Cyprus-Forum.com

by **Baggieboy** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 6:25 pm

Good afternoon all,

We are honoured to have been invited to a Cypriot wedding in December and we want to ensure that we observe all traditions properly.

Could anyone provide advice, tips etc - especifically the gift. It is a traditional wedding apparently, with the money pinned to the dress, so could I ask what would be seen as a "correct" amount to give.

We're genuinely touched to have been invited and would not want to offend our Cypriot friends.

Thanks in anticipation,

Richie.

by **Cap** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 6:47 pm

There is no set amount.
Depends on the individual
Family and close friends tends to give more.

by **Get Real!** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 6:48 pm

The best gift is money. The amount depends on the strength of your relationship and ranges between €30 for say… a colleague you don’t have much to do with to €1,000 if its your sibling. A good friend (acquaintance) I suppose would be €50-100.

A really good mate gave me €250 at my wedding and when his wedding came up a few months later I gave him €251 for a laugh! To this day I tease him that he made a clear profit of ONE euro out of our relationship!

Anyway, during the dance you can pin a €20 note on each and put another €30 in an envelope to give them when you congratulate them. That’s a total of €70.

by **Baggieboy** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:06 pm

Thanks for the advice guys - very much appreciated

by **bill cobbett** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:19 pm

Yes, would go along with the above very sound advise (apart from GR's, who is obviously a skinflint)... but add as a further guide, work out what you'd expect to pay for a nice dinner in a posh hotel with unlimited drinks for your party, add a little for a share of the costs of limouisines and dresses etc and gift enough to leave the happy couple in profit, as it were.

... and don't forget the very important koumbaro/koumera system where if you add your name to the list (on a white ribbon that gets passed around) up at the altar for a few euros more, you can forever call your friends koumbara/koumera and are auto invited to future christenings. Worth considering for the two-way life-long respect it generates and you also get a front row at the church ceremony and you get to wear a carnation.

... and don't forget dancers are expected to tip the band.

by **B25** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:32 pm

Money is not pinned these days in cyprus. More so, you hand a small envelope to the groom on your way in when you congratulate the happy couple.
Write your name on the envelope too!

by **Get Real!** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:34 pm

bill cobbett wrote:Yes, would go along with the above very sound advise (apart from GR's, who is obviously a skinflint)...

A wedding in the UK would probably have 200 guests max but a wedding in Cyprus could have between 1,000 and 5,000 people (mine had about 2,000) so guests don’t gift as high as they would in the UK because most are not relatives.

I kid you not but we even got 4-5 anonymous envelopes that contained wrapped up toilet paper! Probably from old age pensioners who couldn’t afford anything. :lol:

by **Get Real!** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:49 pm

Bill, have you ever heard of the Cypriot expression… “Gamon bou tessera horka” ?

That's when the four in-laws come from four different villages so if each of them invite their village that’s roughly 4,000 guests from there alone! :lol:

by **bill cobbett** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 9:00 pm

Get Real! wrote:
bill cobbett wrote:Yes, would go along with the above very sound advise (apart from GR's, who is obviously a skinflint)...

A wedding in the UK would probably have 200 guests max but a wedding in Cyprus could have between 1,000 and 5,000 people (mine had about 2,000) so guests don’t gift as high as they would in the UK because most are not relatives.

I kid you not but we even got 4-5 anonymous envelopes that contained wrapped up toilet paper! Probably from old age pensioners who couldn’t afford anything.

Haven't been to a CY wedding in London that had only 200 guests since the '60s, when we used to hold the receptions in the private rooms of pubs. In recent years it is not uncommon to be invited to receptions at the Ritz and Savoy and other swanky Central London hotels and in these places you have to bloomise accordingly.

As to the tissue paper, you've got it wrong. In the old days in the old villages up in the mountains, the gift of soft toilet tissue was a CY tradition as the tissue was intended, if only in a symbolic sort of way, to mop up the inevitable bleeding from our virginal brides... presumably something that you weren't in need of...