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With many future brides designing elegant, fancy weddings with all the trappings that thousands of wedding shops are willing to sell to them, there is a growing undercurrent of weirdness that is putting a new face on getting married.

Some ceremonies are merely strange, like these:

In Georgia, a young couple got married in a Waffle House parking lot after the groom finished his shift at the establishment. The bride’s father walked his daughter, in a wedding gown, across the asphalt. They said their vows under a tree next to the parking lot and went inside the Waffle House to cut the wedding waffle.

Another couple were such Taco Bell addicts that they had a wedding at their favorite fast food restaurant. The restaurant was decorated with balloons and streamers. A friend of the couple got himself ordained on the Internet and donned a clean T-shirt to marry his friends.

An unusual wedding trend that is gaining enough popularity to have at least one airline considering offering in-flight wedding ceremonies for couples is getting married in the airplane while on the way to their honeymoon destination. Supposedly the airline is planning on getting their pilots certified to marry couples in the air.

You don’t have to be in Las Vegas to have a weird wedding theme anymore. You can have impersonators of almost any famous person perform the nuptials in most cities. Some other themed options growing in popularity for weddings include Barbie, Hello Kitty, The Flintstones and Star Trek, to name a few.

India has some interesting marriage ceremonies that you won’t find in the Western world.

Hindu ceremonies are performed in the Indian province of Orissa that wed monkeys, statues, ghosts or trees. The wedding of two monkeys was attended by 3,000 guests. It has been reported that the “bride” wore a silk sari and a solid gold necklace.

In the same Indian province, with 2,000 guests in attendance, there was a wedding between a Peepal tree and a Banyan tree. The Peepal tree is considered sacred by both Hindus and Buddhists as their saints are believed to sit under this tree to meditate. In their beliefs, the Peepal tree is believed to be feminine, while the Banyan tree is masculine.

A simple marriage in Massachusetts between two blind people included their Seeing Eye dogs as Maid of Honor and Best Man. During the ceremony, the Maid of Honor and Best Man fell in love with each other and began some traditional honeymoon behavior right there. They were pulled apart by their leashes and the real ceremony concluded without further incident.

A few strange traditions that are still practiced in one form or the other are believed to have continued down through the centuries from ancient tribal rituals.

In Scotland, “Blackening” is still practiced in some places. Friends of the couple are captured one night before the wedding and taken outside to be covered with various foul substances. After the “Blackening,” the couple is paraded around the village, which usually includes a stop at several pubs.

Some believe that sewing a hair on the hem of a wedding dress brings luck. Others might place a drop of blood on an inner seam for good luck.

In Germany, brides have been known to carry salt and bread to attract good harvests. The groom might carry grain to bring wealth and good fortune.

The evening before the wedding, the couple and guests attend a party. Only good china can be used at the party and the wedding plates and dishes are smashed after the meal to scare off evil spirits. Not using good china will bring bad luck.

Some traditions have the bride saving pennies for years in order to pay for her wedding shoes. This was thought to make sure the marriage begins on the right foot. The bride’s mother might have placed some salt and dill in her daughter’s right shoe to help that happen.

Everyday “new” traditions are created and practiced for the union of couples in love, but many can be traced back several centuries. Who knows, maybe ghosts of ancient tribal ancestors quietly observe the continuation of these old rituals and are invisible guests at the ceremonies and parties.