already done their “couple” photos, or will clean up a bit later.

Afterward, if I were the cleaning staff, I’d just hope for a day that’s not windy!

The aftermath of one of the weddings. I love how the pasta box is laying there, too.

I like the variety here – some rigatoni, some pieces of lasagne broken up – so many dishes they could make. :)

I can only imagine what she was thinking look at all of this. If it was like the other children at the wedding, it was: ok, now I can pick it up and throw it again!

Sometimes other antics happen, too – a couple friends decided instead of throwing rice at the couple, they would fill her cowboy boot with rice instead.

The important part is of course that the bride and groom feel happy and loved. (PS: In case you were getting confused, your eyes are not playing tricks on you – there are different bridal couples – these are pics from 3 different weddings!)