The thread about rings on the left middle finger made me think of this. I was watching a Chinese tv series called 'Our Marriage' recently, and I observed that when the couple in the story got married, they followed a lot of wedding traditions that I'm familiar with as a native-born American.
The groom gave the bride a diamond engagement ring. The bride was shown trying on traditional Western-style white wedding gowns. She wore a white dress for the wedding, and the groom wore a dark suit. The only concessions I noticed to traditional Chinese wedding customs were that the groom had a red tie, the bride wore a red flower pinned to her dress, and the wedding location was decorated with red and pink balloons, paper lanterns and streamers.
So I wondered how much Western wedding traditions are taking over from the traditions of other cultures. Does anyone have any stories to tell of weddings in other countries/cultures and whether they included any American-style traditions?