Eight Filipino Wedding Traditions You Should Know
A Filipino wedding is always special—whether it’s yours or your loved ones’. Filipinos give much regard to wedding celebrations that each ceremony never fails to become meaningful and unforgettable. And, in each celebration, couples almost always include Filipino wedding customs in it—with a hint of tradition that feels different yet familiar.
There are a plethora of time-honored Filipino wedding traditions in the Philippines. These run from family involvement to strict adherence to Catholic wedding programs (e.g., incorporating Filipino money dance). Without a doubt, Filipino weddings have traditions that are a bit of a “through-the-looking-glass” experience for people in the West.
If you’re here to get great ideas on how to integrate your ancestry into your wedding ceremony, you’ve come to the right place! This month, let’s talk about all things Filipino wedding traditions and find out the subtle changes made and added by locals.
Eight Filipino Wedding Traditions
Before the wedding, there are Filipino traditions that are still widely practiced in the country. These are equally important customs that make the spirit of Filipino wedding ceremonies complete. Inarguably, the nuances, though subtle, set them apart from the rest of the world.
Below are a few Filipino wedding traditions you should know of, whether you’re planning to get hitched anytime soon or are doing it plainly for research purposes—especially to reconnect with your Filipino roots.
Before the wedding
1. Formal engagement ceremony
Betrothed couples look forward to one important Filipino tradition (with equal anxiety and anticipation): the pamamanhikan. Derived from the Tagalog root word ‘panhik,’ which literally means ‘to take upstairs,’ pamamanhikan symbolizes a guy’s formal proposal to his girl and her family.
Pamamanhikan is the initial and official stage in a traditional Filipino wedding. Before, men go to their would-be bride’s home, bringing his entire clan with him to officially ask for the girl’s hand in marriage in front of both their folks. The goal here was simple: the woman and her parents must accept the proposal. After that, both families are to share a meal, prepared and brought by the guy and his clan.
During the entire pamamanhikan, families gather to get to know each other more. Parents and other elders on both sides of the family also talk about wedding details, like budget, date, venue, and guestlist. After this, would-be grooms had to run errands and services for their future bride’s family for a few weeks (or months)—like cleaning the house or fetching water. This Filipino wedding tradition is locally called paninilbihan.
While some Filipino families no longer practice pamamanhikan—or limits the family members involved—a lot more local households strictly adhere to this significant tradition.
2. Bayanihan or family involvement
Although not many young Filipino couples observe it any longer, one of the most outdated Filipino wedding customs was the bayanihan (or cooperative undertaking).
The bayanihan dealt with lending a hand for the wedding preparations. Before, wedding planning was more a family and community task. Undeniably, this custom is beautiful as it strengthens the spirit of camaraderie and harmony.
Wedding preparations today, though, have been widely westernized. People nowadays hire companies to help them with wedding planning. The sense of bayanihan has been modernized in that people only offer moral support or suggestions instead of physically doing something.
At the wedding
3. Parents’ blessings
Asking for the parents’ blessings is still a commonly practiced tradition by modern Filipinos during wedding ceremonies.
During the processional at the wedding proper, a bride’s parents send their daughter to the altar, where the groom is waiting. This is very different from wedding ceremonies in the west, where the bride walks down the aisle by themselves.
Nevertheless, before the bride’s parents officially give them away to their partner, the bride and groom kiss the parents’ cheeks, hug each other, or do the pagmamano. The latter is a common Filipino practice of taking an elder’s hand and pressing it to your forehead. Seeking the parents’ blessings during the wedding is a sign of respect and symbolizes the parents’ approval of the couple.
Parents of the bride and groom have special seats during the wedding ceremony—slightly behind the couple, in front of the primary sponsors. This also says a lot about how parents (and elders) in the Philippines are highly regarded and appreciated.
4. Traditional Attire
A traditional outfit that grooms wore in the past was called Barong Tagalog (“Tagalog dress” or “clothing”). It’s a thin, long-sleeve shirt with embroidered details along the front in a U-shape pattern. Men typically wear it untucked over an undershirt.
Meanwhile, a bride’s wedding dress before wasn’t the usual long white gown we’ve seen contemporary brides wear. Filipino brides customarily wore the María Clara gown for weddings, a fancier version of the Baro’t Saya (a contraction of Baro at Saya, which means “blouse and skirt”). It’s often a two-piece dress with enormous butterfly sleeves and beautiful embroideries to complete the ensemble.
Over time, modern Filipino dresses have evolved into a full white dress, but with the addition of the—now smaller—puffy sleeves to keep homage to the traditional designs.
