Hawaiian Wedding Traditions

Wedding ceremonies are often based on traditions that date back hundreds to thousands of years. Hawaiian wedding traditions include the use of lei's, chanting, torch bearing, and the sacred ti leaf.

There are some Hawaiian wedding traditions to consider adding to your wedding:

Before the Wedding Day
Hawaiian wedding traditions, amongst the Japanese, include the bride folding 1001 origami cranes before her wedding. Cranes live for 1000 years and is believed to be a symbol of good luck for a long and happy life together.

The Ceremony
A Pu blower uses a Pu, or conch shell to announce the arrival of the bride. After the bride has been announced, the ceremony begins with a welcoming chant performed by a chanter. The Hawaiian chanter will tell a story of love and devotion as he walks down the isle with the bride.

During a Hawaiian wedding ceremony leis are exchanged. Leis are circles of flowers, the Hawaiian symbol for love, and are worn as a symbol of love and devotion that each one shares for the other. A Hawaiian chanter will also perform a special lei chant as the leis are exchanged. The bride and grooms hands our bound together with leis by the ‘Kahuna Pule', the religious man who will conduct the ceremony.

Many Hawaiian ministers dip a ti leaf; symbolizing one is kept safe, into a bowl of Pacific Ocean water. The water is a symbol of cleansing. The minister will then sprinkle the couple and the ground to keep them safe and cleanse them from their past so that they can make a new beginning.

The ceremony ends with the couple tossing their leis into the ocean. In ancient times, the Hawaiians believed that the ocean would carry the leis to deceased loved ones. When the leis returned to shore, it was believed that the loved ones responded with a gesture of love.

The Reception
Hawaiian wedding receptions are filled with bright colors, loads of flowers, and of course seafood. Dishes that include salmon, lobster, sautéed shrimp, crab meat, or crab cakes are popular favorites. Traditional Hawaiian foods such as pineapple, coconuts, kiwi, mangos, oranges, country ribs, and vegetable tofu round out the menu. For some receptions, a pig is cooked on a spit over an open fire.

Of course no Hawaiian wedding reception is complete without traditional Hawaiian music, using instruments such as the steel guitar, ukulele, and slack key, and hula dancers.