Tradition dictated among Hispanics that the groom and his family would pay the wedding and feast expenses. The padrinos accompanied the couple to make arrangements with the priest for the wedding. The madrina helped tailor the wedding dress and helped dress the bride on her wedding day. Likewise, the padrino helped the groom with his wardrobe.

The date of the wedding usually conformed to the rythms in the cycle of agricultural production and major calendar feasts. Most Spanish weddings between 1693 and 1846 occurred in September, and shortly after Christmas and Easter. "Infants conceived in September would be due in June, during the 'dead period' between planting and harvesting, and the others were born usually in October, well after the year's crops had been gathered and prepared for winter storage."24 These periods required minimal agricultural labor. Unlike the Spanish, Indians preferred to marry in the summer months, around the summer solstice, from May through September, which agreed with the six-month Pueblo cycle of time.

The padrinos also accompanied the couple to obtain their civil marriage certificate at the office of the Registro Civil. Then they appeared before the priest for the presentación. The priest wrote down the necessary information about the couple, questioned them about their intentions, other possible commitments, or illegitimate children, and whether they were marrying of their own free will or not. "On the following three Sundays the priest read the marriage bans in the church and if there were no protests, the couple married on the fourth Sunday."25 Most church weddings were held early Sunday mornings.

In Tepoztlán, "on the evening before the wedding, the boy's parents traditionally sent a basket of bread, chocolate, some bottles of wine, and a turkey prepared with the necessary condiments, to the home of the girl. They also sent along the wedding dress, its accessories, shoes, stockings, and flowers."26 That evening the girl spent the night at the home of their padrinos de boda to receive marital advice. The advice emphasized her need to obey and conform to all of her husband's wishes. "The formal exhortation of the bride and bridegroom is also another old Aztec custom."27

On the day of the wedding, the bride and groom and everyone involved in the wedding left the bride's house in carretelas (horse-drawn carriages). The modern variation of decorating cars and cruising to and from the church parallels the old processions. The wedding party included bridesmaids, flower girls, a little girl to carry the bride's cola or train, and a small boy to serve as ring bearer.

Unlike today's Anglo-American customs, the padrino, not the father, escorted the bride and gave her away at the wedding ceremony. Also, the marriage vows, the placing of the ring, and the giving of the thirteen coins or arras, took place at the church door, and then they entered for the Mass. Since many families could not affort the arras, it was usually omitted from the prendorio and instead enacted in a highly ritualized form during the nuptial ceremony. The custom originated because dragging the wedding trunk down the aisle was impractical and inappropriate. The bride and groom offered las arras to the church to show their concern for the poor. Another version of its meaning mentions the groom offered gold or silver coins to the bride as a symbol that he would take care of her. Priests rented a small pouch containing thirteen gold or silver coins to symbolize the bride's endowment with arras. In an Indian ceremony, the groom let the money run through the bride's hands into a plate held by the priest's helper. The church kept the money. Then the priest put one ring on the groom's finger and gave him the other to put on the bride's finger. "These rings were kept until three days after the ceremony when they were returned to the embracer."28