It is so good to see people put aside the perceived barriers and learn to accept each other.
Mike Ghouse
Carol Kuruvilla Religion Associate Editor, The Huffington Post
Courtesy – Huffington Post

The Huffington Post reached out to nine interfaith couples who spent weeks thinking about these questions. From using a Muslim peace greeting during a Catholic ceremony to reading poems by the Sufi mystic Rumi in both Persian and English, here are some of the creative ways these couples celebrated their religious identities on their big day.
— Hardik and Michelle Chaudhari, Chicago, Illinois
“We decided that since both of our religions are a key part of our identities, we would honor them both. As such, we had both a Sikh and a Catholic ceremony. The Sikh ceremony was in the morning in a Gurudwara and the Catholic ceremony in the afternoon in a church. Leading up to the wedding, we also had a number of cultural traditions that we did, including a Mangalorean Roce, Punjabi Haldi and Mehendi. During the reception following the ceremonies, we had a combination of Mangalorean and Punjabi traditions included in the reception.”
— Harneet Singh and Rouella Joan Mendonca, Seattle, Washington
—Shannon and Seema Paul, Long Beach, California
— Medina and Frank Fredericks, Queens, New York
— Lena Linh Franklin & Buzz Wehunt, Atlanta, Georgia
— Venay and Kristi Nyamathi, San Francisco, California
“We actually had two interfaith wedding ceremonies. It was important to us that both ceremonies be a fusion of our two faiths and cultural backgrounds, to fully represent the unity of joining our lives together in marriage.
The religious ceremony (held 9/11/11) was officiated by a Catholic priest and a Muslim imam, and held in the University of Chicago chapel used both for Catholic services and Muslim Friday prayer. We had readings from the Bible and a Muslim devotional poem. The ceremony included both the traditional Catholic Rite of Marriage and a Nikah, traditional Islamic marriage contract signing. We were also aware of the significance of the date and felt like our ceremony was a symbolic counter to the horrific acts a decade prior.
The legal marriage ceremony (held the day before, on 9/10/11) was officiated by an interfaith minister. She spoke of the commonalities between our two faiths (both Abrahamic, worship the same God, similar values, recognition of Jesus, deference of Mary). We began the ceremony by passing the sign of peace (an important Catholic ritual) that tied in the Muslim greeting of ‘As-salaamu Alaikum,’ meaning ‘Peace be with you.’ This ceremony also included some sayings from the Prophet and scripture from the Bible. Processional music was performed by strings (cello, violin) and a tabla and sitar (nod to Shaan’s Pakistani heritage, which was also celebrated the night prior in a henna party).”
— Katie McHugh Akbar and Shaan Akbar, Pasadena, California
— Rhowena Adolfo and Veeren Patel, Toronto, Canada
“We tried to incorporate both mine and my husband’s religious and cultural backgrounds in our wedding day by holding two separate ceremonies in one day. A ‘western’ ceremony, where I wore a white wedding dress, which incorporated both Christian and Jewish elements to represent my family, ending in the Jewish tradition of breaking the glass to a chorus of ‘Mazel Tov!’ We followed this with a traditional Hindu ceremony officiated by a Hindu Pandit where my husband rode up on a horse to meet my family, and we walked around a fire. We both wore traditional Indian outfits; him in a sherwani and me in a colourful lehenga.During the reception we continued with the Jewish traditions by dancing the hora and getting lifted up on chairs, while later we were entertained by an Indian dance group. Our Canadian and Indian influence even carried into the meal, where guests had a choice of North American cuisine, or fusion Indian dishes. It was a long day with two ceremonies and a lot of things to do and see, but well worth it as it was a memorable day for not only us but also our guests.”
— Jessica and Neil Bhasin, Toronto, Canada
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