If you have ever been to a wedding in a foreign country, you probably know that wedding customs and traditions are often very different from one country to the next. We put together a list of some interesting wedding customs and traditions from all around the world.

Did you know….

International Wedding Traditions and Customs

• Cuban weddings are famous for various festivities. The best known is probably the money dance. This is when all the men who dance with the bride have to pin money on her dress to help with the expenses of the honeymoon.
• In India the groom wears white clothes, the bride a red sari. They exchange flower garlands and toe rings. Before entering the temple, they go around a sacred fire seven times and they invoke the gods to grant them a happy life. The groom marks the forehead of his wife with a red dot (poddu); she will erase it after her husband’s death.
• The red color plays a key role during the wedding festivities in China. Red is considered to bring luck. In addition, this color symbolizes love, prosperity and happiness. That’s why everything is red: the bride’s dress, the accessories, the wedding invitations, the gift wrap, etc.
• During the wedding ceremony in Spain, the groom gives his bride 13 gold coins, to show his responsibility for her and his trust. The bride gives these coins back, to show her commitment to support him. This is an ancient tradition, where the 13 coins symbolize Jesus and his 12 apostles. 

• In Denmark, there is a traditional wedding custom of cutting off the toe of the groom’s right sock during the feast. No other women will be attracted to a man wearing a sock with holes! However, the Danish like to kiss a lot. So as soon as the bride leaves the room, all the female guests acquire the right to kiss the groom on the mouth. The same practice applies to the bride, of course!

Some laws are so strange and funny they make us scratch our head.

Especially when it comes to sex and relationships, you would think that what goes on in people’s bedrooms would be private and that the state doesn’t need to get involved in anything that happens between two consenting adults.

Well, think again, because as we discovered, if anyone has ever thought of doing it, there is probably a law regulating it!

Seriously, who comes up with these laws?

Especially when it comes to sex and relationships, countries all over the world seem to be having a contest: who can come up with the strangest, weirdest, most absurd laws?

You’ve probably never even heard of the majority of these funny 15 sex and relationship laws, so we put them all together in one handy infographic!

Next time you are travelling to Virginia and get in trouble for having sex with your socks on, don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Have you heard of these laws before or do you know any laws about sex and relationships that are even weirder? Let us know in the comments…

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Halloween is getting closer and everyone at be2 is frantically looking for a good costume!

So we organised a 10% discount for all be2 staff and of course for our be2 blog readers at maskworld (details below). Maybe we will get some ideas from this collection of the best sexy Halloween-costumes!

maskworld.com will give be2 blog readers a 10% discount on all orders received by Oct 31st 2010, please enter the discount code “Midnight” in the comment field when ordering at www.maskworld.com

This week, the regular love quote of the week is replaced by an Oktoberfest quote, to remind you that the biggest beerfest in the world is starting tomorrow! Maybe we should add this quote to our list of advice for flirting with the girls of Oktoberfest? It would certainly get a laugh out of most Munich singles, especially if you try to say it in Bavarian

“Liaba bsuffa und lusdig, ois niachdan und bled.”
“I’s rather be drunk and funny than sober and stupid.”

- Bavarian Proverb

Relationship Advice from Old Spice? Why on earth is my Grandad’s after shave giving out relationship advice, you ask? Well, first there was the new, pretty cool Old Spice ads, that let you know that the Old Spice man is a pretty cool dude – and that it was only a matter of time before men would want to be him and women would want to be with him.

Mission accomplished, you might say – I no longer think that Old Spice smells like old man, I think it smells like this sexy, muscular man and yes, I do want to look – or at least smell – like him.

But that’s not all from the new Old Spice man. He’s also dishing out relationship advice to twitter users. For example, he explains how to get as close as humanly possible to looking like himself:

He also has some tips for occasions like anniversaries:

Old Spice man even explains what to do when one is chased by a stampede of ladies after using Old Spice.

He not only knows how a man can win a lady’s heart, he has some advice for President Obama on how to win women voters:

Unfortunately, Old Spice man is currently not giving any more relationship advice, but you can continue to follow his adventures on twitter!

Do you think women are evil? Some men obviously think so, or at least the man who came up with the equation at right seems to think so. Well, we know better and we will prove that the equation contains a logical error!

I suppose that the man who came up with this equation hasn’t found his soul mate yet… or he is he a man who always tries to find a mathematical explanation for everything? Either way, this mathematical equation is so funny that you can only take his insults with a smile!

Instead of taking offense, we women accept that we are actually not always easy to deal with and, in the name of all of women, I confess that women = problems is sometimes true. But then again, the same could be said about men.

What confuses me is the equation women = money! In Europe, the tendency is for couples to split bills and let both partners pay their part. Maybe the financial crisis is having an impact on relationships? Either way, the very first step of the equation is based on an error!

So, instead of complaining about evil women, simply look for a woman who doesn’t cause problems and who doesn’t cost you a lot of money… The equation for your soul mate = (-money) + (-problems) = real LOVE!

Are you a single male looking for a woman? Are you worried that women are „evil“, only interested in money and causing problems? Here are some hints on how to find a woman who will lay all those worries to rest:
1. If you are searching for a woman through the be2 online matchmaking service, the free personality test contains certain questions that will ascertain how important material things are to you, for example this one:

2. The matching algorithm will automatically match you with women who share your values in certain areas or who counterbalance other aspects of your personality.
3. In addition, you can alter your search settings to ensure that you only receive partner recommendations who don’t care how much money you have. Simply set your yearly income to the lowest possible setting. Any women whose search includes a higher minimum yearly income will not be matched with you. Obviously, your matches won’t see the actual income bracket you entered.

4. You should also answer some of the additional questions in your profile, for example those about love, lifestyle and views. They include questions about the things that are important to you and you can also see how your matches answered these questions.

>>>Try it now – and find the woman who is right for you! If you don’t, you might end up just like the frustrated guy who came up with this false equation…

Another video today, but it is in honour of a very special occasion: the 40th anniversary of the first episode of Sesame Street. And because the show has spent the last 40 years teaching kids about anything and everything, it has also found an answer to that old question “What is love?”:

Grover: “What is love?”
Chelsea: “Love is something to do with hugs and kisses and a warm feeling inside.”
Grover: “Yeaaaah! Boy, love sounds great!”

French pop singer France Gall was a few years ahead of her time when she sang about a computer that can help her find the right man – in 1968! The song is in German, but you would probably be most familiar with Gall’s 80s hit Ella, elle l’a.

Thanks to online matchmaking, today your computer really can help you find the right man but the lyrics must have been like a glimpse of the future at the time:

Computer Number 3
will find the right boy for me,
and love for us both is guaranteed.
The Computer knows
the right woman for every man,
and happiness just keeps spilling
out of its database.

One of many million men,
is waiting somewhere for me.

The only sad thing about this Halloween quote is that Lindsay Lohan, who says this line in a film, seems to think it’s Halloween all year round in real life – and dresses accordingly. Now that’s scary!

“Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”

- Lindsay Lohan, Mean Girls

Remember the days when singles had to seek love through the paper? Way back when printed personals were the state of the art matchmaking technology? The problem is, you would have to describe yourself in the most appealing way possible in very few words, and try to squeeze in a hint at the type of person you seek, too.

Naturally, most personals are pretty generic and not terribly interesting. Here’s a few great examples of personals that are, well, a little different…

“There is a little place in the jumbled sock drawer of my heart where you match up all the pairs, throw out the ones with holes in them, and buy me some of those neat dressy ones with the weird black and red geometrical designs on them. “

” All humans are 99.9% genetically identical, so don’t even think of ending any potential relationship begun here with ‘I just don’t think we have enough in common’. Science has long since proven that I am the man for you”

“I have a mug that says ‘World’s Greatest Lover’. I think that’s my referees covered. How about you? “

” God appeared to me in a dream last night and spoke your name in my ear. He gave me the winning lottery numbers, too, though, so you can understand where my priorities lay when I raced to grab a notebook and pen. Man, 37, living on hope and the next seven weeks’ bonus balls seeks woman whose first name begins with S, or maybe F, and rhymes with chicken, and has a surname that’s either a place in Shropshire or the title of a 1979 Earth, Wind and Fire track. Shicken Boogiewonderland, I know you’re reading this.”

So even if printed personals are a bit démodé these days, these personals could serve as inspiration for online personals, your matchmaking profile or even original chat up lines. Humour is usually a fool-proof way of starting a conversation, so why not employ it online, too?

>>>Try it now – with a free profile at be2 matchmaking!