Wedding Traditions

You may be interested
in the origins of some
popular traditions included
in observing your marriage.

Bridal gowns, for example,
are white because the
Greeks believed white
embodied purity, innocence
and joyfulness.
Wedding veils have always symbolized
modesty, privacy, youth and maiden hood.
That way of thinking still has a foothold;
bridal etiquette authorities today advise
second-time brides to skip the veil and wear
a hat instead.

Most are familiar with the poem about bridal attire:
“Something old, something new, something borrowed,
something blue and a lucky sixpence in your shoe.”
What’s not generally known is that if a bride borrows
an item from a happily married woman, the giver’s
happiness is said to be passed on to the bride.
Something blue symbolizes constancy in a relationship.
The bridal garter originates from at least two cultures.
In ancient times, it represented the virginal girdle; the
groom’s removal of the garter symbolized her
relinquishment of that status. The garter can also be
traced to the Old English custom of flinging the stocking.
Wedding guests would sneak into the bridal chamber, pick
up the newlywed’s discarded stockings and throw
them at the couple. Whoever flung a stocking that hung on
the bride or groom’s nose would be the next
to marry.

Wedding bands, symbolizing eternal love by their lack of a
beginning or end, grew out of an ancient tribal
custom of using circlets of grass to decorate a bride’s wrists
and ankles. The Romans and Egyptians, with their love of
precious metals and stones, initiated the practice of using
silver and gold. Rings are worn yet today on the third finger
of the left hand because ancient cultures believed that finger
had a vein running straight to the heart. The “throwing of the
rice” at fleeing newlyweds is a traditional way of wishing them
many children.