Marriage Etiquette

Most Paraguayan girls have a party at age 15 to celebrate becoming a señorita. Young people get to know each other at local fiestas, large family gatherings, dances, and other events. Any marriage partners are generally expected to be approved by parents. For a marriage to be legal, a civil wedding must be performed, but couples may also have a church wedding. Many couples enter into common-law relationships, while others have children but do not live together.

Paraguayan couples will typically save for their own weddings. Their parents will not usually pay for the weddings, and that includes the bride’s family. Paraguayan couples generally believe that it is more important to focus on what the wedding symbolizes than on the decorations or the feasts.

The couple will usually deliver their wedding invitations personally as well, because of the problems with the Paraguay postal system. Wedding receptions will have music, but they will not have dancing except for the Blue Danube Waltz. The Christian influence in Paraguayan culture has created a situation in which most dances are frowned upon at weddings.