Melting pot touches

I am French, as French as it gets since according to the genealogy recherches my Mom's family did it goes back to the 12th century.
As I mentioned previously, I am trying to include some French touches to honor my family and my culture. Well Hubby is too.
My husband is his own melting pot/salad bowl. From his father he is Scotch-Irish and Welsh. From his mother he is Japanese and Portugese, with a touch of Hawaiian culture if not blood since that's where his Japanese and Portugese ancestors have been for the past 100 years.

One of the first things he mentioned was the possibility of him wearing a kilt for the ceremony. He has never worn one in his life, nor shown such a great interest in things related to his heritage, but suddenly he wants one. Well he had been talking about getting a utilikilt for a while but that's about it.
My first though was probably to giggle at the though of him wearing a skirt and how to avoid the temptation of teasing him about it.
However I have to admit that after doing some research on the option, I've come to fall in love with the idea. I know he can pull it off and I would love to see the blend of our various cultures.
I will develop later on the different options we've been looking into for him with more details.
[image source: Scottish-weddings.scotclans.com]

Now on top of the Irish-Scottish-Welsh heritage, we have the participation of his mom. She's offered to bring some Lei, the Hawaiian flower necklace, to put on the groomsmen, they would be made out of Ti leaves and maybe Kukui nuts if I understood correctly instead of flowers. Which would look somewhat like that:

[source: www.paradiseflowers.com]
She is now also offering to bring Macademia nuts as favors for our guests. I'm not sure how they'll manage to bring of that, but hey why not.

Now, however much I love each idea separately, I have no idea how we are going to pull off this mix of styles and cultures without looking like a party of clowns.
So this is going to take some serious thinking, and I hope we can included the various aspects of each culture. Let's say that we will not have a boring wedding...

Do you have any weird cultural elements that you want to or have to included in your wedding? How are you going to blend them together?

French touch

Our wedding will and should be the blend of two different cultures: American and French.
I'll have to develop this in an other posts, but my husband has among other things Scottish-Irish heritage (way way back) from his Dad and a Mom who lives in Hawaii. He has some plans to incorporate both.
On my side I've been thinking and hard on how to incorporate some French things. Not only do I want both our cultures to be visible, but I also want to honor my family. Well those who can make it anyway.

One of the first things that came to my mind is the vows. We want to write our own vows, and if I was originally thinking to each have our own version, I cam to think otherwise.
The biggest issue is: my mother and my grandmother barely understand a thing in English. So if there is no way to avoid that most of the ceremony will be in English, I would like them to understand a few things without having to hire a translator.
I plan to have their version of the program with a translation of the ceremony, but that is not enough. So what I'm thinking is: he reads his vows in English and I read the same thing but in French.
So that's the first step.

Now besides that it's hard to think of very specific things. French and American weddings are extremely similar, and I haven't been to enough weddings to think of things that would be specifically French.
I don't see my bridesmaids wear a beret not a baguette under their arm no matter how cliche that is. If my dad and great-grand-father used to own one and even wear(worn) it at times, it just doesn't fit with the vision I have of our wedding.

The question is pretty much: what makes France: France? What will be seen as a special touch by my French guests?
Well, I had one surprise last night, my husband's uncle announced that he was going to do two big dishes of Cassoulet. I could have cried when he announced that.
You may not know what cassoulet is, but I do. It's the regional dish of where I grew up, it's definitely not a light, nor sexy nor summery dish. It's a rich dish, slow cooked full of beans and several types of beans. And I have not had any in years.
I am so excited at this wonderful and generous offer andd I simply cannot wait to see my parent's face when they will see a Cassoulet made by a local.

The there will be a touch of French with the food. Great.
Now what else?

Well, while singing in the shower, I realized that one very easy way to add more Frenchness was simply music.
I am now thinking to have either our first dance or the father-daughter song be a French song, and more.
I am also thinking of involving somehow during the event the song Se Canto. It's a song in Occitan, the old language of my region that means a lot to some of my guests. It's like a local national anthem.

I will need to think of more ways to incorporate and celebrate the French side of our marriage, but I think this is a good start.

What did you do to incorporate an other culture in your wedding? If you were French, what would you do to celebrate it?

[image source: http://www.souvenirsofparis.com/]