Wedding traditions
 

What are some AOII wedding traditions??

Also, what song does your chapter sing at candle lightings. My chapter sings this:

There's an AOII who is smiling
and her eyes are too
There's an AOII who is dreaming
dreaming just of you
There's an AOII who will never
love a soul but you
There's an AOII who is whispering
Sweetheart, I love you!

What does your chapter do candle lightings for?
1 time around - friendship (but we've never done this one, I don't even know what it's supposed to mean, really)
2 times- laviliere
3 times- engagement

We sing that song at the wedding too but to the new IIOA!

In my local chapter, we did
1 - Lavaliere (or Friendship if the guy wasn't in a fraternity- it involves a right hand ring but some times the girl wore it on her left hand but it was NEVER a diamond.)
2 - Pinned
3 - Engaged
4 - Pregnant (It was always a married alumna.)

At Nu Beta (Ole Miss) we do:
2 - Lavaliered/Dropped
3 - Engaged

We sing:
“To You Beautiful Lady of Alpha O”

To you beautiful lady of Alpha O
My heart beautiful lady is burning so
you are fairest of fair and oh so true
and I want to love you to...
pm me if you want all of the words…

We also sing, AOII to the tune of Edelweiss.

The president knows about it and she orders a candle that is all dolled up with ribbons and flowers and then it is surprise and it is done on Monday nights after sit-down dinner and before chapter starts. The House Mother is there.

At AOII Weddings, Nu Beta Style, we make the AOII Bride stand in the middle of the circle of AOII’s and we sing “To You Beautiful Lady of Alpha O” to her. Some older alumnae at a recent wedding sang the Flaming Alpha song, I'm leaning that one this summer in late July from some alumnae who are coming in town. Also, at the AOII weddings I've been to the bride and the bridesmaids wear their badge on the inside of their clothes closet to their hearts. I'm not sure if this allowed but it is so sweet to do!

Dropped?
 

What does Dropped mean??

Re: Dropped?
 

A lavalier is also called a "drop" because the letters are "dropped down."
:)
Silver

Awwww, Flaming Alpha :D

I know that they sang the Loving Cup song at my wedding, and probably the Epsilon Song. I was crying so darned hard by then I can't remember (but have some great pictures of that moment, thankfully.)

I have seen the Loving Cup at one AOII wedding. Tonight I'm going to one! She was a freshman when I was a senior and she later became an advisor for a year while she finishing up her JD at Ole Miss. I'm so excited! It is totally going to be awesome! :)

ETA: The AOII wedding I went to last night was gorgeous! We all had the best time!

I think just about every AOII I know used red roses in their wedding and had that speacial part of the Bible read. At most of them we also do a short candlelighting.

Our Candlelighting song is:

She's a rose, She's a Pearl, She's an AOII Girl
She's the one that we love evermore
evermore, evermore, evermore, evermore
She's a rose, She's a pearl evermore

In her eyes shines a light that is oh-oh so bright
She's the one that we love evermore
evermore, evermore, evermore, evermore
She's a rose, She's a pearl evermore

Repeat


There may be a little more to it, someone who has been to Alpha Lambda more recently may need to help me out...

I think it's:
2 - Lavaliere (We don't have anything if he's not greek)
3 - pin (doesn't happen very often) or engagement

can someone explain how candle lighting ceremonies go? there have been interest in it here in my chapter but in the past we couldn't figure it out... what does the 2 times around and everything mean.... i have only heard of this on the tv show GREEK so i dont know anything lol

This is how I'm used to it, however there may be as many answers as chapters! :)

Sister leaves a note in the CP's mailbox that the chapter needs to have a candlelight. Anonymously, of course!

After the closing of the next chapter meeting or chapter function, the chapter forms a Friendship Circle. The CP lights candle and starts passing it to her left. (ETA--make sure you use a new candle, or if your chapter uses electric candles have some sort of keepsake available for the sister having the candlelight!)

1st pass (around entire circle)--friendship/sisterhood
2nd pass--lavaliered
3rd pass--pinned
4th pass--engaged
5th pass--married
6th pass--pregnant

When it gets to the sister on the correct pass, she blows it out! Sister keeps her candle as a memento of the occasion. It gets really fun when there are multiple candlelights on one night.

^^^
My favorite was always the candle passes at formal. Those were usually engagement or pinning, but they were so sweet- and ocassionally the guys (who stood behind their dates) would reach around and blow out the candle without the girl even knowing it was for her!

oh, and another cool tradition that we did not use, but another sorority did-- the girl would decorate her own candle (with ribbons, flowers, etc) and then put it in the president's mailbox along with a note.

Pearls
 

While I was president at Kappa Chi, we started the tradition of sisters decorating their own candles. Whom ever was having the candle lighting would put the candle on the mantle to let the chapter know there would be a candle passing and we'd sing "There's an AOII who's smiling".

Round one: Friendship (we don't know what it was for, I think it's just an excuse to sing the song once through before the candle gets blown out.
Round two: Lavaliere (drop letters) or pearls. See below
Round three: Promised
Round Four: Engaged
Round Five: Pregnant (only alumna, and it never happened while I was in the chapter)

Explanation of pearls or lavaliere.
One sister's boyfriend wasn't greek and he wanted to give her the equivalent to drop letters. So, instead of giving a lavaliere, we thought pearls would be a good equivalent. Hopefully it's a tradition that will last!

Two years ago, my roommate and I thought it would be a funny April Fools Joke to do the "pregnant" round of the candlelight..we even had a back story thought up. We chickened out because we realized some people might get offended....and Im SOOO glad I didnt do it because now I realize how immature and disrespectful that would have been.

We sing:
Rose, rose, rose, rose
Will I ever see thee wed?
I will marry at thy will,
at thy will

Order:
1 - lavaliere
2 - pin
3- promise
4- engagement
5- pregnant