page_title: British Bangladeshis
section_title: Marriage
hierarchical_section_title: British Bangladeshis / Culture / Marriage
caption_attribution_description: A bride's hands decorated with henna and bangles, over a bunch of flowers, in London, England.
context_page_description: British Bangladeshis are people of Bangladeshi origin who have attained citizenship in the United Kingdom, through immigration and historical naturalisation. The term can also refer to their descendants. Bengalis or Sylhetis have prominently been migrating to the UK since the 1940s. Migration reached its peak during the 1970s, with most originating from the Sylhet region. The largest concentration live in east London boroughs, such as Tower Hamlets. This large diaspora in London leads people in Sylhet to refer to British Bangladeshis as Londoni.
  Bangladeshis form one of the UK's largest group of people of overseas descent and are also one of the country's youngest and fastest growing communities. The 2011 UK Census recorded nearly half-a-million residents of Bangladeshi ethnicity. British Bangladeshis had the highest overall relative poverty rate of any ethnic group in the UK with 65% of Bangladeshis living in low income households, as for 2005.
context_section_description: Bangladeshi weddings are celebrated with a combination of Bengali and Muslim traditions, and play a large part in developing and maintaining social ties. Many marriages are between the British diaspora (Londonis) and the native-born Bangladeshis. Sometimes men will go to Bangladesh to get married, however recently more women are marrying in Bangladesh. Second or third generation Bangladeshis are more likely to get married in the UK within the British culture. However this exposure has created a division between preferences for arranged marriages or for love marriages. Tradition holds that the bride's family must buy the bridegroom's family a set of new furniture to be housed in the family home, with all original furniture given away or discarded. The average Bangladeshi outlay for a wedding is £30–60,000 for a single wedding, including decorations, venue, food, clothing and limousines, all areas in which there is competition between families.
caption: A bride in London with hands decorated with henna and bangles
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