Speaker 1: Armstrong party at four.
Speaker 2: Your table is ready party of four. That's an interesting
way to count a group of people, don't you think. Well,
if you like parties, you're gonna love the party of
wedding vocabulary I've got set up for you today. Let's
dive in.
Speaker 3: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast Episode eight twenty four.
Let's get Married in English. Hello and welcome. Thanks for
joining me for another episode of the Happy English Podcast.
I'm your English teacher Michael, and I'm so glad you
could join me today. Spring is a lovely time for
a wedding, right, and weddings, which are usually pretty formal events,
have a pretty unique and interesting set of vocabulary. And
that's what we're going to look at today. Let's say
you hear a friend is going to a wedding. In
most cases, a wedding has two parts. The first part
is called the wedding ceremony. That's where the bride and
groom stand together and make lots of promises to each
other while an official person like a priest, for example,
leads the ceremony. Then when they are done making all
of those promises, the leader says, okay, you are now married.
You may kiss the bride. This is the end of
the wedding ceremony. Next, after the wedding ceremony, it's time
to celebrate the marriage with a big formal party. In English,
this party is called the wedding reception. The word reception
has a few meanings, but for this lesson, reception means
a formal party. Like when one world leader travels to
visit another world leader, they have a formal party and
that party is called a reception. So let's get back
to the wedding. There's a wedding ceremony and a wedding
reception altogether in English when you attend both, and in
American culture, most people are invited to both the ceremony
and the reception. So you can talk about it just
using the word wedding. I'm going to go to a
wedding on Sunday. I'm going to a wedding means I'm
going to attend the wedding ceremony and then the wedding reception.
You know what, Jenny had her wedding at a resort
on the beach. Again, in daily conversation, the word wedding
means both the wedding ceremony and the reception. By the way,
in the old days, we use marriage to mean wedding ceremony.
I was invited to the marriage of John. But these
days marriage is used just to mean the relationship between
two married people. By the way, we don't use the
term wedding party to describe the wedding reception. Oh, Bud, Michael,
it's a party, isn't it. Yes, But remember, wedding reception
is a formal party. So you have the wedding ceremony
and then the wedding reception. Reception comes from receive and
the guests receive the new married couple At the reception,
which is generally a four hour event. The first hour
is the cocktail hour. Cocktails in small dishes are passed around.
Then the bride and groom come to the room and
the dinner starts.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: But what about party? The word party has two meanings
in English. The first meaning of party is a fun
celebration like a birthday party, a graduation party or a
retirement party. The second meaning of party is a group
of people in a formal situation. Let's imagine Jenny makes
a reservation for a dinner at a restaurant for her
in three friends. When they arrive at the restaurant, Jenny
tells the host her name, and then the host asks
Jenny to wait a moment so she can check that
Jenny's table is ready. Then, when the table is ready,
the host will say something like this, Jenny, party of four,
and then Jenny and her three friends can sit down
and eat.
Speaker 1: I'm strong, party at four. Your table is ready.
Speaker 2: If Jenny and her friends go to the same restaurant
but they don't have a reservation, they may need to
wait for a table. The host will ask Jenny how
many in your party, and then Jenny says four. The
host says, okay, why don't you guys wait at the bar.
When the table is ready, the host will say something
like this, Jenny, party of four to let them know
their table is ready.
Speaker 1: I'm strong, party of four.
Speaker 2: So party in this case means a group of people,
not an event to celebrate something. So what does this
have to do with weddings? The term wedding party in
English is used to refer to the bride and groom
and the two people like witnesses, who stand next to
the bride and groom during the wedding ceremony. There are
often four people in the wedding party. Two women the
bride and usually her sister or best friend called the
maid of honor, and two men the groom and his
brother or best friend called the best man. Sometimes there
are additional men and women standing there, and if so,
then the women are called bride's maids and the men
are called ushers. All right, let's recap. All of those
people are the wedding party, and a wedding includes the
wedding ceremony and the wedding reception. Remember, the wedding party
is the group of people including the bride, groom, best man,
and made of honor. Okay, you may kiss the bride.
Thanks for hanging out with me today. Keep in mind,
the best way to remember English like this and any
other word or phrase in English, is to take that
word or phrase, write it in a sentence that's true
for you or true in your world, and then memorize
your sentences and remember this you can get more practice
using your English. When you join my podcast Learner's study group.
There you can make new friends, join us for live
group lessons every week where we practice these podcast lessons together.
Plus us you get access to the PDF, transcript and
audio download for every Happy English podcast in the past
and in the future. And on top of that, each
episode has exercises where you can practice this English point
with speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more,
just visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson
eight twenty four. Remember, learning another language is not easy,
but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
on your journey.
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